Grace Wales Bonner will show as the guest designer at this season’s Pitti Uomo showcase in Florence, showing the SS23 collection of her eponymous label Wales Bonner. The location and date is yet to be revealed.

The news sees Wales Bonner follow in the footsteps of JW Anderson, Raf Simons, Craig Green and many other esteemed designers who have shown at the Italian fair. This year’s line-up also includes Ann Demeulemeester‘s 40-year celebration, which was meant to take place last January before plans were pulled due to COVID.

“We have been familiar with the work of Grace Wales Bonner since she first debuted,” said Pitti Immagine’s Lapo Cianchi in a statement. “Attracted first and foremost by her cultural sensibility and multidisciplinary approach that comes across in her collaborations with artists and other stylists, while appearing in each one of her collections.”

“We then followed the evolution of her menswear fashion proposal, the gradual grafting of the elegant sartorial structure on the development of fashion design and sportswear elements, a style which, if borrowed from the world of music, could even be called soul.”

Wales Bonner added: “I welcome this special opportunity to express Wales Bonner’s vision of cultural luxury at the historically important institution of Pitti Uomo.”

Pitti Uomo runs from 14th to 17th June.