McCartney presents eco-manifesto at Paris Fashion Week show

PARIS >> Riding on the increased focus on the fight against climate change, the fashion industry’s eco-pioneer Stella McCartney turned parts of her Paris Fashion Week show into a manifesto on ecology.

At her first show as part of the LVMH fashion conglomerate, the British-American designer is hoping she change fashion from within, one collection at a time.

Here are some highlights of Monday’s ready-to-wear 2020 spring-summer collections:

MCCARTNEY GOES UNDERSTATED FOR SPRING

Stella McCartney let loose at the Paris’ Opera Garnier with a deceptively simple collection of fluid feminine designs that retained its freshness via voluminous proportions.

The 51 soft looks, centering on optical stripes and decorative embroideries, were shown to a contrasting thumping soundtrack, peppered with expletives. It had guests including “Game of Thrones” actress Maisie Williams and British singer Ellie Goulding smiling.

At times, guests’ attention wandered to clips of fornicating wild animals that McCartney had chosen rather provocatively to project on the gilded, golden 19th-century opera house walls.

The understated collection’s styles, rather than provoke, created harmony.

Gentle shapes via flattened torsos, rounded shoulders and high flat waists were sometimes given an optical lift by teeming boho florals.

They riffed on McCartney’s signature hints of men’s tailoring and sportswear.

The strongest looks were the fruit of simple, yet bold, designs ideas: Such as a luxuriant flappy copper skirt constructed by two large discs of material stitched at the sides.

All clothes were, of course, 100% sustainable — although in the luxury of the material, it wasn’t necessarily apparent.

“I hope that when you see that fashion show, you don’t see in any way that it’s a sustainable fashion show. And yet it is ... It’s about being desirable and beautiful and luxurious,” McCartney said.

“That is the future of fashion. We have to get to that place,” she added.

THE AGE OF STELLA Each guest was given “program notes” that had little directly to do with the collection they were about to see.

Instead of the usual blurb about a collection’s starting point or inspiration, at Monday’s morning show, the text was a sort of eco-manifesto, which detailed in timeline form all Stella McCartney has done in two decades at the top of fashion to help promote ecological awareness.

“I wanted to bring everything I’ve done since day one into the conversation, because it’s so important the fashion industry doesn’t make it a trend,” she told The Associated Press.

McCartney said she feels like the ecological awareness that has been central to her message since forgoing leather, fur, skin, feather and animal glue in 2001 is finally part of a global conversation — and one that extends far beyond the industry.