Sustainable Luxury Fashion: Stella McCartney
As the fashion industry becomes increasingly aware of its effects on the environment and, in turn, its effects on consumer marketing, many brands are only recently beginning their movement towards sustainable fashion. In contrast, Stella McCartney, a luxury fashion brand established by Stella McCartney, has been designing and producing sustainable fashion since its establishment in 2001.
Stella McCartney created a brand that’s primary focus is sustainability. The Medium blog post “Stella McCartney. Sustainability and Luxury: Why Taking the Long View Pays Off.” by Liliana Rodrigues, explicitly describes how Stella McCartney proves wrong the misconception that sustainable fashion and luxury fashion, cannot go hand in hand.
As one of the most successful sustainable fashion brands on the planet, Stella McCartney is constantly innovating new ways to be ethically sound while building on existing brand values. In describing the brand’s values, Rodrigues states “From its beginning in 2001, Stella McCartney has sworn never to use leather, skin, fur or feathers, and to rely completely on alternative materials” (Rodrigues, 2019). The Stella McCartney brand has relied solely upon animal free products and natural materials since its founding. This is an incredibly difficult goal for a new brand to accomplish, this is even difficult for some of the most well-known brands on the planet. Vegan fashion, which is fashion that uses no form of animal materials, is quite expensive to produce, so most brands opt to avoid this production method.
In my perspective, I think it’s extremely admirable for a new brand to commit to such a goal right from the beginning. This goes to show the dedication and importance that Stella McCartney places on the environment and climate change.
As previously mentioned, Stella McCartney is a brand that is constantly improving upon itself to keep in line with its sustainability goals. Stella McCartney’s textile materials make an impact on these goals, in regards to this the author states “ the label has long been using eco-conscious materials, non-toxic dyes, polyester recycled from plastic bottles and is on its track to replace nylon with eco nylon made from recycled fishing nets” (Rodrigues, 2019). The author follows in describing these materials and methods as “no small innovation” (Rodrigues, 2019). This is the absolute truth, creating materials from recycled ocean plastics and bioengineered textiles are huge innovations that are high in cost but incredibly beneficial in environmental impact.
Increasing the brand standards of quality through these measures, not only makes it more sustainable but also makes it more attractive to consumers. From the design alone, I am very attracted to this brand. Its pieces are incredibly appealing to me, as I enjoy the more neutral-toned, classic styles that Stella McCartney designs as shown in the picture below.
However, the fact that this brand’s starting point is sustainability rather than design, makes Stella McCartney even more appealing not only to me but to consumers worldwide. Stella McCartney has innovated an incredibly successful way to make sustainable fashion without sacrificing design or quality.
Other brands are only recently beginning to follow this trend and those who are not needed to evaluate their ethical standards. It’s vital that such an influential industry as a whole begins to set basic standards that place importance on the environment.
Without groundbreakers like Stella McCartney who prove wrong the misconceptions about the incompatibility of ethicalness and luxury design, the movement towards sustainable fashion could’ve been an even lengthier process than it currently is.
Works Cited
Rodrigues, L (2019, August 13) Stella McCartney. Sustainability and Luxury: Why Taking the Long View Pays Off. Medium https://medium.com/@lilianarodrigues.pr/stellamccartneysustainability-d6992c001ad2#:~:text=A%20Consistent%20Timeline%20of%20Commitment,within%20the%20luxury%20fashion%20industry.
