Stella McCartney has always been far ahead of the curve when it comes to forward-thinking fabric innovation. Today in Paris, she chose to educate guests and locals with her own take on a classic French market — Stella’s Sustainable Market.
Hosted at Marché Saxe-Breteuil, framed by the Eiffel tower, instead of the traditional alimentation usually found here, baguettes, cheeses and fruits were swapped out for 21 stalls including her Adidas by Stella McCartney collaboration (now 19 years long), vintage Stella pieces - sourced and curated by HBO’s Euphoria stylist Heidi Bivens - as well as her new Wings merch and limited edition collectors items: frisbees, badges and magnets.
Alongside this show of brand-McCartney-might, other vendors included Pure electric scooters, Mabel industries — creators of Uppeal, a vegan leather made from apple waste, Radiant matter, which creates the BioSequin cellulose alternative to plastic sequins used in McCartney’s collections and Keel labs, which has pioneered Kelsun, a material made from sea kelp.
Also present was Andrew Logan , the English sculptor and performance artist, whose joyful colour-drenched wearable work incorporates recycled art, and whose extraordinary pieces were also featured in McCartney’s spring collection. McCartney has been a fan of Logan’s work since childhood, a chance meeting of a mutual friend at a wedding put the two in touch this summer.
With Cate Blanchett, Paris Hilton, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Rock and Jeff Koons on the front row, the collection was a heady re-visit of McCartney’s own fashion heritage (with her signature tailoring and archive-inspired corsetry) as well as that of her parents — picking up on the idea that as much as her parents’ would wear each other’s clothes, so did she theirs, and now her daughter her’s. Genderless fashion, but make it rock ‘n’ roll. Having covered off her Beatles’ heritage with 2021’s All Together Now collection, which took in Yellow Submarine references, she now moves onto the Wings era which is ripe for a revisit.
Didn’t think you wanted new Wings merch? You do now. Paul and Linda McCartney’s daughter channelled the so wrong it’s right spirit into chic metallic brocade tailored pieces and waistcoats dripping in crystals worn over frill-edged ruffle-fronted shirting.
There were also loose knitted trousers, held up with chunky suspenders and mirror-strewn crochet dresses (actually quite heavenly).
Pinstripe tailoring was jazzed up with diamond-encrusted bodysuits, as well as (lead-free) crystal micro hot pants. Polka dots were scattered throughout and played with on corsets as well as in the finale looks of extravagant silk crepe gowns puckered with transparent dots.
After the show, the space — rich with the smell of the Linda McCartney burger stall — was opened up to the public, with local school children invited to the spectacle, too. Live and let learn, et cetera.
