The Designer Interview: Stella McCartney
The designer-turned-activist talks to CHLOE STREET about finding solutions, inspiring revolution and the healing power of horses
Stella McCartney is a woman on a mission. When she launched her eponymous fashion brand in 2001, the idea of creating cruelty-free, planet-conscious luxury clothing was largely unheard of. Two decades on and sustainability has moved from the fashion fringes to its forefront, yet McCartney remains resolutely focused.
“I was doing it for 20 years and I was ridiculed,” says the British designer, whose products have been free from animal leather, skin, fur or feather since day one. “But now it feels like people are looking at this stuff and they want to be a part of it. They want to change and be informed – and, for me, that’s when it can have momentum.”
Over the past 22 years, McCartney, who turns 52 this month, has built a fashion empire with a strong ethical core and a focus on the sort of flattering, cool – but not too cool – clothes that women truly want to wear: sharp blazers, baggy pants, silky separates and the odd splash of sparkle. Hers is a wardrobe of easy denim and throw-on-and-go jumpsuits for women as busy as they are chic; women like her: “I’m forever in a rush, so I’m always looking for something easy that I can throw on,” says McCartney, a mother-of-four who also makes childrenswear, menswear, fragrance, lingerie, skincare and eyewear, and has an ongoing – and incredibly successful – 18-year sportswear partnership with Adidas. “I hope that I represent that for women in their wardrobes. Like a safe pair of hands; a faithful product they can go to again and again.”
Her winter 2023 collection, which drops on NET-A-PORTER this week, certainly delivers on timeless classics, with strong-shouldered skirt suits, floor-length wool coats and jersey dresses a mainstay. “Stella McCartney really understands how women want to dress,” says NET-A-PORTER market director Libby Page. “And this collection felt like a return to what she has become known for: smart, powerful, intellectual and bold clothes.” It’s also a watershed moment for the brand: 92% of its ready-to-wear is crafted from responsible materials (100% of the curation on NET-A-PORTER is made from responsible materials), making it the label’s most conscious winter collection ever. “I’m so excited NET-A-PORTER has bought it,” says McCartney, between mouthfuls of a delicious vegan lunch on her PORTER shoot. “You guys are really part of making history with that.”
“We don’t kill animals; we use very little water in our processes; and we don’t cut down rainforests
”Stella McCartney
In truth, her unerring focus on animal rights and material innovation has meant a trajectory that is peppered with history-making moments. Among the highlights: launching the first spider-silk garment in 2017, the first vegan Stan Smiths in 2018, slides made from recycled industrial waste in 2021, and denim made from recycled textile waste in 2022. She has even focused on ameliorating trickier aspects of the production process, such as switching out the animal glues that are typically used to construct bags and shoes. “For me, it’s a really medieval visual in my head, that people are still boiling down fish bones and animal bones for glue,” says McCartney, herself a lifelong vegetarian. “We don’t do that. We don’t kill animals; we use very little water in our processes; and we don’t cut down rainforests.”
Perhaps most inspiring, though, is her pioneering use of leather substitutes. The material is one that most luxury fashion houses relies on heavily, and yet one billion animals are killed for the industry each year and animal agriculture drives 80% of the Amazon’s deforestation. “There’s an association between leather and luxury, but, for me, killing animals in abattoirs… the reality of that is not luxurious,” says the designer, who is “devastated” to see the material trending on runways in 2023.
In 2018, Stella McCartney launched the world’s first apparel and handbags made from Mylo™️, a vegan mushroom ‘leather’ created by a company called Bolt Threads. And at McCartney’s show in Paris in September, models hit the runway carrying large, buttery-soft leather-look tote bags made from a genius repurposing of grape waste from Italian wineries. This year came apple ‘leather’ and, most excitingly, says McCartney, in this latest winter ’23 collection, the brand unveiled a material called Mirum®, the first ever scalable plastic-free alternative to leather. “It’s an incredible innovation,” she enthuses.
“We don’t aim to take away people’s rights, or preach or make people feel bad… but we do want to provide a solution that’s stylish and luxurious
”
This collection also debuts the results of a three-year project with LVMH, to which she sold a stake of her business in 2019, to create regenerative cotton and an alternative to viscose (a fabric usually made from tree pulp, the production of which results in 150 million trees being cut down a year) that focuses on replanting trees instead. “The entire history of our brand has been this task force of activism, really,” says McCartney. “Of trying to dissect the industry and find positive solutions for the most harmful areas; solutions where you can’t tell any difference with the look and feel of the product. That’s the goal; and I think we are achieving it – hopefully.”
Despite growing up in one of the most famous families in Britain, McCartney and her three siblings were raised in deliberately down-to-earth fashion by their parents, Sir Paul and Linda. One minute, they might have been on a celeb-packed Beatles tour, but the next, they’d be playing in a field at the family’s modest farmhouse on Kintrye, in Scotland, or the family farm in Sussex. Her appetite for challenging the status quo was inherited from her mother, Linda, a photographer, committed vegetarian and animal-rights activist, whose vegetarian food line was revolutionary when it launched in 1991. “It’s part of my everyday life to have a level of respect for earth and its creatures,” says McCartney, who regularly escapes London to be on her 277-acre farm in Worcestershire with her husband, Alasdhair Willis, and their four children – Miller, Bailey, Beckett and Reiley. “It’s just something that’s deeply embedded in me.”
“We want to help give people information; offer an alternative way… You know, I’m not just a fashion designer anymore – I’m an activist
”
At 15, she interned in Paris with the much-lauded couturier Christian Lacroix. Then, having completed high school and a foundation degree from Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, McCartney went on to study fashion design at Central Saint Martins, during which time she moonlighted for luxury tailor Edward Sexton on London’s exclusive Savile Row. Her 1995 degree collection mixed elegant bias-cut silk dresses with bespoke tailoring and was modeled, famously, by her celebrity pals Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, who walked the runway to a song her father wrote for the occasion – Stella May Day. Despite her starry connections, McCartney’s talent has always spoken for itself. Two years after graduating, aged just 25, she was hired to replace Karl Lagerfeld at the helm of French house Chloé, where her easy interpretation of the house’s codes, modern femininity and sense of proportion found both commercial and critical success.
After design, Stella’s great love is horses and horse riding, and some of her best collections have arisen from a collision of her two worlds. Her seminal spring 2001 collection for Chloé saw blown-up graphic horse prints worked onto fluid, draped jackets, silky handkerchief tops and midi dresses – many of which are now collectors’ items. And for Stella McCartney Winter ’23, she revisited the equine theme with a dramatic show – titled Horse Power – at Manège de l’École Militaire (France’s oldest riding school), in which models shared the runway with seven white horses, guided by renowned horse whisperer and rescuer Jean-Francois Pignon. Prints created from original horse photography by Mary McCartney, her sister, and Linda McCartney were daubed on jacquard polo shirts, knit sets in forest-friendly viscose and blown up on the front of a Fur-Free Fur jumper. It was a collection about love – between mothers, daughters, sisters, humans and animals – intended to highlight the healing power of nature. “I was on a horse yesterday, and it’s the best thing in the world,” says McCartney. “It just fills every pore of my body with happiness.”
“I try not to get annoyed because I’m trying to encourage everyone to do this – and it’s not a positive energy to be annoyed. We are pioneering change, big change. We are making history in the industry
”
Shopping sustainably, making better wardrobe choices and reducing consumption can all feel like an overwhelming task at times. But McCartney’s real power lies in her knack for making it feel less daunting – exciting, even. After just 30 minutes with her, I am left feeling motivated that we can and will change the broken fashion machine. “We don’t aim to take away people’s rights, or preach or make people feel bad,” she says, “but we do want to provide a solution that’s stylish and luxurious – and, at the same time, we want to help give people information; offer an alternative way.”
This infectiously positive outlook, combined with her inimitable knowledge of the science of clothing production, explains why McCartney has been embraced by politicians and royals as a trusted adviser. She was chosen to partner with the United Nations on a sustainable fashion charter in 2018 and was invited by HRH The Prince of Wales’s Sustainable Markets Initiative to attend the G7 Summit in 2021. She’s also been the sole fashion designer present at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in both 2021 and 2022 (Cop26 and Cop27); and one suspects – although she wouldn’t confirm – that she’ll be present at this year’s Cop28, too. “You know, I’m not just a fashion designer anymore; I’m an activist,” says McCartney, who has acted as special adviser on sustainability to LVMH owner Bernard Arnault since she partnered with the French conglomerate.
Does she ever get annoyed by the greenwashing that dominates the fashion industry at large? “Look, it’s a little frustrating… But I try not to get annoyed because I’m trying to encourage everyone to do this – and it’s not a positive energy to be annoyed,” she says. “I’m trying to come at it in a way that inspires others; or helps.”
McCartney may not have set out to become a poster girl for planet-positive fashion, but now regards the activism a crucial part of her brand’s legacy. “We are pioneering change, big change. We are making history in the industry and that’s heavy shit.” And for consumers to support and follow her lead is key, she says. “I feel like it’s me and the people; without them, I can’t do anything.”
As flash floods decimate livelihoods and forest fires rage, now is no time for McCartney to slow down: “It’s really real now. I see what we have been doing and we are truly changing minds and changing business structures,” she smiles, her pale blue eyes twinkling. “My work is not yet done.”