Designer Evolution of Stella McCartney

A designer that I have always admired is Stella McCartney. Her trendy, contemporary style, while all still being sustainable, always intrigues me. McCartney was born on September 13, 1971 in England. Her father is legendary Beatles singer Paul McCartney and her mother is Linda McCartney. As well as a fashion designer, she is also an avid animal rights activist and a strict vegetarian. Her interest in fashion design started when she was just 13 years old, where she had made a jacket for the first time. The beginning of her career started when she interned for Christian Lacroix‘s collection and then receiving her bachelor's degree at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication. While then completing her graduate's degree from Central Saint Martins Art and Design College later on.

Photographed by Mary McCartney, Vogue Australia, March 2018.

Her popularity from coming from a family of celebrities had definitely helped her in her career, as many famous models offered to model for her collections for no cost at all. Her thesis collection in her graduate program was bought out completely by a boutique in London called Tokio. Eventually, Neiman Marcus, Browns and Bergdorf Goodman had gotten all her designs licensed to sell within their stores. After she had graduated, she was hired as Creative Director for Chloé, in Paris.

Stella McCartney left Chloé in 2001 and soon collaborated with Gucci (the Kering luxury goods company) to start her own fashion house. She then began growing in her popularity in the fashion design world and recently in 2018, parted from the Kering luxury goods company after working with them for 17 years, to establish her own brand and identity.

McCartney is known for her ethical and sustainable designs and collections. She is always striving to make aware that fashion can be sustainable if you "look outside the box" and are constantly thinking in innovative ways. She never uses leather and fur in her designs which may seem shocking to some, but she is always finding new ways to create designs that people will still love and want to buy.

The four photos above are some of Stella McCartney's early collections between the years of 2002 and 2014. McCartney always strived for wearable, yet still luxurious pieces in all her collections. Her inspirations for her designs had come from a range of places. Her parents always have been one of her biggest influences, and many of her style inspiration had come from the 1970s, which was when she was growing up and her parents were well-known celebrities. She recognized what people liked to wear and incorporated that into her designs.

Below are four designs from Stella McCartney's Spring/Summer 2019 collection. These designs are much different then the images posted above, but they all still share similar qualities such as being wearable and sustainable. McCartney's designs have grown to be more innovative and she still strives to achieve the greatest sustainable pieces to the environment as she can. Stella always has ventured out into menswear, as she believes that women are not the only ones who can wear her innovative fashions. She says that "Nobody is delivering that in a luxurious way and that’s one thing that really inspires me to do menswear." McCartney is proud to be one of the few designers to incorporate sustainable menswear in her collections.

Stella McCartney's "look" has changed over the years in various ways. I feel as though her branching away from the Kering group really helped her discover her true passions and style that she wanted to achieve. Also, with the numerous amounts of technological innovations that have happened recently, she is able to produce clothing that is more eco-friendly and sustainable then it was before. Her goal to make pieces that are wearable, trendy, and eco-friendly are all key components to what consumers are looking for when they purchase clothing, and McCartney continues to create designs that leave consumers happy while achieving their wants and needs.