Wales Bonner Fall 2026

There is a rare serenity to a Wales Bonner show. Her Fall 2026 collection, unveiled in London just months before she steps into her new role as creative director of menswear at Hermès, carried the poise of a designer fully in tune with her rhythm. The atmosphere felt almost reflective, a gentle pause before the next great crescendo of her career.

Wales Bonner looked to Indian classical music and the work of Balkrishna Doshi, finding poetry in repetition and form. Rugby shirts appeared with diagonal stripes that seemed to move with the body, while madras baseball jackets and checked tailoring referenced both athleticism and architecture. The palette of warm browns, creams and faded lavenders gave the collection an earthy musicality, soft yet deliberate.

Her collaboration with John Smedley continued to evolve. The knits were subtle but extraordinary, their textures revealing the hand of a designer who obsesses over every fibre. Decorative touches added intimacy: silver studs tracing leather collars and sculptural brooches carved in Botswana from panga panga wood and semiprecious stones by Beulah Serema and Peter Mabeo.

This was not a show about spectacle. It was about thought, refinement and restraint. Wales Bonner once again proved that quiet design can be its own kind of statement. As she prepares to bring her sensibility to Hermès, it is clear she will approach it with the same composure that has made her one of Britain’s most quietly powerful voices in fashion.