7. Grace Wales Bonner

One of today’s most talked-about fashion designers, Grace Wales Bonner is known for using her mixed-race heritage as a starting point for her collections. Best known for her menswear (though she does produce womenswear as well), she has become a force to be reckoned with, not only because of her impeccable craftsmanship but also her ability to weave explorations of Black sexuality and identity in sartorial form.

Since launching her eponymous label in 2014, Wales Bonner has created a complex world that embraces multiple disciplines, and proposed a new vision of luxury that fuses the Eurocentric perspective with an Afro-atlantic approach. Her A/W21 Black Sunlight collection (pictured), for example, is based on Black Oxford scholars and the radical thinkers of the 1980s. ‘My research is quite broad,’ she says. ‘Usually it starts from literature. I’ll have some books or poems in mind and then build a visual world around that, and then a musical world around that, until I have this complete sensory world that’s a hybrid of different things.’

It’s no surprise that Wales Bonner’s poetic approach has made her a beacon of inspiration to Gates. ‘Grace offers a new lens and platform through which to consider conversations on race, identity and sexuality, he says. ‘Her quiet intensity and strategic approach will continue to rock the design world.’ walesbonner.net