Styed by Helen: Wearing Charcot for MS Awareness Week

I find it hard to remember when exactly I met Kirsty, the designer behind Charcot, because it feels like I've known her forever. I do know that I was aware of her work for sometime before we became friends. She graduated in jewellery from DJCAD. Now, I always try to pay attention to the designers displaying during degree show time but Kirsty's work stood out to me because her designs were all based around Multiple Sclerosis (MS). My mum suffered from this autoimmune condition so I've seen the difficult effects it can have and seeing it used to create unusual, statement jewellery certainly made me curious.

Kirsty was diagnosed with MS in 2007 and decided to take this news and turn it into something positive. All of her designs are based on the lesions, caused by MS, that show in her MRI scans. She takes these dark shapes and turns them into intricate and interesting designs and patterns. As well as creating beautiful jewellery, prints and scarves out of these shapes, she also works to raise awareness of MS, with a percentage from each sale of her work goes to the MS Society. With the 24th - 30th April being MS Awareness Week it seemed like a great time to dress up in Kirsty's striking designs (something I've been wanting to do for a while) and do our little bit to raise awareness.





Starting in jewellery, Kirsty has since expanded into printed textiles. Her collection now includes bright statement necklaces and beautiful silk scarves in a range of neon colours. In fact, she's just been working to add a couple of new colours to her collection. Hello bright pink, deep orange and mellow yellow! They are a great way to add a pop of colour to a plain outfit or, if you're me, add more bright hues to an already rainbow look. The more colours, the merrier and with these the neon acrylic is so bright that it looks like the edges are glowing!

I love how Kirsty has used the lesion images to create other shapes in the necklaces. These ones look like skulls, adding a tougher edge to the bold, cheerful colours. While on her scarves they look fans, flowers and more abstract shapes. All round, it's a great collection that I'm totally on board with and would be, even if I wasn't aware of the deeper meaning behind the designs.

Dress | Taisir Gibreel
Shoes | Charity shop
Necklaces | Charcot
Scarf | Charcot
Jacket | H&M
Bag | c/o Sun Jellies
Glasses | c/o Iolla




MS is a condition which effects the brain and/or spinal cord and can cause a number of different symptoms, including fatigue, pain, vision problems and mobility issues. It happens when the immune system attacks part of the body, mistaking it for a foreign substance. Not much is known about why people develop MS and there currently isn't a cure for it, but treatment has come a long way over the past 20 years. You can find out more about it via the NHS, MS Trust and the MS Society and there are plenty of ways you can get involved during MS Awareness Week. If you can, I'd love it if you could donate to the MS Society and support the research and work they do to.

Check out Kirsty's work via Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, buy here work here and watch out for her new website coming soon!