Greeting us this morning at the Opéra Garnier was a barnyard’s worth of people in animal costume. A bunny rabbit, a dog, a black-and-white cow, and a few others handed out baby trees to Stella McCartney’s guests, explaining that planting them will help offset the carbon dioxide produced by the designer’s show. “We should all be carbon-neutral now,” read the stamps on the paper bags that held the trees’ root balls. Later, they made a finale lap with McCartney’s models, a visual reminder that her collections are animal-free—and that it feels good to smile and have a laugh.
This Paris Fashion Week has felt deadly serious at times, with the threat of the coronavirus behind every cough and sneeze. The sustainability conversation that fashion has lately engaged in so earnestly has more or less been pushed to the side, replaced by talk of how not to get sick, and of how bad the virus could be for the industry.
Essential to McCartney’s appeal is the fact that she’s never taken fashion too seriously. Her clothes are rarely overwrought, and she always puts an emphasis on ease. That held true here—from the officer’s coat that opened the show to the pajama and caftan shapes that closed it. A special collaboration with the archives of Erté, the fashion illustrator of the 1920s, gave her the opportunity to add whimsy via prints and embroideries while retaining the unfussed appeal of her relaxed silhouettes. The jellyfish motif was especially charming in that it linked the collection’s almost opulent flair to the designer’s long-held passion for animals.
McCartney is particularly well-placed to serve the growing cohort of consumers who are looking for alternatives to animal by-products. As she posted on Instagram earlier, her brand has been leather-, fur-, and feather-free since 2001. This season, she really played up those bona fides, accessorizing many of the looks with earrings, brooches, and necklaces in the shapes of wild animals. She also boosted the amount of vegan leather in the collection. If customers are willing to spend on a coat made from a laser-cut leather substitute what they might’ve spent on the real thing, it could prove to be a breakthrough, not just for her label, but also the industry. No wonder that cow was prancing his way down the runway.
