--- title: Grace Wales Bonner Is on the TIME100 Next 2023 List description: Find out how Grace Wales Bonner is shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. canonical: https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2023/6308466/grace-wales-bonner/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-09-13T11:00:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:18:53.794Z og:title: 2023 TIME100 Next: Grace Wales Bonner og:description: Find out why Grace Wales Bonner is on this year’s TIME100 Next list og:url: https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2023/6308466/grace-wales-bonner/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26525f3d72adb48d/698a4011db29874fb32694ed/time100-next-grace-wales-bonner-2023-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2023 TIME100 Next: Grace Wales Bonner og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 2023 TIME100 Next: Grace Wales Bonner twitter:description: Find out why Grace Wales Bonner is on this year’s TIME100 Next list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26525f3d72adb48d/698a4011db29874fb32694ed/time100-next-grace-wales-bonner-2023-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 13, 2023 # Grace Wales Bonner by Jeremy O. Harris  Grace Wales Bonner Grace Wales BonnerLiz Johnson Artur When I first saw Grace Wales Bonner’s designs, I was taken by her sense of history. Young Black men walked along a flower-lined runway adorned with charms and pendants reminiscent of those worn by men from Ghanaian photographs I’d seen only in faded black-and-white or sepia prints. [Her work](https://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/grace-wales-bonner "undefined") reminded me of literary figures—in and around it, I saw echoes of oft-ignored titans such as Samuel Delany, Ishmael Reed, and Chester Himes. This is not the aesthetic of most ready-to-wear menswear designers. At a moment when capitalism is at its loudest, dissuading young artists from making art when content is easier to consume, she is a true artist—multidisciplined and unabashedly curious. She was also aptly named. Her surname, Wales Bonner, invokes a sense of regality, stature, and speaks to the complex history of the Jamaican diaspora. Her first name, Grace, is defined as “simple elegance or refinement of movement.” This is in the DNA of every aspect of her artistry. _Harris is a Tony-nominated playwright_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2023/6308466/grace-wales-bonner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2023/6308466/grace-wales-bonner/"},"headline":"Grace Wales Bonner","datePublished":"2023-09-13T11:00:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:18:53.794Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2023/6308466/grace-wales-bonner/","keywords":["TIME 100 Next","sponsorshipblock","time100nextartists23"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26525f3d72adb48d/698a4011db29874fb32694ed/time100-next-grace-wales-bonner-2023-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt26525f3d72adb48d/698a4011db29874fb32694ed/time100-next-grace-wales-bonner-2023-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-next-2023/6308466/grace-wales-bonner/","name":"Grace Wales Bonner"}}]}] ```