Have you ever seen a work of art, something of such exquisite beauty, that it stole your breath away? That is how we felt when we came across the work of award-winning Togolese fashion designer Grace Wallace. Her intricate, fine designs epitomize the term ‘haute couture’—this is not merely fashion, it is art.
Founded in 2005 (then called ‘KilFashion’), the brand Grace Wallace has been clothing women, men, and children in divinely beautiful designs for a decade and a half, but the designer Grace Wallace’s love for design long pre-dates this. From when she was a little girl, Grace has been sketching designs, which she then also sewed her young self. As she grew older, wearing her own fine handmade designs, she started receiving numerous requests from friends and acquaintances for her to make dresses for them as well. She duly complied and soon she was inundated with orders, which is when she realized she could flourish in the world of fashion, and make her mark globally.
“I threw myself into fashion, body and soul,” says Grace. “My lust for fashion has not in the least abated since I struck out on my own in 2005.” And it shows—her work is avant-garde, bold, passionate, breathtaking. The continent has started to take notice too; in the past couple of years, Grace has won LIFA Magazine’s ‘Les Oscars de la Mode’ in her native Togo, the ‘Ideal Woman’ trophy in Equatorial Guinea, and a nomination for the ‘Tropics Change-makers’ award in South Africa.
The Grace Wallace collection includes stylish menswear that is distinctive-yet-wearable, and classically structured featuring intricate details. Yet, the brand’s women’s fashion is where Grace’s passion and talent is truly showcased. Grace’s goal, she says, is always to take a beautiful woman and simply make her more elegant and stylish—complementing her own beauty and grace. Her designs also reflect a timeless cross-generationally, a dress that is as wearable by a little girl, as a young woman, as a mother, as a grandmother. This is an aspect of Grace Wallace’s designs that we deeply appreciate—why should little girls always be dressed in bows and lace, or grandmothers in dowdy, outdated dresses?
Why high fashion? Because, for a designer like Grace Wallace, fashion is art. She entered luxury haute couture, she says, because it allows her to work with the most exquisite materials. The artistic nature of high fashion also allows her to fully incorporate and live out her African heritage, including intricate details such as wax, embroidery, and stones in modern, avant-garde designs.
With Africa threaded through her designs, the brand Grace Wallace is modern, contemporary, and inventive and, we think, it is high time the world take notice of what African designers such as Grace Wallace have to offer, don’t you?
By Illona Meyer
