Melanie Ward Invented the Modern Stylist

Melanie Ward invented the idea of the modern stylist: one that picked bits up from everywhere, not just a ‘look’ from a fashion show. It’s no surprise she studied design at St. Martins — how she put clothes together, with a bit of a zip from here and a bit of a cut-up t-shirt from there was groundbreaking. She successfully combined her fashion background with bits and bobs mixing a Gaultier skinny rib with some Levi’s she had taken apart and dyed, one leg a different colour from the other, and then sewed back together.

She also certainly gave style magazines a leg up, made them relevant in fashion circles, made world renowned designers and their circles look at them and take notice. I wonder if The Face or i-D would have ever been as globally influential without Melanie’s talent. Dazed would certainly never have taken the path it did without Melanie’s influence on me while I was there, until about 1997, when we were still figuring out how to do fashion. She was also the reason I later took the fashion director job at The Face and launched Pop.

I was working at the Katharine Hammett press office when I first met Melanie Ward. I was lucky enough to be given an internship for a couple of weeks (with Romaine Lillie, who I met when she was wearing Pucci and gave me tickets to Prince, but that’s another story). It was the Summer of 1990 — just before I went to St. Martins.

I didn’t really know what a stylist was, but seeing Melanie’s “Summer of Love” story in The Face (featuring Kate Moss shot by Corinne Day) made me realise I wanted to be just like her.

Me and my friends in Birmingham had spent the summer recreating the shoot, with various denim skirts, Birkenstock sandals and tight small vintage T-shirts, coupled with no hair and make up which was in stark contrast to the previous months trying to look like Lady Miss Kier.

I wanted to get bags of charity shop clothes and mix them with high fashion. As time went on I realised that I was never going to be one of those stylists that desperately needed look 21 from wherever. I was quite happy putting stuff together like Melanie did. (I have never been anywhere near as good as her but boy it’s been fun trying).

Her cast was just everything I wanted to be, sexy girls looking like sexy boys, sexy boys looking like sexy girls. The right pair of silver pants, the right polo neck. She showed that you just needed to look for good clothes; it didn’t matter where they were from. Her styling transcended class, showing your background didn’t matter; it was how you presented yourself.

I still remember her walking into the studio wearing Adidas tracksuit bottoms and god she was so cool. I was also in her agent Debbie Walters’s office some time not so long after whilst she was saying “Yeah, but she needs Concorde, she will never make the meeting unless she’s on the Concorde,” obviously referring to a meeting between Melanie and Calvin Klein.

Of course, Melanie made serious waves in the international fashion arena.

I always loved her work with Helmut Lang. It was just so clever: the pants over the face, the bouncy orange thing, her self portraits. She’s the reason I bought Helmut Lang! As well as Gaultier, when I could afford it. The fact that a British stylist with a seemingly normal background who made their name putting her friends in second-hand clothes became fashion director for Harper’s Bazaar US for 14 years… she changed the way we all look at fashion, in a truly international way.

I met her properly years later at the famous, very late Marc Jacobs backwards show, after which we went and got incredibly drunk at the Gramercy Park Hotel and I went on and on about how she had changed my life and I would never have ended up doing what I do without her incredible inspiration. I was reminded late last night as people exchanged their Melanie stories that every time she was in a room I would go up to her and say how her work had changed my life, and she was always a bit bashful and surprised.

I saw her again earlier this year at Kim Jones’ final Dior men’s show. This week has seen awful losses in the fashion industry (Louie Chaban also passed away). Both Melanie and Louie shaped my career more than either of them could ever know. They were both brilliant, talented and had great vision; both pretty uncompromising which made them so iconic, special and the best.

Katie Grand is a stylist, creative director and editor. She co-founded Dazed & Confused in 1992, then worked as fashion director at The Face before launching Pop magazine in 2000, followed by Love magazine in 2009, and the magazine and creative agency Perfect in 2020.