Stella McCartney channeled her love of “The Secret Garden,” Frances Hodgson Burnett’s children’s classic, into a collection filled with nature-inspired patterns, cobwebby knits and materials made from a cornucopia of fruit waste.
She called the collection Lady Garden, and described it as “by women, and for a range of women” who accept their bodies and live in tune with the natural world.
Flower children will favor a long, one-shoulder dress with a single cape sleeve and perky orange marigolds drifting across the front. Take a step back and a women’s silhouette emerges from a sea of flowers: Mother Nature in trompe l’oeil.
McCartney looked to moth and butterfly wings for the abstract pattern on a tailored suit with a cropped jacket, and unleashed a menagerie of bears, owls and sheep onto denim in the form of a trippy, tie-dye style print.
Broderie anglaise flowers sprouted on the front of dresses with wide, fluted sleeves and an Art Nouveau vibe, while knitwear took its cues from spider webs — and from the McCartney lingerie collections.
One long, gossamer knit dress was as bright as a blade of spring grass, while a languid long underwear set was the color of pale rhubarb.
Although much of this collection was languid and breezy, there was a significant tailoring element, too, in the form of a white jumpsuit with a built-in corset; a sharp camel cape with ’60s military flair, and a tuxedo dress with McCartney’s signature broad, rounded shoulders.
McCartney said the vast majority of this collection was made with sustainable materials, including a load of food industry waste, such as apple skin and pulp; banana stalks, and organic leftovers from wine-making.
Per McCartney’s ongoing strategy, viscose was forest-friendly while the cotton she used for oversize, button-front shirts and T-shirts was sourced from farms using regenerative agriculture techniques which are meant to improve soil health.
