HOW STELLA MCCARTNEY’S BRAND HAS CONTINUED TO CHAMPION SUSTAINABILITY
By: Hillary LeBlanc
Not all celebrity helmed brands feel the need to have humanitarian or environmental causes as part of their brands or mission statements. For Stella McCartney, daughter of the infamous Beatles musician Paul McCartney, sustainable luxury garments have become synonymous with her namesake company.
McCartney’s ethics are learned from her parents. Both her mother Linda McCartney and father were animal rights campaigners and her mother is hailed as pioneering the meat-free movement. This is further exemplified as McCartney is the only brand to attend governmental environment hearings such as COP26 and COP28. McCartney is also a special advisor on sustainability to Louis Vuitton (LVMH) CEO Bernard Arnault.
Previous to founding the Stella McCartney brand, McCartney worked her way through the fashion industry to prove her name. She graduated from renowned art and design school Central Saint Martins and in two years was named Karl Lagerfeld’s successor at Chloé.
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The Stella McCartney website offers insight into McCartney’s mindset. “We strive to create the most beautiful and desirable products with the least impact on our planet. Our conscious values are the leading inspiration behind our products and innovations. As industry leaders, we endeavour to make use of the most cutting-edge and progressive materials that aim to reduce impact on the planet and are always cruelty-free, whilst following the principles of circularity. We continue to aim to increase our transparency across supply chains through diligent reporting, measuring and tracking.”
McCartney’s brand has created new fabrics through innovation to ensure they are paving the way for sustainability and controlling quality of their products. Fabrics they use include SÖKTAŞ, Savian – a “100% plant- based, plastic- free and GMO-free alternative to animal fur combining natural materials, heritage craftsmanship and biotechnology”, NATIVA™, a regenerative wool, Protein Evolution: Biopure™️, which uses enzyme technology to transform textile and plastic waste into recyclable polyester, Kelsun™️, a seaweed based material, BioPuff®, which is a plant-based, feather free insulation, VEGEA, a grape-based leather, Bananatex®, a banana plant fibre, Mylo™, a renewable mycelium from fungi, MIRUM®, which is another plastic-free leather alternative and mango materials – transforming methane into a biodegradable alternative to plastic. The McCartney brand is also partnered with Veuve Cliquot to make additional grape leather from the champagne maison’s by-product.
Many of the previously mentioned fabrics are collaborated on between McCartney and startups. The scientists behind these startups may not know how a fabric needs to drape, how it may crack or how to get the exact colour a designer needs. McCartney and her team test these new plant-based textiles until it is perfect for use in her collections. While this has proved to be innovative, she has faced hurdles with some startups not having enough funding or issues with colour-range on a biodegradable sequin. Despite these hiccups, the drive to change the world for the better through fashion and infiltrate the system from within keeps McCartney going.
The ethos of the brand was built on caring for the planet. Since the brand’s inception in 2001, they have never used leather, fur, skin, feathers or animal-based glue. Since then they have added additional sustainability efforts like exclusively using organic cotton as opposed to non-organic, no longer using PVC, plastics, virgin cashmere or virgin mohair, incorporating and creating many of the aforementioned plant-based textile alternatives, partnering with brands on vegan sneakers including Stan Smith’s and more. They also recently launched a Close-the Loop parka which can be recycled back to yarn at the end if it's life.
Credit: vAngelina Litvin @linalitvina
McCartney is the ultimate change-maker, relentlessly advocating to shine a light on how harmful the fashion industry is. She has led change by co-founding the Collab SOS Fund which is a $200 Million fund supported by LMVH to invest in technologies finding climate solutions.
Unfortunately, despite McCartney acknowledging that her powerful family has allowed her to have choices in what she does and how she upholds her missions she still has been criticized, putting pressure on her to waiver on certain values. Anyone in business will agree that there will always be many voices trying to influence decision making and it is empowering to see the Stella McCartney continue to be a beacon of change and compassion.
McCartney believes fashion is a service industry, that her pieces are meant to be investments for a ‘less is more’ concept and she hopes to make everyone feel the best version of themselves without sacrifice to the planet or their luxurious fashion.
Cover Image: sama_ja via Shutterstock