From reimagining pre-match football attire and celebrating brand integrity whilst tapping into the fashion zeitgeist, to blending modern streetwear with vintage aesthetics, women's co-signed sneakers have seen some of the most sought after releases.
We take a dive into three of the women who get a fashion enthusiasts heart rate pumping.
Grace Wales Bonner is a British fashion designer born in South-London to a Jamaican father and English mother. Graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2014 with a first class degree and an award for her graduate collection “Afrique”, she went on to launch her label in the same year. Wales Bonner became known for luxury menswear that explores the intersection of European and African cultures through a lens of Black identity and history.
Bonner’s career has not been short of accolades, shortly after launching Wales Bonner it was awarded “Emerging Fashion Designer” at the British Fashion Awards in 2015, in 2016 Grace won the LVMH Prize for Young Designers. In 2021 she won the International Mens Designer of the Year by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and in 2024 she won the British Menswear Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards.
Just recently, Grace was appointed as Mens Creative Director at Hermès, with her first collection expected to be in January 2027. Let’s not forget her 2018 interview with System Magazine - “a dream of mine would be to work with a tailoring brand, as that is at the core of what I am doing…Maybe a brand like Hermès”. This appointment makes her the first black woman to lead design at a major fashion house in history. It will be very interesting to see how Bonner’s expertise will shape Hermes menswear, as although it is heavily in design it also lies in cultural curation. She turned the Samba back into a must have, reimagined Dior’s bar jacket, dressed Lewis Hamilton for the Met Gala, and curated an exhibition at MoMA exploring the Black Atlantic through art and sound, we’re very excited for what’s to come.
Wales Bonner x adidas has seen old silhouettes revived and brought back to the forefront and the next installation rejuvenates the Japan and also features the Karintha, an original design ideated by Grace. This collection uses suede, sequin, and satin which Grace wanted to ‘bring an evening sensibility to the style’. Don’t worry, Wales Bonner will continue to run as its own entity whilst Grace is at Hermes.
The latest collection launched on the 31st October
Martine Rose launched her self-titled label in London in 2007 built on her inspiration from her Jamaican-British heritage and her deep interest and personal involvement in music and the melting-pot cultures of London. She also became known for taking an unconventional approach to presenting collections and showing outside of the schedule in venues around north London, such as the markets of Tottenham, her daughters primary school, and a neighbourhood cul-de-sac in Camden. Martine has become one of the most in demand consultants and has consistently been influencing the direction of contemporary menswear since evolving from a shirting collection to an internationally renowned and critically acclaimed brand.
In 2019 Martine Rose participated in the exhibition Get Up, Stand Up Now which is a major celebration of 50 years of Black British Creativity at Somerset House in London. Martine has always referenced her heritage and acknowledged how her background influenced her views of design. Especially from growing up in a Jamaican household where “style is way above fashion”.
The aesthetic of Martine Rose is informed by the investigation of proportions and silhouettes along with fluent referencing of subcultural contexts which is evident in her collaborations with Nike and the Nike Shox MR4. The heeled version of the Shox, which was deemed the fourth hottest product at the time of first launching by search engine Lyst, landed in July 2022.
The most recent iteration is inspired by gaming culture and was teased by esports’ SonicFox during the Evolution Championship Series when gamers donned the Metallic Platinum pairs. Yet again, crossing fashion with sport, Martine Rose has merged formalwear with the renowned look of the Nike Shox.
The Latest collection launched on the 30th October
Emily Oberg was 20 years old and working at a media company in New York when she decided to take a massive career risk which would turn into, the multi-million-dollar luxury sportswear brand, Sporty & Rich.
Born to a Filipino father in Calgary, Canada, the practice of curation began early. She was exposed to a strong sense of style with her dad having an interest in streetwear and would cover her bedroom walls with editorials and her favourite ad campaigns.
Sporty & Rich began as an instagram account, with a feed that was a mood board of all the things Oberg brought to real life. At the beginning, Emily was doing everything herself from production to packaging, whilst also juggling her full time job, doing brand collabs on her insta, and DJing on the side for extra income to fuel her dream.
Sporty & Rich x adidas has seen vintage sportswear aesthetics and modern street style blended, whilst focusing on classic silhouettes. The latest Sporty & Rich adidas collaboration continued to celebrate the enduring legacy of off-court tennis aesthetics.
The latest collection launched on the 6th of October.
