Layers upon layers: Kirsty Ward’s SS12 collection

Designer Kirsty Ward’s star just keeps on rising. The young up-and-coming British designer had barely completed her MA Womenswear course at Central Saint Martins when Alberta Ferretti snapped her up to design for the label. After a year and half in Italy working and learning under Ferretti, Ward launched her eponymous label in 2010.

By this time, she had developed a unique aesthetic of bold cuts, defined structures and powerful embellishment. Her favour for unconventional structures developed while she studied but continued with her designs for her own label – merging contrasting and complimentary elements became her signature eclectic style.

So far in her short but sweet career, she has gathered numerous prestigious accolades – Elle UK named her a Rising Star of 2011,  Vogue  labeled her one of their Designers to Watch in 2011. Luxury department store Selfridges selected her as one of their Bright Young Things of 201 and showcased her debut collection in the store’s window. She created limited edition pieces to be sold in Selfridges stores and online.

With so many expectations to live up to, Kirsty Ward’s Spring/ Summer 2012 collection has a lot to deliver – and it does.

So, how to describe the collection? Well, it’s complicated. Eclectic is an understatement: she’s layered beiges, blues and yellows, contrasting fabrics and textures, to create sculpted shapes in her daring cut-out pieces. To these, Kirsty has she added large and beautifully embellished jewellery, another passion of hers, to complete the look of the season.

As well as her incorporation of the sheer fabrics she is known for, this season’s collection has unexpectedly taken inspiration from workwear and office-style shirts, creating an aesthetically pleasing juxtaposition between the basic fabrics and gaudy costume-style jewellery made of brass chains and metal hooks.

Of this season’s focus on sculptural boning to create layered shapes, Ward has said: ‘It’s something I have been obsessed with since my MA at Central Saint Martins and has evolved since then, and there’s always a way each season that I want to push it. I probably won’t ever tire of it.’

The verdict? Even if I would never be brave enough to wear a signature Kirsty Ward, her pieces are most definitely breaking the boundaries of high fashion.

Khaleda Rahman

View Kirsty Ward’s video lookbook for her SS12 collection below:

To view the entire collection or for more information on Kirsty Ward, click here.