“It’s the Year of the Horse and I’ll do anything I can to get near a horse, to be honest with you,” said Stella McCartney after her show. “So I thought I’d bring them to my day job and have equine therapy.”
Given the news cycle and the state of the world, one couldn’t fault her.
Especially not after taking in the majestic spectacle that played out in the middle of the arena at the Société Equestrienne de Paris where the British designer paraded her fall collection on Wednesday.
A dozen horses, half of them white and the other black, cantered in formation and even rolled on the ground at the behest of horse artist Jean-François Pignon, who was behind a similar display back in 2023.
The display warmed the cockles of an audience that included McCartney’s father Paul, Gayle King, Isla Fisher, Machine Gun Kelly and Oprah Winfrey, who’d flown in for the occasion — and to see the younger McCartney receive France’s Legion of Honor on Thursday, the designer revealed.
Having equines in her show tracked back to the designer’s love and respect for nature. “I try to remind people in the world of fashion that we don’t have to kill animals and we can work with them,” she said.
Making sure the industry understands that the only way forward is to find a way to make it a win-win with nature is what’s been powering the brand for the past quarter of a century after all.
Significantly lightening the fashion footprint is doable: 93 percent of the materials used for this collection are made from sustainable materials, including 100 percent recycled denim, non-plastic sequins and lead-free crystals. Certified and responsibly sourced textiles go without saying.
And if that sounds like the work of a lifetime, it’s not far off the mark.
“This show really started with my birth,” quipped McCartney. “I think I was just really inspired to talk about my life in clothes and the wardrobe and the journey of the beginning and the middle and the now.”
Squarely front of mind were her upbringing in Scotland and the internships she undertook as a 15-year-old at Christian Lacroix and Yves Saint Laurent in the 1980s, a period that lent its nipped waists and defined shoulders to the lineup.
She trotted out a spectrum of of options, ranging from ultra-feminine long slipdresses with lace spliced diagonally on one side of the bust and ladylike daywear to tomboyish collegiate polo shirts and anoraks tucked into stirrup jeans and mannish tailoring aplenty, with cuts going from slimline to generous.
For those who fall somewhere in the middle, there was plenty, too.
In no particular order: a roomy peacoat with an oversize martingale dropped low on the back, paired with thigh-high boots; a shawl-collar jacket with a soft basque, worn with cargo trousers; plenty of high-necked long-sleeve dresses with and without handkerchief peplum details, and a liquid-looking sequined silver halter top that came with immaculately cut black slacks.
There were constants like playful touches — that “My dad is a rock star” tank closing the show! — and the tension between masculine and feminine, but the lineup also hit trends that are emerging from the runways of the season, like power dressing.
It suggested that while McCartney has her eye on the sustainable goalpost, she also has her finger on the pulse.
