Stella McCartney

Stella Nina McCartney (born 13 September 1971) is an English fashion designer.

She is a daughter of British singer-songwriter Paul McCartney and the American photographer and animals rights activist Linda McCartney.

Like her parents, McCartney is a supporter of animal rights and environmentalism, and uses vegetarian and animal-free alternatives in her work.

McCartney was born on 13 September 1971 at King's College Hospital in Camberwell, London.

She is named after her maternal great-grandmothers (both of Linda's grandmothers were named Stella).

Her mother, Linda Eastman McCartney, was of Jewish ancestry.

As a girl, McCartney travelled the globe with her parents and their group Wings, along with her siblings: older half-sister Heather (who was legally adopted by Paul), older sister Mary, and younger brother James.

According to her father, the name Wings was inspired by Stella's difficult delivery.

As his daughter was being born by emergency caesarean section, Paul sat outside the operating room and prayed that she would be born 'on the wings of an angel'.

Despite their fame, the McCartneys wanted their children to live as normal a life as possible, so Stella and her siblings attended local state schools in East Sussex, one of them being Bexhill College.

McCartney has said that while attending state school, she was a victim of bullying yet she had been a bully herself.

McCartney became interested in designing clothes as a youth.

At the age of 13, she designed her first jacket.

Three years later, she interned for Christian Lacroix, working on her first haute couture collection, honing her skills while working for Edward Sexton (her father's Savile Row tailor) for a number of years.

McCartney studied her foundation at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, followed by fashion design at Central Saint Martins in the early 1990s, graduating in 1995.

Her graduation collection was modelled for free by friends and supermodels Naomi Campbell, Yasmin Le Bon and Kate Moss, at the graduation runway show, presented to a song especially written by her father, "Stella May Day".

A lifelong vegetarian, McCartney uses no leather or fur in her designs.

In 1997, McCartney was named the creative director of Chloé, a position she held until 2001.

(McCartney's mother Linda died of breast cancer in 1998.) The charity aimed to donate 1,000 of the brand's Louis Listening post-operative mastectomy compression bras to women undergoing breast cancer treatment.

On 21 November 2021, McCartney launched "The Beatles: Get Back" a collection inspired by the Beatles.

In 2023, McCartney performed a spoken word piece at the Coronation Concert, to mark the coronation of Charles III and Camilla.

In 2001, McCartney launched a fashion house under her name, in a joint venture with Gucci Group (now Kering), and presented her first collection in Paris.

She now operates 51 freestanding stores in Manhattan's Soho, London's Mayfair, LA's West Hollywood, Paris's Palais Royal, Barcelona's Passeig de Gracia, Milan, Rome, Miami and Houston, among other locations.

In 2003, McCartney launched her first perfume, Stella.

Since 2005, she has designed an activewear collection for Adidas.

In January 2007, she launched a 100% organic skincare line, CARE, which includes seven products, from a cleansing milk made with lemon balm and apricot, to green tea and linden blossom floral water.

In 2008, McCartney launched a new lingerie line with Bendon Group.

In November 2010, the Stella McCartney Kids collection was launched for newborns and children up to age 12.

In June 2012, McCartney invited the Soul Rebels Brass Band to perform at her 2013 spring fashion presentation at the New York Marble Cemetery in New York City.

Other guests invited to the party included Anne Hathaway, Jim Carrey, Anna Wintour, Annie Leibovitz, Lauren Hutton, Amy Poehler, Solange Knowles, P'Trique, Greta Gerwig and André Leon Talley.

Also in 2012, McCartney was part of The Sustainable Fashion Handbook.

The Guardian described her in 2015 as a 'consistent and vocal' supporter of animal rights.

Some of McCartney's designs have text that elaborates on her 'no animal' policy; one of her Adidas jackets carries a sleeve that says 'suitable for sporty vegetarians'.

A pair of her vinyl and ultrasuede boots were marketed specifically as vegan-friendly, though her use of oil-based synthetics still raised ecological concerns.

In November 2016, McCartney launched her first menswear collection, made up of many athleisure, pyjama-like casual outfits.

She said her father and comedian Jethro inspired the collection.

In April 2018, after 17 years of partnership with Kering, McCartney purchased its stake in her company and took full control of her global fashion empire.

The following year, she signed a strategic partnership with LVMH.

She designed the wedding reception dress worn by Meghan Markle, and later created 46 replicas of it (23 in lily white and 23 in onyx black) for her "Made With Love" capsule collection, each priced at £3,500.

On 15 October 2018, McCartney launched the Stella McCartney Cares Foundation, a charity dedicated to breast cancer.