#SuzyPFW: Sustainable Style At Stella McCartney And Vivienne Westwood

The world’s finally caught up with these two pioneering designers, who have long walked the talk in their collections

Anyone who needed to understand the passion and commitment of Stella McCartney to her cause – a better treatment of Planet Earth – had only to see the group of passionate eco warriors who attended her 10pm talk. The event was held in the plush theatre up the sweeping steps of the Opéra national de Paris, where 12 hours later Stella’s Autumn/Winter 2020 morning show would take place.

 

 

 

 

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Stella McCartney lays out her manifesto - going back to the 20 year old start of her career

Post udostępniony przez Suzy Menkes (@suzymenkesvogue) Mar 2, 2020 o 3:17 PST

The energy and beliefs of Christiana Figueres, leader on global climate change, were moving and instructive. But Stella matched that fervour in her show, where the surprise elements were wild animals – a cow, crocodile, fox, monkey, rabbit, and wolf – walking through the gilded grandeur.

An unexpected cast of characters at the Stella McCartney Autumn/Winter 2020 show

They were not real animals, nor stuffed ones (perish the thought!), but rather performers who joined the models in the finale. And for Stella this was in no way a joke. 

“I try to sugar-coat it and put in a bit of humour and fun, so the finale was a joyous way of trying to show that these animals are the ingredients of everyone else’s fashion shows,” Stella said. “We are the only luxury fashion house in the world that isn’t killing animals for objects on the runway. I wanted to plant that seed, but in a fun way.”

Stella was confirming that after a quarter of a century of effort, she had reached her goal. Everything from bags to boots was produced with a sustainable ethos.

Being responsible and ethical does not hinder the expression of the designer’s luxury world. As well as well-cut plaid coats and draped dresses, she dressed up the collection with the opulent illustrations of Erté, the Russian aristocrat who moved from set design to the art world in the 1920s. Stella met him in person when she was 12, by chance, on a plane with her mother, and subsequently worked in his studio.

“I wanted to bring to this collection some sort of romance and a little more theatricality,” she said. “I worked with Erté prints from the archives – the first time they have been used – using original prints and the original colourways. 

“It was taking things that I grew up with and as a fashion designer find so dreamlike. But I wanted to bring them into now, and try to make them functional and real.”

 

 

 

 

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Stella McCartney- finale with the “animals” not killed for modern luxury.

Post udostępniony przez Suzy Menkes (@suzymenkesvogue) Mar 2, 2020 o 3:36 PST

Stella achieved her goal in bringing art into her worthy causes.

Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood: Viv’s dream comes true

 “We are trying to expel the evil spirits in this show,” announced Andreas Kronthaler, who has taken over as Creative Director from his wife Vivienne Westwood. 

 

 

 

 

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Andreas Kronthaler talks about the collection for Vivienne Westwood

Post udostępniony przez Suzy Menkes (@suzymenkesvogue) Lut 29, 2020 o 6:04 PST

“I was looking at all these traditional folk stories; when they try to get rid of the winter, when the earth breaks up, and life comes round to its course again,” he said.

Behind Andreas, who took over Westwood fashion four years ago, was a pert model wearing a blue hat built out of roses – just one example of the show’s theme, held for the first time in Westwood’s 30-year history in the gilded Hôtel de Ville. 

The major competitor to the rows of twinkling chandeliers above the runway were the royal-blue outfits for both sexes. Andreas mixed the house codes: Punk, showmanship, sexuality, and a new addition – “La Bluette de Paris”. Vivienne invented the French name for the intense colour.

The Westwood ethos never changes much – fine tailoring for plaid coats; straight trousers paired with frothy blouses spilling over the bosoms – but haloes gave a noble effect to a jumble of male outfits, while another peacock female had vast black and white wings. 

At the show’s end, Andreas walked the length of the runway to give Vivienne, seated front row, a bouquet of flowers. But hidden behind the jollity, the designer had given his wife what she had dreamed of: a fully sustainable collection.

Andreas has brought sustainable sourcing to the entire collection and the brand now has eight certification labels to its name – a major achievement in helping to improve fashion with natural resources. 

So how has Andreas achieved his goal when so many others are still a long way off? Using resources such as “forsaken” fabrics – laying dormant in Italian mills – the Westwood creative source was to customise an “Andreas” jacquard lining made with 55% organic cotton, mulesing-free wool, and eco-friendly padding made of recycled PET bottles.

Andreas also used recycled buttons, worked with Wastemark to change the way any waste would be handled, and used textiles woven (two metres a day) and then dyed in Burkina Faso with the Ethical Fashion Initiative.

 

 

 

 

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Vivienne Westwood by Andreas Kronthaler

Post udostępniony przez Suzy Menkes (@suzymenkesvogue) Lut 29, 2020 o 5:50 PST

It all sounds so dry and techy, although mulesing is barbaric and its absence to be applauded.

 

 

 

 

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Dear Vivienne - let’s hear your story

Post udostępniony przez Suzy Menkes (@suzymenkesvogue) Lut 29, 2020 o 5:25 PST

The Westwood experience is becoming a model of how a company can make a memorable, wearable collection without harming the planet.