Just do not call it athleisure: effortless and ease at Mccartney
In March, Stella Mccartney, the 47-year-old designer who has helmed her eponymous label for 17 years, took the step of buying back the 50 per cent share that luxury conglomerate Kering held in her company, a shift that she described as invigorating.
“This courageous move has given everyone a spring in their step, including me,” she remarked after her Paris show yesterday.
The sum paid for her buy-back was undisclosed, but previous results posted at Companies House in 2016 showed a £7million profit for the UK division of the business. Which, for a woman who was largely written off as a rich daddy’s girl playing fashion fantasy when she launched her own venture, is not bad going at all.
Post Celine-gate, there has been much talk over the weekend of the role we as women play in the construction of our own wardrobes, and whose gaze (patriarchal or empowered?) is dressing us: the sartorial tropes of femininity have never felt so scrutinised.
Equally there has been much speculation about which designers will move into the gap left by the exit of Phoebe Philo from the fashion conversation. In truth, there are many labels that have grown into that space – Loewe, Givenchy, Lemaire all offer plenty for that intellectual high spender. Alongside those, Mccartney, a contemporary of Philo (she employed her as her right hand at Chloe, with Philo taking the helm when she moved on to found her own label), has been diligently ploughing her own way, offering a consistency of style and authority that does great work in appealing to a wide spectrum of women.
It was notable how many fashion editors were at the show wearing Mccartney’s designs. The front row were also, bar very few kitten-heeled exceptions, sporting white trainers – from Alexa Chung in a pair of satin Superga plimsolls plus sparkly pink
‘Mccartney has been ploughing her own way, offering a consistency of style and authority’
princess dress, to Angelica Cheung, Vogue China editor, in a gleaming pair of Hogan sneakers with her tailored trousers.
This dichotomy of sports with style has always been at the core of Mccartney’s message: the crowd illuminated just how far this has now spread. Speaking after the show, the designer elucidated on the mix of the athletic with the feminine, see her zip-up boiler suit worn with a – low – heel, or the relaxed trouser suits worn with a sleek block-toe flat ballet pump.
“Effortless and ease” were her key words. Just don’t call it athleisure – “that’s a dirty word, don’t ever say that in my presence” she quipped to the editor who made the error of offering that naff portmanteau.