GRACE WALES BONNER . . her HOME, HACKNEY
Inside Grace Wales Bonner’s four-bedroom Hackney townhouse reigns a calm so profound we find ourselves whispering. ‘It’s a place of sanctuary,’ she says, padding quietly across the pale wood floor. Inside the white-walled, minimal space, neat piles of books, from Adrienne Kennedy’s People Who Led To My Plays to Ben Okri’s Starbook, sit alongside stacks of Indian sitar records. The 27-year-old, who grew up in south London but moved east around 18 months ago, may spend long days and nights in her studio on the Strand, or reading in the Stuart Hall Library in Shoreditch, but home is the place she feels most at ease. ‘It’s about surrounding yourself with books, giving yourself time to absorb those experiences,’ she smiles.
Since she launched her menswear label in 2O14 and won the LVMH Prize in 2O16, there has been much ado about Wales Bonner’s narrativedriven work, which has earned her a devoted band of female, as well as male, fans, including musicians FKA Twigs and Kelsey Lu. She blends sharp tailoring with fluid forms, referencing her Jamaican heritage and African history via literature, music and critical theory. January sees her work enter the gallery floor, with an exhibition at London’s Serpentine Gallery. ‘Ishmael Reed and Ben Okri are actually writing some text for the exhibition, which is really exciting.’
The inspiration her home provides is not limited to quiet study. The lunches she hosts on weekends also fuel her creativity, seeing her home packed with ‘artists, photographers, stylists and writers – people I naturally gravitate towards. Just music, good food and conversation. That’s really enriching.’