The Guest Designer of Pitti Immagine Uomo 102 is Grace Wales Bonner, Founder and Creative Director of WALES BONNER

Wales Bonner is the Guest Designer of Pitti Immagine Uomo no.102 (Florence, Fortezza da Basso, 14-17 June 2022). 

The designer of English-Jamaican origins will present, in a premiere showing in Florence, the Spring-Summer 2023 collection of her eponymous label Wales Bonner, with a fashion show-event in a location that has yet to be revealed. 

“We have been familiar with the work of Grace Wales Bonner since she first debuted – says Lapo Cianchi, Pitti Immagine's Communication & Special Events Director – attracted first and foremost by her cultural sensibility and multidisciplinary approach that comes across in her collaborations with artists and other stylists, while appearing in each one of her collections. We then followed the evolution of her menswear fashion proposal, the gradual grafting of the elegant sartorial structure on the development of fashion design and sportswear elements, a style which, if borrowed from the world of music, could even be called soul…”

“I welcome this special opportunity to express Wales Bonner’s vision of cultural luxury at the historically important institution of Pitti Uomo.”
Grace Wales Bonner

Wales Bonner proposes a distinct notion of cultural luxury that infuses European heritage with an Afro Atlantic spirit. 

Launched by Grace Wales Bonner following her graduation from Central Saint Martins in 2014, the label is informed by broad cultural research and embraces a multiplicity of perspectives. Established as a menswear brand, Wales Bonner’s soulful tailoring soon expanded to womenswear. Grace Wales Bonner has received numerous awards including Emerging Menswear Designer at the British Fashion Awards (2015), the LVMH Young Designer Prize (2016), Winner of the British Fashion Council/ Vogue Designer Fashion Fund (2019) and CFDA International Men's Designer of the Year (2021).

In 2019, Grace was invited by Maria Grazia Chiuri to collaborate with Dior to re-interpret the house's New Look silhouette for its Resort 2020 collection. In the same year, she curated an institutional exhibition, A Time for New Dreams, at Serpentine Galleries, London. Grace is Head of the Department of Fashion Design at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.

Wales Bonner stockists include Matchesfashion.com, Selfridges, Net-a-Porter, Mr. Porter, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks 5th Avenue, Nordstrom, Dover Street Market International and Boon the Shop.