“Through my work, I try to help all the wonderful women feel as important as the famous people. Because they really are!”
-Stella McCartney for Vogue
From "on the road" to "off-road"
Stella Nina McCartney was born in 1971, a year after one of the saddest events in the music world - the breakup of The Beatles. Her parents, former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and photographer Linda McCartney, shortly after her birth, launched another music project, forming the band The Wings. The intense development of her parents' music careers meant that Stella and her three siblings spent their earliest years on tour, traveling around the world. After ending life on the road, far from musical instruments, it was time for stabilization. The McCartneys settled on an organic farm in Sussex, England, far from the hustle and bustle of the showbiz world they had so far known.
It was precisely from there that Stella took all the values that her brand represents. “I was raised in the belief that we all live on Earth together,” says the designer. Paul and Linda, being faithful vegetarians, raised their children in respect for animals and the gifts offered by Mother Nature. Stella McCartney still remains true to her parents' teachings, passing them on to the next generations on a large scale, through her brand.
Graduation Showcase
McCartney knew fashion was her calling from the age of 13 when she started sewing her own clothes. As a sixteen-year-old, she interned with Christian Lacroix. She is a graduate of the “hatchery” of great minds of world fashion, Central Saint Martins School, and her graduation show in 1995 has already gone down in the history of the fashion world - Stella invited her friends Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell to present her collection on the school catwalk. The young designer's collection was so good that it was purchased by London boutiques and the famous Bergdorf Goodman, among others. With such a PR move, it was almost unavoidable.
Two years after graduating, as Karl Lagerfeld's successor, she was appointed creative director of the Parisian brand Chloe. For Stella, this was not yet the pinnacle of dreams. She always knew that she wanted to create something of her own, where she would decide about the style and origin of the materials used in the collections.
Fashion for Women, Fashion for Nature
In McCartney's collections, natural materials are emphasized, and her brand has become an ambassador for the fashion program for environmental protection. Stella tries to ensure that the fabrics used in the production of clothes come from sources with the highest ecological standards. As she emphasizes herself, the projects are often created from high-quality viscose. Therefore, knowing that every year, in order to obtain this fabric, forests equivalent to 48000 football fields are cut down(!), the brand supplies its sewing rooms with viscose from renewable crops located in Sweden. In the production of clothes, accessories, and shoes, instead of leather or fur, vinyl, recyclable plastic, or raffia are used.
Nature is a concept particularly close to McCartney's creativity. When designing, she has in mind the image of a contemporary woman and her natural charm and sex appeal. “It's not important what will look good on a runway model. The most important thing is how fashion looks on a real person,” she tells WWD. Stella focuses on modern forms and shapes in her collections, and the color palette of her collections refers to earth colors.
Sporty Competition and Olympic Triumph
In 2005, McCartney embarked on a collaboration with the sports giant, creating the Adidas by Stella McCartney line. It was another challenge for the designer - because the line was not only supposed to meet the already high standards in terms of design and quality of fabrics, but above all, it had to meet the functional standards of Adidas sportswear. The collection has been on the market for over 10 years, celebrating triumphs among both Stella's fans and athletes, mainly due to its comfort and functionality. “[Creating for Adidas] I wanted to change what I had seen so far in women's sportswear,” the designer recalls the beginnings of the collaboration, “I wanted to offer women something in which they can train freely and maintain a sense of looking good.” McCartney also achieved success in the field of collection production, applying a new technique of complete utilization of materials in the sewing process, leaving 0% waste value. Color, joy, modernity, and minimalism in form - this is how you can describe the character of her sportswear collection.
The flirtation with sportswear resulted in an extraordinary commission - Stella was chosen to design the official sports uniforms for the British Olympic and Paralympic teams during the London 2012 Olympics. This very Olympics brought a record number of 65 medals to Great Britain, including 29 gold ones. Coincidence?
