Stella McCartney Swaps Supermodels For Super Furry Animals

Stella McCartney’s Instagram followers were treated to a series of cartoon sketches promoting the designer’s anti-animal skin and fur policy in a tongue-in-cheek way yesterday. The first depicted two cows in the throes of passion with a speech bubble quoting, “More pleasure, less leather”. The second showed an angry fox asking, “What the fox? I’m not fashion”, with reference to his fur. The third, a snake affirming, “SSSkinnng is not winning”. And so on.

The creatures’ message that “[their] coats look better on [them]”, not on humans, continued at McCartney’s autumn/winter 2020 show. She sent 10 models wearing animal suits, including a cow, a pig, a rabbit, a fox and a crocodile, down the runway to close the show. Some of the fluffy characters had shoulder bags slung over one shoulder, others went hands-free to wave to members of the press, who were seated on reusable seating cubes within the plastic-free and carbon neutral show space in Paris’s Opéra Garnier.

The show notes did not reference the brand’s new mascots, and instead shared that the collection was “inspired by strong-willed women grounded in reality with a free spirit... The fearless, the pioneers, the disruptors, the visionaries ready to express themselves and make a statement, fashion or otherwise.” Much like McCartney herself, then.

As always, guests were given an eco fact sheet, outlining the most recent moves the house has made to become more responsible and ethical. (The autumn/winter 2020 edit has more vegan leather than ever before, spanning PVC-free clothing, as well as accessories). And they left in the knowledge that the activist had planted individual trees for each of them to offset the CO2 emissions produced by the presentation.

McCartney has admitted before that her brand is by no means perfect. “I am just a fashion designer, [having sustainable conversations] wasn’t part of my plan,” she once told the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. As the industry slowly wakes up to the fact fashion and sustainability are not – and cannot be – mutually exclusive, McCartney is at least keeping a sometimes overwhelming topic lighthearted. Here, the 10 animals who put a smile on the faces of weary fashion editors at Paris Fashion Week.