When we use the term stylist it actually covers a broad range of diverse types of styling work, from the finishing touches on classic stories, to being truly an original and inventive user of clothes. Melanie Ward was truly an original creative stylist whose contribution to fashion was huge.
Her fresh approach to the role, her individual thoughts and ideas sprang from a spectrum of fashion narratives which she launched into the world. She used styling to create images with the photographers and team that stand as markers across the history of fashion. Her style was to reinvent, to renew and to question how we see fashion. Melanie Ward upholds the absolute best of the title “stylist,” the highest form of the role and a defining moment in the evolution of the role from simply being called a Fashion Editor to this complex and challenging job in fashion.
Born in London, she studied fashion at Central Saint Martins after a BA at London University, so she knew how clothes were made, how fabrics worked and how proportions on the body shifted. Her career was built on expertise allied to a vivid creative imagination.
Her first major period of influence was during the early 1990s when she worked with photographers David Sims and Corinne Day to offer to the fashion world grunge and its immediate effect on fashion at all levels. Using the fifteen-year-old Kate Moss she asked that we take a fresh look at clothes, in their skimpy layers, raw finishes, anti-glamour, and rethink what we considered attractive. Vintage, thrift shop, customisation and turning the pieces inside out resulted in new, often controversial, attitudes that linger to this day. From Marc Jacobs at Perry Ellis to Miss Selfridge, the visuals Melanie Ward created shifted fashion off its axis globally.
At the same time, her role with Helmut Lang across many years helped to secure his place as an original, innovative, and truly special designer. Her work with Jil Sander and Calvin Klein is recognised as key to the house’s aesthetic, narrative and visual communication across many seasons and years. There was even a brief period in the early 2000s as a consultant to Karl Lagerfeld.
In 1995, she moved to the United States, where she joined editor Liz Tilberis at Harper’s Bazaar. She remained in the role for fourteen years, working in creative partnerships with the freshest and most exciting photographers of the time. These included Inez van Lansweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, David Sims, Mario Sorrenti, Glen Luchford, Craig McDean, Steven Klein, Mert and Marcus, Alasdair McLellan, Zoe Ghertner, and Willy Vanderperre.
The new was what interested Melanie Ward, in interviews she talked about how the next thing was what she was thinking about, and looking at, not reviving things she had already done. Her energy and creative instincts were all about moving on, the fresh idea, the new variation, the experimental and the innovative. Her observations about her role at Bazaar and the contrasting times meant that her approach to customisation and the credit “stylists own” was not so popular later with advertisers and big brands or luxury houses. Freedom of expression was so a part of her vision and mixing, like a chef, a DJ or anyone taking ingredients , in her case clothes and accessories, were merely tools to be mixed into her, and the teams, story telling, expression of the mood of the moment or simply throwing a totally new idea at the viewer. Melanie Ward challenged herself to create extraordinary work and she challenged our view of fashion; few creatives can honestly say that.
“I am still insatiably curious, and I love to challenge myself.” Melanie Ward
