Here’s the question with Stella McCartney: How much is the fashion-consuming public prepared to judge desirable style as something that is conditional on its content? McCartney sees a time fast coming when the habit of checking the label of a garment before purchasing will be “no different from looking at food labeling.” Her press release about this season’s menswear collection notes that the range is “made from 67 percent sustainable materials,” and there are a couple of boggle-worthy developments in the listing. For one: “non-toxic” trainers, made without glue. “It’s truly groundbreaking design, tech, innovation all together—and that’s what I think is luxury now,” she says. “It took us a year and a half to develop the technique, which is a long time in the trainer sector. We figured out how to slot it together like pieces of a jigsaw, with light stitching. I’d liken it more to designing a car.” And why the elimination of glue? “Bones go into glue making, horse hooves. It’s goddamn horrible. A horror show.”
If there is a shift in consciousness toward putting value on cleaner, ethical, cruelty-free fashion, it’s McCartney more than any other designer who’s behind it. Often she does her educational pushing incrementally, almost by stealth; in this collection something called “Alter suede” is casually dropped into the convention, for instance. It’s what the fringed western jacket and moccasins are made of. What’s that? “Well, developing it probably cost us more than using real suede or leather, with all the rigorous testing, so it seemed wrong to call it fake.” Result: a new cool-sounding name for an alternative synthetic.
Lately, though, McCartney has been going for a bang-up public statement of intent. In November she teamed up with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to “call on the entire industry, brands, and customers to come together and fundamentally change the system. After putting herself behind the mission to create a low-waste, less damaging circular textiles economy, how can the launch of yet more clothing be justified? “I think it’s about timeless pieces with a tiny twist. Hopefully something you’ll keep and wear for a long time. Not too much fashion.”
The long-term investments here? Probably it’s the suits, which have the certifiable stamp of Stella McCartney about them, a definite his ’n’ hers relationship with her womenswear collection. There’s a constructed tailored jacket, harking back to her days of training on Savile Row, paired with high-waisted, voluminous trousers with deep pleats. “I like that contrast between masculine and feminine, something framing the upper torso,” she says, “then kicking it all off-kilter with a sandal. I never want anything too uptight.”
