Stella McCartney is a rare national treasure: a fashion designer with a strong conscience about the ethics of her business, and a deep understanding of what today's women want in their wardrobes. Brought up in a high-profile family to lead 'as normal a life as possible', Stella has a down-to-earth touch that is evident in her work and an understated glamour that we can't help but feel inspired by. We can't wait to see her on the London runways at London Fashion Week next month, when she shows there for the first time.
Stella's career has grown and diversified a great deal since she first showed a collection of in 1995 after she graduated from St. Martin's College. Most recently she has won praise for her hugely influential dots in her Fall 2011 collection, and since 2004 has designed a sports luxe line in a joint venture with Adidas. She is about to launch a new fragrance, L.I.L.Y.
A lifelong vegetarian, Stella followed in her mother Linda's footsteps as a champion of desirable, animal-free products, forgoing fur, leather and other materials prized by the fashion industry. Her handbag and shoe designs remain one of a vanishingly small number of mainstream high fashion items made without leather, yet still offering universal appeal and fetching prices of around £500 for shoes, and nudging the £1,000 mark for the handbags; her most popular being the Falabella.
The success of Stella McCartney's vegan handbags and other fashion items almost certainly rests on the fact that their ethics are not 'in your face': it's quite possible to look at a bag like the Falabella and completely forget that it's not made from leather. Many, undoubtedly, will have bought her items without even knowing that they are made from synthetic materials or considering it a factor in their choice: they simply like Stella's style.
Where others have been tempted to embrace the hippie fringe (especially while it was briefly fashionable to do so in the 1990s), Stella McCartney has always targeted the mainstream customer who just appreciates really strong, simple design and luxury, but who'd prefer to avoid animal products if at all possible - just as her late mother is still successfully doing with those who want to cut down on eating meat with minimal fuss and ceremony.
Inevitably, critics have claimed that McCartney's success as a designer owes more to her father's career than to her own talent. But it is to Stella's credit that she has continued with such determination despite the naysayers, turning out collection after collection that stands out strongly amongst the higest-rated fashion houses in the world. And unlike many celebrity faces of fashion, the designs are absolutely her own.
Love Stella's work? World of Stella runs from 26th Jan to 4th Feb at Selfridges London.
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