LFW Diary AW11: Kirsty Ward

A designer I was really looking forward to seeing at Blow PR's Ones To Watch on the inaugural day of LFW, I was sad to have missed seeing the hotly tipped Kirsty Ward make her mark on the international fashion stage. Unluckily I queued too late and didn't get into the show, but luckily Ward also exhibited with Vauxhall Fashion Scout, where I managed to meet her and obtain a close-up of her inspired AW11 collection a couple of days later.

As dramatic, unique and groundbreaking as I'd hoped, Ward's designs are a vision of sculptured brilliance, breathtakingly playing on the structure of the silhouette, harnessing a clear penchant for boned, textured clothing, that was also highly visible in her debut. Having graduated from an MA in womenswear at CSM a couple of years ago, Ward was instantly whisked off to Italy to join Alberta Feretti’s design team, where she stayed for a year and a half. After founding her eponymous label in 2010, Ward has gone from strength to strength designing jewellery for David Longshaw’s AW10 collection and of course debuting with her own SS11 collection last September.

Focusing on her striking and complex costume jewellery, Ward uses this as the starting point for her fashion collections, taking inspiration for AW11 from images of both funny women and chairs. A designer’s designer, Ward loves to make garments that she would want to wear herself, which for me is the benchmark of a true designer – reflecting your own taste and aesthetic being paramount. With a muted earth colour palette of black ash, snow and lava shades, I’m thoroughly impressed with Ward’s collection, emphatically proving to up-and-coming designers that unique practices are the way forward if you want to achieve this kind of maga-watt result.