WARRIOR PRINCESS
With responsible fashion as today’s hot topic, we salute the pioneer of sustainable chic. By Jamie Huckbody.
With barely concealed glee, Stella McCartney trots onto the stage of London’s Royal Albert Hall to receive the first-ever Special Recognition Award for Innovation as part of the British Fashion Council’s Fashion Awards for 2017. “I really ask that you have another one of these awards next year [so] I can hand it to somebody else,” the designer says, teetering in a pair of impossibly high heels and wearing a moiré off-the-shoulder dress from her own label, the overinflated sleeves of which give her the look of a Regency-era beauty. The 46-year-old’s succinct but significant speech highlights not only the fact that fashion has been slow to recognise the importance of innovation itself, but also that McCartney is one of the few provocateurs so far willing to tackle the environmental crisis.
“I have great respect for the history and the craft of what I do. But the way things are done and the fabrics used haven’t changed in a century. There’s a resistance to innovation,” McCartney tells BAZAAR in an interview. “Technology now allows us options to question the process. We are responsible for the resources we use and the impact they have on the environment. In the luxury goods business you can’t accept downgraded quality, but the fashion industry is killing our planet, so something has to change.”
It’s true, the fashion industry is one of the world’s biggest polluters, second only to the oil industry. But the manifesto to which McCartney has stayed true since she launched her eponymous label in 2001—no skins, no fur, no feathers— is starting to filter into the fashion mainstream both locally and internationally. This past October, Gucci announced it was going fur-free from this season as part of a wider sustainability plan (it’s a noteworthy move, as Gucci and McCartney belong to the same parent company, Kering). “I think people are more conscious of how they consume, and it’s opened up a conversation,” McCartney says. “Why shouldn’t fashion be part of that conversation? It’s one of the more harmful industries, and I think people are slowly becoming more aware ... I see it in the new generation: they are more conscious of this. It surprises me in a really exciting and encouraging way that I can talk about these things now and that people are more interested in it. They want to have more information.”
Of course, McCartney’s trump card in this particular fashion conversation is her authenticity. She is a lifelong vegetarian, the daughter of two famous vegos: her mother, Linda, was an animal rights activist and honorary patron saint of the veggie sausage roll; father Paul has been meatfree since 1975. “From an early age, I was encouraged to be a little bit more sympathetic to our fellow creatures,” says McCartney, who is herself now a mother of four. “I didn’t even have to think about it. Whatever career I was going into, I wasn’t going to kill animals in the process.”
McCartney’s journey from famous fashion student (she was in a year above me and Phoebe Philo at Central Saint Martins; the pair went on to reverse Chloé’s ailing fortunes together when McCartney was appointed the French brand’s creative director in 1997) to heading up one of the world’s most future-facing luxury brands has not been an easy one. “I was ridiculed for many years,” McCartney confides. “People thought I was a fool for being a vegetarian designer—they said I would never have a successful accessories business.” Proving them all wrong, McCartney’s Falabella tote bag has been a bestseller since she launched it in 2010, while her shoes are no longer the exclusive province of stylish lefties, but rather lust-haves within their own right. “First and foremost,
I’m a fashion designer,” McCartney says. “I want to design beautiful, luxurious, desirable products, but I want them to be responsible, mindful, and ethical, and I don’t think you have to sacrifice either of those things.”
But here’s the catch. It’s not as simple as just making synthetic versions of leather goods. There has to be development in fabrics; then there has to be people who will supply those fabrics; and then the right machinery has to be engineered and craftspeople trained. McCartney nods and rolls her eyes at this description of the uphill battle. “The most modern thing we do as a brand is challenge the way we make things. We take responsibility, we look at ourselves as a business, and we don’t want to compromise anything for that. Technology and innovation are definitely some of the things that inspire me. It’s always a challenge, but these are the things I find most exciting—it’s what fuels us to make things better each time.”
And if anybody needed proof that sustainable can be chic, look no further than McCartney’s Spring/Summer ’18 collection. Chunky greige “alter croc” sandals and “alter python” handbags were paired with “alter nappa” scrunch-front ballet tops and, as McCartney calls them, “skin-free skin leather” track pants.
“In the fashion industry, we focus a lot on changing the tone of a colour or a silhouette, but [we need to go] deeper than that to change the sourcing mindset and the manufacturing mindset,” McCartney says. And so working in partnership with ethically focused organisations has become something of a McCartney standard. Over the years, the designer has teamed up with PETA, the Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network, and the Natural Resources Defense Council on its Clean by Design programme, which aims to reduce water, chemical, and energy use. More recently, McCartney has committed to a long-term relationship with Parley for the Oceans, an organisation with a mission to protect marine life, the group’s claim to fame being the creation of a polyester created from some of the estimated eight million tonnes of plastic that is dumped into the ocean every year. “I’m working on changing things that are currently conventional in my industry—it’s one of the things that really excites me. Fashion has to modernise. It has to challenge its history and question the process,” says McCartney, who is using the plastic-to-knitted-polyester in her own collections and those for her ongoing collaboration with Adidas. “To take something that is destructive and turn it into something that’s sexy and cool, how can that not be luxury?” McCartney asked rhetorically in The New York Times as a response to comments that the recycled plastic—which is cleaned, sorted, and condensed before being shipped to recycling plants, where it is turned into yarn or fabric—is not luxurious. “Sustainability is an important aspect in everything we do as a brand, and we have a strict chart we adhere to within the collaboration with Adidas. We look closely at reducing waste ... when cutting and constructing garments, which ensures that 95 percent of fabric used created the final product, with the remaining 5 percent recycled or repurposed. We monitor the manufacturing process and try to be as eco-friendly as possible. We also use organic cotton, recycled yarn, and DryDye [waterless dye technology to save water, chemicals, and energy] pieces n the range. We try to push every angle with technology, manufacturing, fashion, and try to be as forward-thinking as possible.” It’s fair to say the Adidas by Stella McCartney collection (launched in 2005) has been a game changer when it comes to women’s sportswear and the fact that sustainable business practices have been embraced by some of the high street’s biggest players. “There is still a very long way to go, but the fact that we are having these conversations is a good sign,” says McCartney, who admits the majority of her customers are blissfully unaware of her brand’s strong ethical code. “I do think there are now people out there who are more conscious of how they consume.” It’s perhaps exactly because she knows how people consume that McCartney has entered into a partnership with The RealReal, the designer consignment site that sells out-of-season stock. “Sustainability is important to us and I’m excited to be partnering with The RealReal on this new programme,” McCartney says. “We believe that consignment and, more broadly, recommerce, plays an important part in reducing the amount of raw materials that are required each year ... By ensuring that products are used for the entirety of their useful life, it is possible to begin to slow down the amount of raw materials currently being cultivated and extracted from the planet for the sake of fashion.” Back at the Fashion Awards, McCartney kisses and caresses her trophy, much to the amusement of Sir James Dyson (he of the vacuums and hairdryers), who had presented her with the gong and called her a “warrior” on stage. With her unlikely plus one, the singer Pink, by her side, it suddenly becomes clear that McCartney is as much of a punky disruptor within the fashion system as Pink is within the American music machine; and that McCartney has done more than just make a stand for vegetarian values: she has sent a message to girls and women the world over that you can do it, and do it your way. “I’ve always been about celebrating woman and women’s rights and issues, so it’s extremely important for me that the industry takes responsibility,” McCartney reflects. “I have such admiration for women and they are in every single thing I do ... I work for women.”