STELLA MCCARTNEY: "FASHION IS ONLY CLOTHING – DON’T FORGET THIS"
Stella McCartney was born on 13th of September 1971 (according to some sources in 1972) in London, Great Britain. Her parents are Sir Paul McCartney from the legendary British pop band “The Beatles” and the American photographer Linda Eastman.
In 1995 she graduates at the college of ashion design “Central Saint Martins”. Before establishing her brand she was a trainee to Christian Lacroix in Paris and also she was an assistant to Betty Jackson in London. In 1997 she is appointed for chief designer to “Chloe” (Paris) bringing her one million francs per year. From 1998 she is a member of the world organization PETA (People, united for ethic attitude to the animals) and she is against the using of the animal leathers for fashion objectives. In 2001 she starts to work for “Gucci”, keeping the control on her brand. She launches at the market her own brand perfume Stella (W) in 2003, and also second sort aroma liquid in 2006 - Stella In Two (W). She launches her own collection made to order from the sport brand “Adidas” (2004) – including clothes made for track-and-field athletics, swimming and fitness; for the chain stores “H&M” (2005), and also models made for yoga again together with “Adidas” (2007).
She is a bearer of series prestigious awards and recognitions: for the best young designer of 2001 – of the British Fashion Academy, she is pronounced for one of the 100th most influential women of Great Britain, according “Daily Mail” (2003); she has a nomination for “Golden Satellite Award” for the movie “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” (2005), and in 2007 she becomes Designer of the year – British Fashion Awards.
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There are not necessary profound psychoanalytic analysis, to be understood the mill, which is put through Stella McCartney from her childhood. What is the feeling to be a child at one of the most famous allegory of the world pop music Sir Paul McCartney – a central figure in “The Beatles” and a favorite of several generations? What a will and what a character are necessary, to succeed to tears away form the gravitation of such a celebrity? Stella is the third of commonly the fourth children of Paul and Linda. She has two older sisters – respectively Heder and Marry and a younger brother – James. From an early age – from her teenage years, she is enthusiastic about the photography that she gazes in her favorite magazine “Vogue”. Than she chooses once for all the direction of her realization: the fashion design, not the music. What is the reason? Years later Stella McCartney gives her convincing explanation about this:”If my father wasn’t the one from “The Beatles”, maybe I will devote to the music. But with my family this was just impossible. The name opens some doors, but it closes them very fast, if you don’t prove, that you are somebody”. Today Stella McCartney is one of the most famous designers of the planet and the main merit for this success is undoubtedly hers. However the role and the name of her father don’t have to be disparaged. It’s enough only the fact that such a celebrity is on the first line on almost each of her fashion shows – it-s a guarantee for the media echo and the publicity. But the intervention is not finished only with his image influence. It is well known, that just Paul McCartney settles the first training of his daughter to the French designer Christian Lacroix in Paris. She is in the team that prepares the first official collection of Lacroix and than she is only fifteen!
She knows the excitements and the inside torments, characteristic for every child of famous parents. From one side it is the obligation to be always up to standard and by no means to lower the reputation of the famous family, and from the other side it is the lack of satisfaction and the anger, that she can’t like the normal children to do mischief and fooleries, to bite her nails, to make her hair like she wants. Far be it from me to do all this, but – by her words – it’s wasn’t like other girls and for that reason she was feeling something like an envy to them, to their freedom.
Stella takes to heart the untimely death of her mother Linda who dies from cancer in 1998 and she is quite not excited, when she learned from her father, that he intend to get marry for the second time in 2002 for Heder Mills. In return she well supports Paul, when he divorced her in 2007. Stella succeeds to persuade his father insisting the case to be up before the court, but not to be decided by a non-legal agreement. The memory of her mother is incurable. As she shares in front of the media, Linda forever changed into source of spiritual power and she rests her biggest muse, continuing to inspire her even after her death. Stella McCartney remembers that her mother formed her especially strong attitude to the fashion – not to the external vanity and the aimless charm, but to the real style. Linda has her own philosophy about the fashion: woman has to define all alone her appearance, because the exaggerated identification with the fashion tendencies makes her unprotected. The only appearance, the turning the back on of the make-up and the all possible complementary beautified means, the partiality to the dresses on flowers, the silvery boots on high platforms, the classic jackets, the jacquard sweaters and the Victorian trousers – are among the deepest memories, that Stella MacCartney keeps for her favorite and unforgettable mother. “That is enough for me – to derive even one hundredth part from her freedom!” – says sincerely today the British designer. Happy fate has that child whom parents support it in all the initiatives. Stella was just such a child, encouraged and elated from Paul and Linda even in her most timid creative experiences.
PHILOSOPHY AND AESTHETICAL CONCEPTION
Freedom, ease and spontaneity are among the most characteristic features in the works of Stella McCartney. Qualities, acquired not only in result of the purposive parental cares and family education, but also like a consequence from her education in the greatest college of fashion design – “Central Saint Martins”. There she obtains her precious lessons in artistic, unlimited imagination, creative courage and – as she says – the ability to “develop her personality”. She is grateful to Paul and Linda, that before the college she received training in public, but not in private school (as was the practice for the most of the children of rich and famous parents). The respect to the real life and the appreciation to the real values are formed in her ever while still at school: ”For me it was very important to understand, that not all the people in the world have luck. While in the private school the most important is whose family is the richest or the famous, in the normal school you want to keep in secret this fact. Always, when I was missing the bus and my father was driving me with the Mercedes to the school, I was praying that my schoolmates wouldn’t see me. And when Steve Warner was at dinner at home, I was keeping the new for me”.
Whether the popularity of Paul McCartney or the real design talent of her daughter Stella are a reason, her mature collection in “Central Saint Martins” to be purchased instantly after the promotion, can only be guessed. But it is a fact that today the most favorite brands compete in making her proposals. The first, who wins is the famous French fashion house “Chloe”, who invited Stella McCartney to take the vacant from Karl Lagerfeld place of chief designer in 1997. The specialists qualify her first-night collection for the famous trend at 15th of October 1997 in Paris, as a mix of femininity, aggressiveness, romance and youth spirit. Stella herself notes her aesthetical philosophy like this:”It’s not about aggressiveness, but about wearing clothes. After all fashion is only clothing – don’t forget this!”. In her first collection make impression the silk blouses in flowers, combined with tight trousers, skirts, combined with lace underskirts, knitted bikini for beach, deep sleeves and as a whole the influence of the 70s.
Judging on the dynamics and the evolution in the style of Stella McCartney, we can define her design ideology with the key words simplicity, functionnality, spontaneity, innocent sex appeal and retro chick. The postmodern feeling for youth nonchalance and eclectic romance, also as the reserved places for the negligent sweaters and the artistic jackets supplement the aesthetical concept about the style of the fresh designer.
As every other career this of Stella doesn’t pass without a hitch. From time to time she gets criticisms about insufficiently precise and original design, as well as hints, and franc statements that her prosperity is due to her famous father. Among the criticasters is also the British designer and TV presenter Jeff Banks, who in 2003 called her models “dilettantish” and he declared, that her efforts are of no use provided, that she is a daughter of such a famous person. “She will reap the fruits of her labour one way or another even without developing her design abilities” – hinted maliciously Banks.
The youth energy, the original image of the contemporary urban style for living, the interpretation of her own of the notion “elegance”, the negligee and sports clothing make her a partner much sought after and desired for the giants “Gucci” (her official contract is from 2001), “Adidas” (contract from 2004) and the chain stores “H&M” (contract from 2005). For the last, for example, she created practical and wearable fashion, including jeans, jackets, blouses, shirts and comfortable coats, that were diffused in the same time in 400th trade facilities of “H&M” in twenty countries. The message of Stella McCartney doesn’t need of special comment, because it’s enough expressive taken alone: “For me it was very important to show to the women, that our brand is accessible. Because people often tell me – I like your clothes, but I am already too old or too grown or I can’t afford them. For that reason I wanted more women to be convinced in the qualities and the accessibility of my models”.
One look to her collection autumn-winter 2007-2008 will show, that she gives the preference to such materials like taffeta and double-faced cashmere, silk and high quality wool. The knitwear also continues to have reserved place in her models. Printed sweaters with pictures of bears, mini dresses, woolen skirts, pink costumes, silk dresses with flounces, a coat with buffan sleeves and short “beach” short skirts are only part of autumn-winter proposals of Stella McCartney. They reveal her orientation to the youth everyday style, the urban conception of the world and the light influences of the aesthetical grunge. The attitude of the designer to the natural and health style of living is estimating highly from the sport giant “Adidas”, who in 2007 set her the making of special collection, up to the mark in the style of “yoga”. According to Stella the most characteristic for these clothes is the combination of the style with the high technologies. A particular and great theme is the enthusiasm, with whom Stella received the news of the choosing of London for third time for capital of the Olympic games. Than she, together with other her famous colleagues, as for example Julian McDonald, makes public the joy and the readiness to give all from her self, to create the most comfortable and elegant clothes of the British sportsmen.
TO THE ANIMALS – WITH LOVE
Among the brightest virtues, that Stella derives from her mother Linda is the love to the animals and the respect to their rights. Stella McCartney not only is a inveterate vegetarian, but also an active collaborator of the world organization of the people with ethic attitude to the animals PETA, in which she is a member from the year of the death of her mother – 1998. The designer cooperates to the environmentalists in the making of special TV mini movies and she refuses to use animal leathers for the making of her works. People maintain the thesis that ever since in 2000 Tom Ford (than chief designer of “Gucci”) convinces her to start working for the famous fashion house, but she rejects the proposal just because she doesn’t want to break her ethic principles and to start occupying with leather design. In 2006 as a mark of a protest against the using of leathers for design objectives and implicated in the ecological passions of Stella, the famous Pamela Anderson makes a real striptease at the shop window of her boutique, who also hates the drastic violation of the rights of the animals.
At the end of February and the beginning of March 2007, when naked women from PETA come out to protest at the time of the fashion shows prêt-a-porter of Jean-Paul Gautier, Christian Lacroix and Valentino with inscriptions: “Better naked, than dressed in leather!”, the British stylist declares in their defense. In front of the media she declares: “You know, that I by no means can’t observe killed with electricity animals on the back of the people, so in my opinion the protests have justified reason.” As already wrote “Fashion Lifestyle Magazine”, Stella McCartney together with PETA (Association for ethic attitude to the animals) starts the first in the world Internet protest against the using of animal leathers. The visitors of the site receive a t-shirt with an inscription “I prefer to change in pixels, than to wear leathers”, based on the well-known slogan of PETA “We prefer to go naked, than to wear leathers”. The organizers initiated a concourse for new slogan for defense of the rights of the animals. Personally Stella McCartney chooses the winners, and the awards are two tickets for her autumn fashion-show in Paris. Among the stars, who support the cause of the daughter of Paul McCartney are Duran Duran and Mia Farrow. The ecological partialities of Stella McCartney do her credit at least because of two reasons. First, because of the fact that she gives her contribution for the keeping of the ecological balance and the conservation of nature and animal world, second, that in contrast to other her colleagues, she ignores money, personal interest, benefit and business in the name of higher and light moral objectives.
IN COMPANY OF CELEBRITIES
The designer, who taken alone is already world celebrity, likes to communicate with famous persons, but not because of the snobbish reason, that they are famous, but because of pure human and friendly reasons. She is just about 23 years old when in her diploma fashion show in “Central Saint Martins” participate the supermodels Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss – two of her closest friends. Stella is in very close relations with celebrities from the showbusiness and Patsy Kensit. All they, as also a lot of Hollywood icons and pop stars, are admirers of her works and often wear clothes with her brand. At her wedding ceremony in 2000 Madonna is dressed in bridal dress, made in a project of Stella McCartney. Than she get married with the producer Gay Ritchie in the Scottish castle Skibo, performing traditional Buddha rituals. A mark of the friendship between the mega star of pop music and the designer is that Stella calls caressingly Madonna “Melly”, and Madonna on her turn calls her “Stelly”...
The friends of Stella McCartney as feel in a best way the power of her talent and propose perfectly precise comments about her works. Among them is the opinion of Patsy Kensit about the design talent of Stella: “Her sense of individuality and her verve make her clothes fantastic. As a woman in the 30s I found her models as extremely comfortable, elegant and practical”.
PRIVATE AND FAMILY LIFE
Today Stella McCartney is not only a successful designer of a world class, but also a perfect wife and a mother of two children. From her marriage with the writer Alasder Willies, who is also an editor of “Wallpaper” she has two children – John (born in 2005) and Linda (born in 2006). The little Linda is named in memory of the mother of Stella McCartney. Another gesture, revealing the everlasting love of the daughter to her mother is the fact that the bridal dress of Stella is a reminiscence of the wedding toilet of her mother, of course, enriched and modernized. The private and family life of the designer is rich and dynamic, sensual and multiform. Maybe this, which characterizes it most clearly is the naturalness and the simplicity. For example for cosmetic objectives are used the services of modest and cheap brands. The designer doesn’t take care of so much, to support her body, but she doesn’t hide, that she loves to lounge in the bathtub, to make her a massage and to put on her body her favorite lotion. She loves the equitation, as much as the walk with the dogs. She didn’t make on her plastic operations and she doesn’t like places for fast nutrition like McDonalds. She loves to dress in “vintage” style, to buy clothes from “second hand” and to mix expensive with cheap clothes and accessories and often can be remarked dressed in expensive, embroidered jacket by hand, combined with trivial jeans.
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The fashion of Stella McCartney arguments one of the most interesting movements in the cloth designs today: the mixture from street and club, casual and retro. Said in two words, this style is “very British” – really very British, but with a drop of French chic and a dose Italian sensuality. It can be seen resemblances and dissonances with the other British fashion stars Galliano, McQueen and McDonald, and also Tom Ford, but the differences will be undoubtedly more than the resemblances. Stella McCartney can make the most precise definition of this style, comparing it to that, from what has need the contemporary woman, and namely – the perfect style, sense of humor and alive, natural sexuality.
Notes: In the article are used the following sources:
Zubcova, Jana. Обреченная на славу, magazine “Домовой”, May 2004;http://www.beatles.ru/postman/forum_messages.asp?msg_id=5119&cpage=1Marinova, Irina. The daughter of Paul step at the big stage, newspaper: ”Vestnik za jenata”, 24 of October 1987, p.8-9;Fashion now. i-D selects the world’s 150 most important designers. Edited by Terry Jones & Avril Mair. – Köln: Taschen, 2005; McDowell, C. Fashion today. Phaidon Press Limited. London, 2000; Reuters Television News; Seeling, Ch. Fashion. The century of the designer 1900 – 1999. Konёmann,2000,Cologne; Stella Mccartney. In: Fashion Designers. History of Fashion & Costume.
< http://www.dilpreetbawa.com/historyofashion/fashionframe.html>; Stella Mccartney In: Hello! < http://www.hellomagazine.com/profiles/stellamccartney/ >
Photos:
1. Stella McCartney
Фото: © Kayt Jones / Fashion now. i-D selects the world’s 150 most important designers. Edited by Terry Jones & Avril Mair. – Köln: Taschen, 2005, p.320
2. – 4. Models of Stella McCartney for “Chloe”, 90 years of ХХ century
Фото: © Seeling, Ch. Fashion. The century of the designer 1900 – 1999. Konёmann,2000,Cologne, p. 482
5. Model of Stella McCartney for “Chloe”, 1998
Фото: © McDowell, C. Fashion today. Phaidon Press Limited. London, 2000, p. 410
6. Stella McCartney
Фото: © Chris Moore, Rankin/Camera Press, Atlantic; “In Style”
7. The pop star Madonna is among the admirers of Stella McCartney
Фото: © Chris Moore, Rankin/Camera Press, Atlantic; “In Style”
8. – 10. Models of Stella McCartney, 2001
Фото: © Chris Moore, Rankin/Camera Press, Atlantic; “In Style”
11. Model of Stella McCartney, 2002
Фото: © Fashion now. i-D selects the world’s 150 most important designers. Edited by Terry Jones & Avril Mair. – Köln: Taschen, 2005, p.321
12. Model of Stella McCartney, 2002
Фото: © Donald Christie / Fashion now. i-D selects the world’s 150 most important designers. Edited by Terry Jones & Avril Mair. – Köln: Taschen, 2005, p.322
13. и 14. Models of Stella McCartney spring-summer 2005
Фото: © Marcio Madeira for VOGUE.COM
15. и 16. Models of Stella McCartney autumn-winter 2006-2007
Фото: © Marcio Madeira for VOGUE.COM
17. и 18. Models of Stella McCartney spring-summer 2007
Фото: © Marcio Madeira for VOGUE.COM
19. - 21. Models of Stella McCartney autumn-winter 2007-2008
Фото: © Marcio Madeira for VOGUE.COM
VIDEO:
Stella Mccartney Spring Summer 2008 Womenswear Full Show
Fashion TV - Stella McCartney F/W 07/08
2007 SPRING/SUMMER runway-Stella McCartney
Stella McCartney fashion show SS06
ADIDAS BY STELLA MCCARTNEY 2005
Translated by Kristina Paytasheva
Read: 10680 times © Fashion Lifestyle Magazine, issue 8, Mart 2008
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