FRONT ROW CONSERVATION
Stella McCartney makes saving the rain forest
fall 2019’s hottest trend. By Véronique Hyland
Seeds of Change
U
sually, there aren’t many expectations placed on fashion
show attendees. Sit still and chronicle the proceedings on
Instagram Stories, s’il vous plaît. But at Stella McCartney’s
fall 2019 show, the guests (who included Oprah Winfrey
and Karlie Kloss) were asked to do something for the planet. Specifically,
to dedicate a tree through the designer’s #ThereSheGrows initiative,
part of a continuing collaboration with Canopy, an environmental NGO.
McCartney’s aim with the project, which went wide on Instagram be-
fore the show, is to safeguard the Leuser Ecosystem, a 6.5 million–acre
rain forest in Sumatra, Indonesia. It is, the designer tells me, “one of
the most endangered ecosystems in the world, which needs to be pro-
tected.” (Go to green.stellamccartneycares.org to dedicate your own.)
BACKSTAGE
AT STELLA
MCCARTNEY,
FALL 2019.The sustainability bona fides didn’t end there. McCartney showed
earrings ingeniously made out of paper clips and necklaces crafted from
rubber bands, turning cubicle staples into Paris Fashion Week–worthy
treasures. Upcycling came in the form of an oversize rainbow dress
constructed from vintage T-shirts. Eco-friendly boots, a collaboration
with festival favorite Hunter (McCartney’s husband, Alasdhair Willis,
is its creative director), were equally suited for working in the garden
or working the runway. Long before conservation was a buzzword, Mc-
Cartney was walking the (vegetarian, wooden-heeled) walk, and this
season was about ensuring that legacy. “#ThereSheGrows came from
this idea that the most generational thing you can do is pass something
on,” she explains. “So that when you’re not here anymore, it is still there.” C
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