LONDON — Grace Wales Bonner has scooped the most recent BFC/GQ Designer Fashion Fund for menswear, which comes with a 12-month business mentoring program; pro-bono legal services, and a money prize of 100,000 kilos.

Previous winners include Nicholas Daley, Ahluwalia, A-Cold-Wall and Craig Green.

Adam Baidawi, head of editorial content at British GQ and deputy global editorial director, described Wales Bonner as an “electrifying talent with a razor-sharp vision, and the whole embodiment of recent creativity: ambitious, collaborative and global.”

Caroline Rush, chief executive officer of the BFC, said the designer has “created an area for a cultural conversation that inspires future generations. Her mental approach to design has resulted in multiple collaborations across the creative space, demonstrating the brand’s clear ability to resonate with consumers and achieve industrial success.”

The shortlist included AGR, Bianca Saunders, Bleue Burnham and Paria Farzaneh, who can have the prospect to take part in a mentoring program through the BFC’s Designer Initiatives team, based on the BFC.

The judging panel included Damien Paul, head of menswear buying at Matchesfashion.com; Laurent Malecaze, CEO of Dunhill; Samuel Ross, founding father of A-Cold-Wall, and Tan France, the designer, TV personality and writer. 

The BFC/GQ Designer Fashion Fund is a component of the BFC Foundation, which supports the British fashion industry by specializing in education; grant-giving, and business mentoring, and the Institute of Positive Fashion. 

Wales Bonner, an LVMH Prize winner, was an offbeat selection this yr only because she is so well-established, and the award often recognizes emerging talents.

Wales Bonner was Pitti Uomo’s special guest designer last June, and she or he has since introduced a much bigger, broader apparel offer, recent footwear, jewelry and accessories collections. She has also forged strong ties with retailers including Nordstrom.

Wales Bonner founded her label in 2014 shortly after graduating from London’s Central Saint Martins and winning the L’Oréal Professionnel Talent Award.

In 2015, she scooped the prize for Emerging Menswear Designer on the Fashion Awards in London, and won the LVMH Prize a yr later. She received the CFDA International Men’s Designer of the 12 months award in 2021.

Last summer, Wales Bonner was awarded an MBE for services to fashion in Queen Elizabeth’s annual Birthday Honors list. MBE stands for Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, and holders include fellow designer Craig Green and musicians Adele and Ed Sheeran.

She has an extended history of collaborations and inspirations, a lot of which concentrate on the experiences and cultures of African communities on each side of the Atlantic.

Past collections have referenced the works of Caribbean poets Kamau Brathwaite and the Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott and the experience of Black Caribbean expats and intellectuals living and studying in England within the ’80s.

She has also been inspired by West African studio portraiture and the work of the artist Sanlé Sory within the ’70s, in addition to the lives of Don and Moki Cherry as they were making music and art in ’70s Sweden.

She has a longstanding collaboration with Adidas and was among the many creatives that Maria Grazia Chiuri tapped to contribute looks to the 2020 Dior cruise collection.