Intro to Fashion Business Designer Analysis Paper Megan Rummell 3/16/14 Designer Analysis Paper
Stella McCartney is a modern designer with a standout brand. She has collections including women's ready-to-wear, accessories, lingerie, eyewear, fragrances, a kids' collection and a partnership with Adidas. Her approach to design plays with femininity and masculinity with a signature style of sharp tailoring and confidence. McCartney is a lifelong vegetarian, which means she does not use leather or fur in her collections. She is innovative using organic and biosynthetic materials in her collections. To this day, McCartney operates 23 freestanding stores in areas all over the world such as Manhattan, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Milan, and Tokyo. Her collections are distributed in over 50 countries through wholesaling in department stores and specialty shops. Her online store ships to over 100 countries worldwide. Born in 1971 in London, England, she is the daughter of legendary Beatles’ icon Paul McCartney. After growing up in the English countryside with a normal life, she became interested in designing clothes as a teen. At age 13, she made her first jacket. Three years later, she interned for Christian Lacroix, working on his first fashion design collection. She credited her expertise tailoring to her father's tailor, Edward Sexton. For university, she moved onto the Ravensbourne College of Design and
Communication at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design majoring in fashion design in the early 1990s. Friends and supermodels Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss modeled her graduation collection in 1995. The show made front-page news, and the entire collection was sold to Tokio, a London boutique. The designs were licensed to Browns, Bergdorf Goodman, and Neiman Marcus. In 1997, McCartney was appointed Creative Director of Paris fashion house Chloe, following Carl Lagerfeld. Despite initial skepticism, her designs for Chloe have been highly successful commercially. In 2001, McCartney launched her own fashion house under her name and showed her first collection in Paris. In 2003, her first perfume, Stella, was launched. In 2007, she launched her own skincare line, called CARE. The skincare line is 100% organic, including seven products. In 2008, she launched a new lingerie line. In November 2010, the Stella McCartney Kids collection was launched for newborns and children up to age 12. Throughout her career, Stella McCartney has had many collaborations with many different artists over the years. In 2004, she designed clothes for Madonna's ReInvention Tour, Annie Lennox's summer tour, and Gwyneth Paltrow & Jude Law's costumes for the film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Also in 2004, she launched a long-term partnership joint line with Adidas. The line is a sports performance collection for women. The collection has since grown to include athletic clothing for athletes in running, gym, yoga, tennis, swimming, golf, winter sports, and triathlon. In 2005, she designed a range of clothing and accessories for H&M to raise public awareness for her own brand and to create more affordable options for her fans. The line was released in November of 2005 and sold out almost immediately on
launch day in record time. In 2007, McCartney created a 42-piece limited edition line exclusively for Target stores in Australia. The price range was from $30 to $200. In 2008, McCartney had a collaboration with lingerie label Bendon released in department stores, specialty stores, and Stella McCartney stores. That same year she released a line of handbags for LeSportsac. The collection had 30-40 styles and was priced from $200 to $500. The collection consisted of travel bags, luggage, baby accessories, and bags for mothers with infants and toddlers. The line was sold at highend retailers, in Stella stores, and in select LeSportsac boutiques. In early 2010, McCartney announced that she would be collaborating with Disney to create an Alice in Wonderland-inspired jewelry collection. In September 2010, Adidas appointed McCartney Great Britain’s Creative Director for the 2012 Olympics. This was the first time in history that a leading fashion designer has designed apparel for a country's team across all competitions for both the Olympic and Paralympic games. Stella McCartney has also received many awards recognizing her achievement in fashion and social awareness. In 2000, she received the VH1/Vogue Designer of the Year award. In 2003, she received an award for the Woman of Courage Award for her work against cancer, the Glamour Award for Best Designer of the Year in 2004, the Star Honoree at the Fashion Group International Night of the Stars also in 2004, the Organic Style Woman of the Year award in 2005, the Elle Style Award fir Best Designer of the Year Award in 2007, the Best Designer of the Year at the British Style Awards also in 2007, Best Designer of the Year at the Spanish Elle Awards in 2008, the Green Designer of the Year at the ACE Awards also in 2008, Woman of the Year Award by Glamour magazine in 2009, and in 2011 she was presented with the Red Carpet Award
by the British Fashion Council. In 2013, she was appointed Officer of the British Empire for her services in fashion. Customers of Stella McCartney's collections are usually willing to pay a lot more money than the budget customer. McCartney's target customer are people who are into upscale fashion for the middle upper class woman (all ages.) McCartney designs for clothing that she would wear. Her clothing price zone is Designer Signature. They are usually very expensive (except for some cheaper collections she has done for H&M and Target). Her clothing sizes range from misses to petites. McCartney tries to use mostly organic fibers and fabrics in her clothing and as I stated earlier, likes to use biosynthetic and natural fibers in her clothing. She is a supporter of PETA and does not and will not use furs, exotic skins, or leather in her collections. For this paper, I gravitated towards Stella McCartney because she is an inspiration to women all over the world and is most definitely a huge inspiration to people like myself who are up-and-coming in the fashion world. Her style intrigues me. She plays with the boundaries of masculinity and femininity, while at the same time having such sharp tailoring and attention to detail that it really catches your eye. She is an independent woman who did not ride the coattails of her famous father and created her own legacy for others to look back on and become inspired by for years to come whether it be from her fashions, charitable work, or love for animals. She also inspires her celebrity friends and colleagues who always want to do collaborations or create a joint line with her. In my opinion, there is no other designer like her out there.
I have included an important article from UK Vogue's website on the importance of
animal friendly designers. Stella McCartney is the highlighted designer. Her role in animal rights has led to many awards for her passion and she showcases animal advocates around the world, putting them on a pedestal for everyone else to see and join in the movement:
"PETA has honoured brands that are "kind to animals" in its second annual PETAApproved Vegan Fashion Awards - and long-time cruelty-free advocate Stella McCartney is delighted to be included among the line-up. "PETA are always willing to put their necks on the line and always with a provocative sense of humour," the designer told us. McCartney - who doesn't use animal skins in her clothing or accessory collections - was joined by Vivienne Westwood, who won Most Stylish Men's Outerwear, and Taeseok Kang for Most Stylish Handbag. Other retailers to take home prizes include Next, ASOS, New Look and Topshop, while Alice Vandy - whose colourful, digitally-printed leggings, dresses and swimwear have attracted fans including Jessie J - won the title of Most Talented New Designer."
Bibliography
"About Stella." Stella McCartney. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
Chua, Jasmine. "Ecouterre." Ecouterre FIRST LOOK: Stella McCartney's Lower-Price, Eco-Friendly Lingerie Line. Ecouterre, 17 Aug. 2012. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. "DRESSES." Stella McCartney. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. Milligan, Lauren. "PETA Celebrates Animal-Friendly Designers." Vogue UK. Vogue UK, 24 Feb. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. "Stella McCartney." Online Store. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. "Stella McCartney." Stella McCartney. Kering, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. "Stella McCartney." Voguepedia. Vogue, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.