Stella McCartney took over the top floor of the Centre Pompidou in Paris this morning with a show - Stella by Stella - that celebrated the American painter and sculptor Frank Stella.
Models walked along the Perspex tubes snaking around the building with Paris’ sunshine-strewn rooftops as their backdrop, while an audio pastiche of American presidents talking about peace and war boomed over the speakers.
Frank Stella’s art was seen both overtly and subtly: shapes from his V Series came as colour-blocked knitwear sets and mannish jacquard wool coats, while tailoring featured graphic prints inspired by his Spectralia and continued on glossy lurex evening dresses with dropped waists and billowing sleeves.
McCartney also delivered a glamorous interpretation of an artist’s working uniform: think utilitarian jumpsuits reworked in deep burgundy velvet with contrast stitching and recycled polyester clip belts, and oversized shirting with exaggerated breast pockets. Belted faux fur coats with power shoulders elevated the everyday wear.
Models clutched squishy leather-look shoulder bags with tonal chunky Perspex chains in powder blue, camel and lilac that were not just practical and understatedly cool, but were made all the chicer for having been crafted from leather alternatives: one made from grape waste sourced from Italian wineries and the other, Mylo, a mushroom ‘unleather’ made from mycelium that McCartney has worked with before.
The grape leather was used on sneakers too, while puffy-soled slides were made from factory waste. In total, an impressive 67 per cent of the fur, feather and leather-free collection was made from environmentally conscious materials.
McCartney dedicated her show to the people affected by the war in Ukraine and confirmed she had made a donation to CARE, an organisation providing emergency crisis support to four million Ukrainians – especially women, children, the elderly and families.
“Give peace a chance,” read her show notes.
