Stella McCartney’s clever carnival was staged at Paris Fashion Week on March 2. The British designer, an animal free extremist, is gradually raising the bar of her war to leather and in Paris she sent models dressed up as animals on the catwalk, wearing the latest collection. And she associated everything with the invitation that you can see on the left in the photo, and with a very obvious and banal slogan: “Make love not leather”.
Clever carnival
Sending models dressed as rabbits, wolves, cows, foxes etc. on the catwalk had a precise meaning for the British designer. To reiterate her belief: “We are proudly the only luxury brand in the world to not use real leather in our shows. We are happy if other fashion friends want to follow our example”. A sort of playful claim (which in her words, however, is never so playful, quite the opposite…) of her way of understanding respect for animals. A carnival show that, to a certain extent, has shifted attention to several titles from the presentation tout court of the new collections of the British designer.
A banal invitation (and not only)
For Stella McCartney, animals are the priority. It is clear from the invitation to her fashion show. The animated GIF of a bull holding a cow accompanied by the slogan “Make love not leather”. The boring banality of the message leads to a choice that seems to us tacky. Above all because, behind the stylist’s battle against leather, some opacities are hidden. For example, to consider her vegan choice better, superior and more sustainable than any other. But also the lack of interest in a supply chain system, that of leather, which supports various forms and levels of social well-being. A well-being that, however, does not concern animals, but human beings.
A certain coat made in Hungary
And here we must go back to what happened in November 2019. We wrote about it in the January issue of La Conceria. The British newspaper Daily Mail lit the fuse. The subject of the controversy: the coat worn by Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex on Remembrance Day, November 11, 2019. A Stella McCartney coat, who published a photo of the Duchess with her outerwear on social media. And she said “honoured that the choice had fallen on one of her clothes”. Photos and comments withdrawn in a hurry due to the shit storm triggered by a discovery of the Daily Mail: “That coat, whose list price exceeds 1,500 pounds, was produced in the Beriv plant, in the city of Berrettyoujfalu. It is located in eastern Hungary, one of the poorest regions in the country, near the Romanian border. And it was produced by Hungarian workers who earn only 2.60 pounds an hour (about 3 euros, editor’s note)”.
In the pictures: on the left the invitation to Stella McCartney’s fashion show, on the right a screenshot taken from theguardian.com
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