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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Thomas Adamson

Helen Mirren opens Stella McCartney’s activist, cruelty-free Paris runway

APTOPIX France Fashion Stella McCartney S/S 26 - (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Inside the Centre Pompidou, Helen Mirren opened Stella McCartney ’s Paris Fashion Week show with a spoken rendition of The Beatles ’ “Come Together.” Less performance than manifesto, it set the tone for a Tuesday night collection framed around humanity, animals and Mother Earth.

McCartney has long been ahead of the curve in fashion’s sustainability push. This season she claimed her most conscious offering yet: 98% sustainable, 100% cruelty-free. No leather, no fur, no feathers, no exotic skins. Instead came world-first innovations: FEVVERS, a plant-based alternative to feathers, and PURE.TECH, a programmable fabric that absorbs pollutants from the air.

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