Melanie Ward obituary

"Not much challenged the orthodoxy of glamour in fashion and decor through the 1980s. Proliferating glossy magazines celebrated revived couture, promoted luxury goods and displayed them on perfect human specimens in ideal settings. They did not care for, or cater to, the young, poor or inventive. Youthful street daywear was not their business. But there was another magazine world notably the Face and i-D which had come out of music and pop culture."

"By the late 80s, freelancers for these, especially the stylist Melanie Ward, just out of college, were experimenting with emphatically different clothes and the ways to wear them, to create photographs that were more than an alternative to perfection. They proposed a realism that dominated the future presentation of fashion. The Face cover of July 1990 featuring Kate Moss, the shoot for which was styled by Ward."

Glossy 1980s fashion magazines promoted couture and luxury goods while ignoring young, poor, and inventive streetwear. A parallel magazine culture—notably the Face and i-D—emerged from music and pop. Freelance stylists like Melanie Ward experimented with unconventional clothing and styling, creating photographs that emphasized realism over perfection. Ward and photographer Corinne Day shot a young Kate Moss at scrubby Camber Sands in July 1990, using unironed, vintage, customised clothes, Birkenstock sandals and a feather headdress to produce relatable, character-driven images. Ward later died aged 64 of cancer. Her work shifted fashion presentation toward everyday authenticity.

Read at www.theguardian.com