Inside one of Paris’ most esteemed public schools, Lycée Henri-IV, Wales Bonner presented her SS26 collection: Jewel. This season marked ten years of the London designer’s namesake brand, choosing to explore the principles she has inherited across a decade in the business, expanding her ‘Superfine’ style. The show notes were punctuated by excerpts from mid-century poets Christopher Okigbo and Nikki Giovanni, quoting Giovanni’s My Tower (Pretty Little Baby), “I have built my castle by the shore thinking I was an oyster clammed shut forever, when this tiny grain I hardly noticed crept inside and I spit around and spit around, and spun a universe inside with a black pearl of immeasurable worth” – a metaphor for the vision Bonner has spent a decade building.

Models walked to a soundtrack arranged by British composer James William Blades, spanning the designer’s idols and inspirations, culminating in a live performance by Dutch harpist Ranie Ribeiro. Garments toed the line between 1930s evening wear and British sartorial traditions, with tailcoats crafted from wool and silk in collaboration with Savile Row tailors. An air of preppiness was felt across merino polo shirts, tailored silhouettes and wing-tip silk shirts, walking alongside relaxed utility pieces in aged denim and linen-check. A new collaboration with Y-3 made its debut, exploring the principles of Japanese craft through reimagined archive silhouettes, including satin souvenir jackets, technical suit trousers and the revival of Y-3’s signature Field shoe. In keeping with the sporting theme, Bonner also enlisted young Arsenal star Myles Lewis-Skelly to walk the runway – major!