Central Saint Martins graduate Grace Wales Bonner thoughtfully approaches her namesake brand from a theoretical angle, creating standout collections rich in narrative, culture and beauty, “At its core, it’s about beauty, sensuality, poetry and craft. Graduating in 2014 Wales Bonner is still a relative newcomer already leaving her mark on the industry with her unique focus on identity and representation, her debut AW15 collection, Ebonics was met with critical acclaim whilst she went on to win Emerging Menswear Designer at the British Fashion Awards and take part in Fashion in Motion at the V&A; Museum.

Growing up in London, Jamaican-British Wales Bonner was lucky to be influenced by a vibrant mix of cultures and both a sensical and inquisitive approach to fashion, “I have always found it interesting to see how people manage to mix traditional dress with quintessentially British pieces as well as mass-market sportswear. I'm interested in how you can clash things together in a way that makes sense and I feel that might be what I have learnt from growing up here.

Exploring the representation of black male identity and sexuality, her work is continuously informed by deep research into critical history, literature and history, originating from her graduate dissertation Black on Black. Studying how artists of the diaspora worked within Western frames of reference to corrupt or disturb them from within, she concentrated on the works of Charlie Parker, Basquiat and Kerry James Marshall and the ideas of black aesthetics, “my graduate collection attempted to work with classical references to beauty but to subvert them in some ways through non-western ideals.

"Sweet Sweetback's Baddass Song is probably most important to me - it was one of the first blaxploitation films and for me, it's about taking the power of representation into your own hands, in whatever way you can."

Often led by a particular writer or text Wales Bonner calls on the success of her graduate collection and dissertation to approach her collections from a deeply rooted perspective, “I then build a work of visual research, sounds, colours, textures and silhouettes around that. Originally inspired by Blaxploitation films she became obsessed with the work of Samuel Fosso, “Sweet Sweetback's Baddass Song is probably most important to me - it was one of the first blaxploitation films and for me, it's about taking the power of representation into your own hands, in whatever way you can.

For SS16 Wales Bonner introduced a new narrative on cross-cultural collisions, inspired by the story of Malik Ambar, an ex-Ethiopian slave who became a leader in Western India, “it was about transformation and the mirroring and differences between the two places. I was also interested in the clothes and comparisons between Bollywood and Nollywood - the clothes are all intended to have a found quality to them. Exploring further the layers of race and ethnicity that exist in all visual culture, her research journey centred on the Ethiopian migration to India in particular, a community that over centuries worked their way up from the bottom of society to become regal families – a community that is still traceable up to the Siddi communities and the descendants of Bantu peoples today, the collection evokes a strong sense of poeticism and originality through this narrative.

"it was about transformation and the mirroring and differences between the two places. I was also interested in the clothes and comparisons between Bollywood and Nollywood - the clothes are all intended to have a found quality to them."

Approaching the fabrication of the collection with the same precious aesthetic of her AW15 collection Ebonics, the velvets, Swarovski crystals and cowrie shell embroidery have an elegant and royal quality to them, whilst the faded denim, raw silks and linens accent a market clothing edge. Playing between the dress codes of wealth and hardship, cultural and modern-day signifiers, the collection sees white linen, crushed velvet suits, cropped denim pants, flares and tight sports-inspired tops and shirts delicately decorated with neck-scarves, mother of pearl and exaggerated detailing. Slightly oversized and toned-down suits and shirts are imagined in earthy tones adding a sense of reality and wearability to the collection in both a historical and contemporary way.

For a collection so thoughtful and researched the casting is of deep importance to her each season, choosing street-casted models, friends and professional models to model in her shows and presentations allows for the sense of reality to remain, “I like to get to know the models and have their input along the way. With the casting I try to represent an ideal of beauty, I am also aware of the way black or Indian models may have been typecast in the past so I try to stand in opposition to that. Embodying the idea of the transformation in the story of Malik, elegance and regality, sensuality and masculinity underline the collection of fine tailoring and modern-day dressing.