Warrior Princess

With responsible fashion as today’s hot topic, we salute the pioneer of sustainable chic.

- Jamie Huckbody.

With barely concealed glee, Stella McCartney trots onto the stage of London’s Royal Albert Hall to receive the first-ever Special Recognition Award for Innovation as part of the British Fashion Council’sFashion Awards for 2017. “I really ask that you have another one of these awards next year [so] I can hand it to somebody else,” the designer says, teetering in a pair of impossibly high heels and wearing a moiré off-the-shoulder dress from her own label, the overinflated sleeves of which give her the look of a Regency-era beauty. The 46-year-old’s succinct but significant speech highlights not only the fact that fashion has been slow to recognise the importance of innovation itself, but also that McCartney is one of the few provocateurs so far willing to tackle the environmental crisis.

“I have great respect for the history and the craft of what I do. But the way things are done and the fabrics used haven’t changed in a century. There’s a resistance to innovation,” McCartney tells BAZAAR in an interview. “Technology now allows us options to question the process. We are responsible for the resources we use and the impact they have on the environment. In the luxury goods business you can’t accept downgraded quality, but the fashion industry is killing our planet, so something has to change.”