Empowering fashion on the eve of a climactic election

Wednesday's biggest show was Wales Bonner, an ode to the late-night style of matinee idols mixed with a sense of summer happiness and a symbol of cultural empowerment.

Designer Grace Wales Bonner has built an aesthetic to celebrate the cultural richness of the black diaspora, from Africa to the Caribbean, and this show was the latest to highlight what a rich cultural vein that is.

For next summer, she announced Port of Spain textile artist Althea McNish, whose tropical prints were the key decoration of this collection. Interestingly, of the three key prints (some with Roman imperial purple and others with moss green), the key print was only black and white, a perfectly judged abstract floral. She called the show and key print 'Midnight Palms', which sums up Wales Bonner's greatest skill: his clever self-editing.

His ability to make clothes that are quite classic (a white Humphrey Bogart tuxedo or a Harry Belafonte jacket with an open shirt), but each with its own subtle touch. As scrolled buttons; or a button made of glass; or a waistband finished in grosgrain.

His style was pretty perfect, too: a soft ecru Henley with a Hollywood-style tuxedo; a thick leather jacket paired with a swimsuit.

Backed by a great dub soundtrack courtesy of James William Blades and Senegalese musicians Obree Daman and Ibou Calabasse, this was a top-notch fashion statement.

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A decade ago, black creatives rightly lamented their lack of access to positions of power in fashion, especially in France. But the arrival of Virgil Abloh and now Pharrell Williams at Vuitton shows that the doors are already open. However, at the risk of pigeonholing designers based on color, it must be said that its greatest defender is Grace Wales Bonner.

Its exhibition today inside a wing of the world's most famous museum, the Louvre, seemed like an important statement. That's because that's how it was. The celebration of its many black diaspora cultures, allied to Savile Row tailoring; top quality fabrics; and the giants of athletic sports was truly enriching.

Doubly so, less than two weeks before French voters decide whether to elect to power a far-right party, the Rassemblement Nationale, whose signature policy is to propose national preferences. A policy that would effectively create two classes of citizens, with the rights of French people of black and Arab origin degraded compared to those of whites. Let there be no error in this regard.

So, without mentioning a word of politics, this Wales Bonner show will almost certainly be the spectacle of the Paris season.

Per aspera ad astra.