Grace Wales Bonner is Hermès’s new creative director of menswear. The British designer, 35, who created her namesake menswear brand in 2014 and has a longstanding collaboration with Adidas, will present her debut show for the French house in January 2027, Hermès announced today. She will succeed Véronique Nichanian, who is stepping down after 37 years. Nichanian’s final show will be during Paris Men’s in January, and the house will skip fashion week in June. The SS27 collection will be created by the studio.
It’s understood that Wales Bonner will continue her namesake brand alongside her Hermès role.
“I am really pleased to welcome Grace to the Hermès artistic director family. Her take on contemporary fashion, craft and culture will contribute to shaping Hermès men’s style, melding the house’s heritage with a confident look on the now. Grace’s appetite and curiosity for artistic practice strongly resonate with Hermès’s creative mindset and approach. We are at the start of an enriching mutual dialogue,” Pierre-Alexis Dumas, general artistic director of Hermès, said in a statement.
“I am deeply honoured to be entrusted with the role of creative director of Hermès men’s ready-to-wear. It is a dream realised to embark on this new chapter, following in a lineage of inspired craftspeople and designers. I wish to express my gratitude to Pierre-Alexis Dumas and Axel Dumas for the opportunity to bring my vision to this magical house,” Wales Bonner said.
While industry insiders were betting on a promotion from within, Hermès went for a renowned talent. Wales Bonner was born in London to an English mother and Jamaican father, graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014 and established her menswear brand right after (she introduced womenswear in 2018). She has earned numerous recognitions, including the emerging menswear designer at the British Fashion Awards in 2015, the LVMH Young Designer Prize in 2016 and the CFDA International Men’s Designer of the Year in 2021.
She’s also had a busy year. She returned to the Paris show calendar in June 2025 after her big moment at the 2025 Met Gala. Her opulent velvet suit, encrusted with cowrie shells that were historically used as currency across West Africa, was included in the exhibition. She also dressed co-chair Lewis Hamilton alongside FKA Twigs, Omar Apollo, Jeff Goldblum and more. “For menswear, Paris is basically the place to be. I am speaking a lot about heritage and tradition, so I think Paris is the place where you can have those conversations,” she said. For SS26, she presented “ a proposition for dressing that’s eclectic, a mix between sports heritage, a casual, preppy language, and more fine tailoring. Also coming from the Met Gala and thinking about the idea of Superfine [referring to the theme of the Costume Institute exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style”], I wanted to have some sense of continuity, think about that character, and bring some of that spirit,” the British designer said backstage.
She has been mentioned several times for creative director jobs at big houses in recent years. Vogue Runway’s Sarah Mower wrote in her review of the Wales Bonner SS26 show: “Exactly why such demonstrably influential — and commercially sharp — women such as Grace Wales Bonner and her elder British counterpart Martine Rose have not yet been hired by a house or a brand is less a mystery than a total disgrace on the industry.” Mower seems to have struck a chord: the comment has been widely re-posted on social media.
Hermès doesn’t have a single creative director—Pierre-Alexis Dumas is general artistic director, Nadège Vanhee is artistic director of women’s, and Pierre Hardy is in charge of shoes, jewellery, high jewellery and beauty objects. But given the big scale of the business and its track record of delivering growth even in the luxury downturn, leading any category at the house is a demanding job in itself. Wales Bonner’s predecessor, Nichanian, transformed menswear and made it a significant business too; Hermès’s ready-to-wear and accessories grew 5.5 per cent to €2.26 billion in the first half of 2025.
It’s an exciting announcement. Following SS26’s big reset, which saw a dozen designer debuts and only two female designers’ debuts (Rachel Scott at Proenza Schouler and Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta), Maria Grazia Chiuri’s first show at Fendi, which is slated for February 2026, and Wales Bonner’s first show at Hermès in January 2027 will be two eagerly awaited designer debuts.
This story was originally published on Vogue.com.
