Melanie Ward: In Memoriam
Ward’s trajectory through fashion reveals how new proposals, when anchored in uncut realism, can change the status quo even if they are initially perceived as radical. In her final years, she worked with mainstream brands like Versace, Hermes, Dior, and Fendi. Ward’s initial proposals of anti-glamour realism, so at odds with the lustrousness of fashion at the time, eventually took her to the heights of established fashion where glamour remains an essential constituent. Ward remained slyly subversive to the end.