FARM TO FASHION

In an exclusive interview with Vogue Philippines, STELLA MCCARTNEY talks about her monumental Summer 2024 collection, and what it means to be an environment-first designer today.

- TICIA ALMAZAN

In the English countryside, Paul and Linda McCartney brought up their young family of six in a 1930s farmhouse with only two bedrooms and one bathroom. Frequently planting and cooking vegetables, and surrounded by horses, peacocks, and other animals, a reverence for nature became a way of life for the McCartneys.

Stella Mccartney's fashion brand, established in 2001, has always championed vegan alternatives to animal leathers and furs. She credits her advocacy of what we now classify as "sustainable" fashion to her upbringing, to the privilege of "being raised by two vegetarians and animal rights activists." As a fashion designer, a United Nations representative, and special adviser on sustainability to LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault, Stella is a self-proclaimed "eco-weirdo." "When I started my company, no one thought I would be successful because I didn't use leather, fur, or feathers," she explains.

Her Summer 2024 collection centered around family, freedom, and fluidity, inspired by her parents' shared wardrobes and how they would mix and match each other's clothes. It is made with 95 percent responsible materials, and Stella tells Vogue Philippines that she is "so proud that this collection was our most sustainable ever."

The monumental presentation marked the debut of the world's first luxury garments crafted from Kelsun, a seaweed-based yarn using regenerative kelp that utilizes zero pesticides and significantly less water compared to cotton. Adorned on the hand-crocheted dresses and matching Falabella bag, as well as perforated organic cotton denim trousers, were mirrored polka dots that scintillated under the Parisian sun, as models sauntered down Marché Saxe-Breteuil.