A fox, a rabbit and two cows with handbags: the Stella McCartney show offered an unprecedented (eco)spectacle
When climate activist Greta Thunberg began to receive global attention, Stella McCartney was not left out. Last autumn, she already raised the question of why so few people in the fashion industry are involved in climate protection. And she also asked what would need to be done to make the topic truly "fashionable". For example, while the autumn Fashion Week did not feature a collection that was presented among trees that were then planted in nature, spring activism was taken up by Stella McCartney herself. In the finale of her new collection, models were joined on stage by models in animal costumes, in addition to singer Janelle Monáe and actress Shaylene Woodley. And while the cows with handbags certainly looked fun, the message conveyed was much more serious - namely that there are animals on almost every catwalk, but usually only dead ones...
"What we try to do in our brand is spice up a meaningful message with a little fun and humour so that the ideas we promote become understandable and digestible and people listen to us," McCartney herself said. "These animals are part of every other designer's shows, we are the only fashion house in the world that doesn't feature dead animals on the catwalks. That's what I wanted to show and emphasize, but in a way that was somewhat entertaining," she added, explaining why the show featured people dressed as a rabbit, crocodile or fox, for example. Specifically, the "cows" were then also equipped with handbags, but these were made from sustainable eco-materials.
Designer Stella McCartney is known for championing environmentalism in fashion and was also the first to spread the idea among designers that animal fur is not exactly the ideal material from which to make their designs. It is thanks to repeated appeals that many famous fashion houses (e.g. Versace, Gucci and Michael Kors) eventually gave up fur.
For Stella McCartney in particular, then, sustainability in fashion is typical and the products that leave her workshops are even vegan. Although many initially approached her work, which she began in 2001, and especially the ideas she promoted, with considerable scepticism, the undeniable fact is that her collections have always been (and are) a great commercial success. Despite the fact that she always worked without animal fur, leather or feathers, she was able to offer such luxurious models that the absence of these materials was not even noticed.
The new collection, which the designer presented at Paris Fashion Week, presented more alternatives to real leather than ever before - not only on the bags and shoes, but also on the models themselves, on which many eco-friendly materials were used as decorative elements.
