The world was always going to listen to Stella. That is the birthright of being Paul McCartney’s daughter. How fortunate, then, that over a three-decade career the fashion entrepreneur, animal-rights champion and sustainability advocate has had so much to say that’s been worth hearing.
“I just want to help save the planet,” the 49-year-old says now, shuttling across London in the back seat of a black sedan on an overcast evening in late July. She has just wrapped her cover shoot for this issue and has changed into a crisp white shirt. “But what I don’t want to do is preach and moan. No one wants to be told they can’t buy a leather handbag. They’ll buy five if I tell them not to. [What I make] has to be sexy, desirable.”
McCartney’s name may have cracked open a few doors early in her career. When she succeeded Karl Lagerfeld as creative director of Chloé at the age of 25 in 1997, he famously sniped, “They should have taken a big name. They did — but in music, not fashion.”