THE LONG VIEW
A new show reveals the multifaceted vision of the groundbreaking designer Grace Wales Bonner
Grace Wales Bonner is quietly pushing the boundaries of fashion. The acclaimed designer has defied convention since launching with her 2014 graduate menswear show, which was accompanied by a 10,000-word thesis on black rhythmicality. Her ability to apply world-view narratives to her beautifully tailored work has earned her much acclaim, including a British Fashion Award and the prestigious LVMH Prize. As a result, Wales Bonner occupies a unique creative space, as a cultural commentator about the African diaspora through the medium of clothes.
‘Fashion is an immediate way of expressing my ideas,’ she says, when we meet at the Islington brasserie Bellanger, ‘but it’s only available to one kind of audience. I’ve always been interested in opening up the work – so that you don’t necessarily have to buy something to engage and be curious about the conversation.’ The softly spoken designer is referring to her exhibition at the Serpentine that opens this month, the first in the gallery’s new live programme, for which she has invited a multidisciplinary selection of practitioners including visual artists, musicians, poets and writers, to conceive a series of altars. ‘I wanted to ask contemporary artists to think about creating a shrine that allows them to access spirituality, and also consider how practices that originated in Africa or the Caribbean manifest aesthetically. Where in the West, there’s a physical building or space that showcases spiritual devotion, African or AfricanAmerican altars are much more assembled and personal.’
At 27, Wales Bonner is one of the youngest to have ever been offered a platform at the gallery. The exhibition was an opportunity for her to work with artists she has long admired, among them the 92-year-old Betye Saar, a civil-rights and women’s-liberation activist who was part of the Black Arts Movement in 1970s, and the writer Ben Okri. ‘Ben and I talked about how an altar comes into being through speech and repetition, so I think his contribution will be voices and incantations,’ she says.
Collaboration is central to Wales Bonner’s work: ‘I always look for a multiplicity of voices and perspectives. I’m interested in plurality. I’ve never tried to have a definitive answer, or resolve something with a singular perspective. I like that fluidity.’ It’s an approach that has evolved from an exploration of her own identity. Her paternal grandparents were part of the Windrush generation, and she was born in London and raised by her English mother and Jamaican father, so her work as a designer celebrates that collision of cultures.
At heart, Wales Bonner is a storyteller, and when she begins working on a collection, she invariably has a character in mind. Her S/S 16 show, for example, centred on the true tale of Malik Ambar, who was sold off as a child slave, but went on to become an Indian ruler in the 17th century. For the Serpentine presentation, she has identified a specific group of intellectuals and artists: ‘I’ve been thinking about how the university is a sacred space, for certain intellectuals – like Betye Saar, the writer Ishmael Reed, the poet Fred Moten – to explore ideas of Africa and its traditions.’ This research is intrinsically connected to her upcoming fashion show, revealed in February, which focuses on varsity jackets and preppie classic American items, and for which she has collaborated with some of the same artists on certain pieces. ‘The collection is the thread that ties everything together,’ she reflects.
Wales Bonner is a polymath whose nuanced and subtle approach successfully cuts through the noise. ‘It’s not about making big political statements,’ she says. ‘I’m always interested in sensitivity, sensuality and beauty, and I try to find a space that feels refined and elegant. I just want to express myself in a beautiful way.’
‘Grace Wales Bonner’ is at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London W2 (www.serpentinegalleries.org), from 18 January to 16 February.