Stella McCartney Blazing the fashion frontier

 

Stella McCartney

Blazing the fashion frontier

Text by Penny Martin
Portraits by Anton Gottlob

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Issue nº 23, Spring & Summer 2021

The house of Stella McCartney has just sold its millionth Falabella, a chain-edged It bag made from fake leather. This is a watershed, but its visionary designer is passionate that customers needn’t know they are carrying a vegan handbag — the same aesthetic standards still apply to anything done in her name. After 20 years of pioneering an upbeat world of ethical products that she herself could wear, Stella, 49, is branching out into advocacy as LVMH’s sustainability tsar, while the rest of the industry plays catch-up. It’s been a wild ride.

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The designer who has carved out her own successful career on her own merit, not just her connections

Stella McCartney's graduation fashion show might be remembered more for roping in famous friends Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell to model, but since then she has carved out a successful career on her merit, not just her connections.

Admired for staying true to her principles – it would have been far more commercially savvy to use fur and leather in her collections, but McCartney, 39, a lifelong vegetarian, has always refused – her clear vision for clothes that suit women of all shapes and sizes has won her loyal customers.

THE GUARDIAN