Stella McCartney Brand Book
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Stella McCartney Brand Book

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STELLA McCARTNEY8

ABOUTSTELLA McCARTNEYAGENT OF CHANGEInspired by her parents and equipped with an uncompromisingpassion to create a future that is environmentally friendlyand beautifully designed, Stella McCartney is the faceof innovation and activism in sustainable fashion.Stella McCartney is a creative, a scientist, a tech entrepreneurand a farmer all rolled into one. “It’s fascinating because I grewup on an organic farm and now what I do for a living reallyis farming,” she says. “And I think that that’s something thatpeople don’t really realize —that in fashion design, we’re actuallyjust farming the land, but instead of making a veggie pattyout of it, we’re making a jacket. That connection is somethingthat I find really inspiring and challenging. It just drives me”.Today, Stella McCartney is known as one of the most innovativedesigners of our generation. A vocal vegetarian and animalrights activist like her parents, Stella decided at the age of12, when she set her sights on being a fashion designer, neverto use leather, fur, or feathers in her creations. For a luxuryfashion designer to turn her back on leather is like a guitaristboycotting the C chord. A large share of the luxury industry’sprofits come from leather shoes and bags, usually as gatewaypurchases for customers whose budgets wouldn’t normallystretch to ready-to-wear.McCartney credits her initial interest in conscious living toher upbringing. She was raised on an organic farm in EastSussex, England, where she says she “understood the elements”:nature, seasons, animals. “It’s just how I’ve always looked at theEarth,” she explains. “I didn’t have the conventions or baggagethat most other generations have had. My parents broke thatrule of ‘You have to eat meat. You’re gonna die if you don’t eatmeat.’” Her vegetarian parents were outspoken animal rightsactivist. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, her mother Linda co-authoredcookbooks with meatless recipes and developed her own line ofvegetarian frozen meals. In 1999, PETA’s first Linda McCartneyMemorial Award was presented by Paul McCartney to PamelaAnderson. On her upbringing, McCartney said “what kiddoesn’t love growing up in a field, with sheep around, or ridinga horse, or watching dragonflies? Those are my best memoriesas a child. More so than going on a private jet to Brazil to goand see a gig with 20,000 people”.McCartney studied Fashion Design at the prestigious CentralSaint Martins design school, in London. In 1995, the graduateshow involved eight looks, each requiring footwear. “I workedreally hard at that,” she recalls. “It was hard enough to findsomeone to make shoes with no minimums. When you’re a student,it’s virtually impossible.” But McCartney searched untilshe found a shoemaker willing to help make her eight pairs inanimal-friendly fabrics to match her collection.The show was a sensation. McCartney asked her friends KateMoss and Naomi Campbell, who happened to also be the mostfamous supermodels in the world, to walk the runway. Herparents sat in the front row; her dad had composed a new songfor the occasion. The show made the pages of the New YorkTimes. Her father and Campbell were quoted. Stella was not.The shoes and the clothes didn’t even get a mention. But that’snot the point of the story. The point is: she didn’t compromiseher values. She found a way to make the shoes.Left: Stella McCartney for Net-a-Porter.Top: Stella, Amsterdam, 1989.9

STELLA McCARTNEY

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