Schooled By Stella

A chat about sustainable practices in fashion with Stella McCartney is an education. Her sustainability knowledge runs deep – so much so she can easily catch you out on your own research. She wants to overhaul the incredibly wasteful industry that she’s in – and it’s a battle she’s fighting hard for

- Georgie Bradley

Firing on all cylinders is Stella McCartney’s normal mode. The many-hats-wearing-designer is in Dubai for a whistle-stop 24 hours and it’s her second time in the city in three years. In fashion, travel is as much an expectation as delivering a new collection each season – but Stella “tries to keep it to a minimum because I have the kids” (that’s three).

She’s sat in a thick strobe of afternoon light which illuminates her glacial blue eyes. Tucking into a glass bowl of roasted cashew nuts, she’s taking a brief hour to do media interviews between a morning of visiting her boutique in The Dubai Mall and a late-night dinner with the press. No frills, no fuss, she’s every bit un-celebrity with her shoes strewn across the carpet, her hair scruffed up into a wispy ponytail and sitting crossed-legged in a child-like way.

Despite entering the fashion world through a wide doorway (famously being Paul McCartney’s daughter) Stella is a household name in her own right as she continues to reinvent the fashion wheel with sustainable practices in fashion. She is essentially building an environment that suits her – a kind of environment that isn’t responsible for “cutting down 100,000,000 trees” as per last year’s records, which is set to increase this year.

Despite seeking new methods to source materials (making materials rather than using what’s already available) to be as sustainable as possible, Stella McCartney is still a luxury house with quality and style at the forefront of its ethos. And more and more Stella’s looking at ways to create fashion without sacrificing the planet. So far, she’s leading the way.

You’re at the forefront of fashion’s cleaner production movement. What small things have you started doing in your day-to-day production that’s helping in a big way?