Grace Wales Bonner To Make Fashionable Stage Debut

From Rei Kawakubo's costumes for the Vienna State Opera's Orlando to the recent announcement that Daniel Lee and Burberry will create costumes for the Royal Opera House in London, fashion designers have a long-standing relationship with theatre and dance productions. Famed choreographer Wayne McGregor has collaborated with artists and brands including Gareth Pugh and Mugler on numerous productions. Now, for the upcoming performance Novacene which marks the National Youth Dance Company's 10th anniversary, the British-Jamaican designer Grace Wales Bonner will provide the costumes.

Premiering this summer, the production will tour the UK, including a June performance at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London. Based on the novel Novacene by James Lovelock, which explores hyperintelligence, AI and cyborgs, McGregor's production is all about the idea of the future human and how we will evolve. Interestingly, Wales Bonner's clothes, who launched her label in 2014, is tightly linked to culture and expressive notions of identity; elegant tailoring, tracksuits and ceremonial embellishment investigate ideas of beauty and status in society. The London-based designer said in a statement: ‘I have always been inspired by the rich and expressive gestures of dance in designing silhouettes, so it has been a great pleasure to collaborate with NYDC and Wayne McGregor. I hope these custom Wales Bonner pieces allow the young artists to shine with their full individuality and energy.’