Buckle UP LVMH Brands. Stella McCartney Is Coming for Your Waste

Stella McCartney is on the hunt for waste. The designer has become so good at using up her production materials waste, that she’s in need of other luxury brand production closets to clean out.

“A lot of these pieces are limited edition because when we run out, we run out. I don’t care if I’m cutting off my nose to spite my face, I’m going to save the bloody planet,” McCartney exclaimed in her Vogue interview about her pre-Fall 2021 collection. Note that Stella hates the terms pre-fall and pre-spring, as it minimizes their significance by calling them ‘commercial’ compared to the actual ‘runway’ collection.

McCartney’s business operations have been so successful at using up waste, that when the designer inquires about that faux fabric she loves, a team member rings a metaphorical ‘gone’ buzzer. “I said, ‘Where did our faux fur go?’ They said, ‘Stella, we used it up last season!’” And so, some materials will have to be reordered for the Stella McCartney brand, “but really precisely, so we don’t incur any waste.”

Looking at Stella’s ‘happy and joyful’ new (pre-fall 2021) collection, one has to smile in COVID world. Not only do the designs delight, the the intention raises spirits even higher. Here is a woman so determined to walk her talk, that she is now cruising the overstock of other LVMH brands. “We’ve got to find other people’s waste,” Stella confirmed.

The spontaneity of unplanned patchwork is a feast for creative eyes. Highly graphic nylon garments were patchworked from print fabrics of which there wasn’t enough overstock to create solid pieces. Some designers might order a martini — head in hands. Not Stella McCartney, who never designed a solid piece that couldn’t take a patch or two or — well — 10.

Stella’s Greenest Collection Yet

McCartney speaks with assurance that her new collection is 80 percent environmentally friendly. The remaining 20 percent involves brass chains which are not recyclable — YET. Stella is on the case. The designer is so sick of greenwashing in the fashion industry, that she’s put detachable patches, medallions and clips on her clothes that say “100 percent recycled nylon” or “100 percent vegan.”

If Stella sounds competitive and defiant on shaming her competitors into explaining their own commitments to sustainability beyond the hype, she is totally “game on”.

“When you’re wearing the products, people can see that you have made a choice, a life choice about how you want to consume,” the designer told WWD in a Zoom interview from her studio. “I like this idea that you can kind of be proud of what you’re wearing, and you can almost teach others by wearing clothes. And your choices can be [impactful] if the information is externalized” on a patch, pin or medallion, McCartney concluded.

Real action on McCartney’s “A to Z Manifesto,” is unfolding before our very eyes as “a checklist” for responsible behavior by the Stella McCartney brand. I didn’t have to read WWD to learn the J for Joy was front and center in the new collection. A picture says a thousand words — and these clothes radiate JOY. I want them.

“I really wanted to look at hope and happiness so there is a kind of boldness of color, a brightness of heart. The collection is really a celebration of life and of humanity. We may not be seeing color right now when we look onto a gray London, but there is, above those clouds a beautiful blue sky,” McCartney said.

Stella McCartney Is a Total Blast of Steve Jobs ‘Think Different’ Fresh Air

How REFRESHING to read that McCartney sees every last button and swatch of fabric as an opportunity to upcycle and recycles. And then the darling woman lets it rip, saying that she wants to value “the human work that goes into making each piece. Here, we respect all of the process. But I think our industry is so hugely indulgent and vulgar in the waste we produce.”

Fast fashion is not the only culprit, McCartney argues in WWD.

“Luxury has a different kind of waste — it’s not just the consumer choosing to not wear something because it’s cheap and they can dispose of it. It’s more of a mind-set in the luxury industry that needs to be looked at.”

In an interview that I may read every time I find myself depressed, Stella McCartney rolls on. Sharing a real-life experience that many of us can relate to, the designer the swirly lace insets on a long yellow dress, and a black viscose top, which came from old stock.

Many colleagues would look at the swirly lace, thinking “’I don’t like that lace anymore, I am not going to use it. I’m going to throw it away.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I’m not dying over this lace, but I’m going to make it amazing anyway. That in itself is a design challenge that I don’t think a lot of people would take on.

“Maybe the lace is little bit heavier than perhaps we wanted this season, or the design of the lace may be something we’re not as drawn to, but we have to find a way” to work with it, she added.

What a total pleasure it is to write about Stella McCartney’s pre-fall 2021 collection. Goddess bless this woman. ~ Anne