Everyone can do simple things to make a difference, and every little bit really does count.
Stella McCartney
When I say I don’t do fur or leather, in my world it’s a massive shock, but when it comes into the sporting arena, it goes without saying. It also influences what I do on the runway: I get really excited when I discover an environmentally-friendly print process that doesn’t use water, and I’ll try and mimic that in my ready-to-wear.
Stella McCartney
The beliefs I was raised with – to respect animals and to be aware of nature, to understand that we share this planet with other creatures – have had a huge impact on me.
Stella McCartney
I don’t plan massively in advance.
Stella McCartney
I guess my favourite Disney film was ‘Snow White,’ which has a really dark moment when the evil queen turns into a witch and makes the poison apple. It was terrifying in the same way ‘Maleficent’ is.
Stella McCartney
My job at the end of the day is to design timeless, desirable, beautiful products. It’s not about just designing a bunch of organic jumpers. I have a balance within the brand. If you try to create something people enjoy, and it happens to be made in a responsible way, then that’s when you can really strike an incredible balance.
Stella McCartney
To work on the competition wear for the Olympics is kind of insane. As a fashion designer, you don’t think to yourself, ‘I’m going to get the opportunity to work with athletes at that level at the Olympic Games.’ It really is such an incredible thing to have any kind of contact with as a designer.
Stella McCartney
You feel like everyone hates you if you’ve got a good life, now I feel maybe it’s allowed because I’ve had my share of sadness.
Stella McCartney
My job is to make desirable, luxurious, beautiful clothing and accessories women want to buy. My first decision is always based on, ‘Can I do this in a more sustainable way without sacrificing design?’ If I can, then there is no reason not to.
Stella McCartney
Obviously, we live in a society where ageing is feared. But, to me, the alternative to getting old isn’t that great. I’ve got friends much older than me and much younger, and I love that. It means you get to teach as well as learn.
Stella McCartney
People think I’m strong, but actually I wanted to crawl away. I thought, I’m going to live in the country with my horse and I’ll get a nine-to-five; I don’t need this.
Stella McCartney
I’m a woman designing for women, and there are so many layers to that. On the one hand, it brings an effortlessness, but it also means that I think and overthink every detail, whether it’s physical or mental or even – in some sense – spiritual.
Stella McCartney
I’m obsessed with not chucking away food. I’m lucky enough to have a gardener, so we grow sweetcorn, tomatoes, beetroots, cabbages, pumpkins, lettuce. I’m trying to get into blanching it and freezing so I don’t have to buy veg over the winter, but then you need loads of freezers, and that’s not ideal.
Stella McCartney
We’ve all got to come together, and we’ve got to protect what’s left of our ancient forests on this planet.
Stella McCartney
I can honestly say this industry hasn’t made me neurotic about my looks, except maybe my weight. I hope my clothes kind of reflect that. They’re meant to make you feel good.
Stella McCartney
Growing up, I was always really inspired by Disney, and I had a great love of everything they created. My mum was huge fan, and she used to collect stills, and so they were all around the house, and we very much grew up on the early Disney films.
Stella McCartney
I was brought up to understand that we are all here on planet earth together.
Stella McCartney
I was brought up in a way that was based purely on the senses. Everything in my upbringing was a reaction to growing up on an organic farm or to the emotions of animal cruelty, as well as the visuals of my mum’s and my father’s art – he was also an art collector.
Stella McCartney
I personally love sportswear, and love using it in high fashion.
Stella McCartney
More than anything I want to be fit so I don’t get out of breath when I play football with the kids.
Stella McCartney
My fragrance is rose and amber, and I was just very specific. A lot of what I’ve done, at the stages I’ve done it, I’ve been a little naive, which brought with it a kind of charm. I did Stella a while ago. It’s now a bit of a classic.
Stella McCartney
We have captured a luxury and richness with our fur-free fur, which is proof to the fashion industry that killing animals for the sake of fashion is unnecessary.
Stella McCartney
There’s no excuse for fur in this day and age.
Stella McCartney
I didn’t want to be thirtysomething and not know what I was going to do. I was quite afraid of that, there were quite a lot of aimless kids around, in that ‘other’ side of my life, who didn’t really know what to do because they always had a bank balance to fall back on and they were quite lost.
Stella McCartney
I don’t know, maybe I’m overly paranoid that they’re going to be spoiled, but I want to keep them going as kids for as long as I can. I want to keep them innocent and free.
Stella McCartney
What you wear in the evening is important for women because it’s so personal, and it’s so complicated to get it right. I like trousers for evening, especially when they have that width and attitude to them.
Stella McCartney
When you find the person that you settle down with, I guess you mellow. They are taming you, aren’t they? Or you’re taming them.
Stella McCartney
I ride my bike, I work out, I do a bit of, er, dancey things.
Stella McCartney
I am a fashion designer. I’m not an environmentalist. When I get up in the morning, number one I’m a mother and a wife, and number two I design clothes. So the main thing I need to do is create, hopefully, exquisitely beautiful, desirable objects for my customer.
Stella McCartney
I’ve had people say to me, ‘You’ll never sell handbags. You don’t work with leather, and leather is luxury.’ To me, it’s the complete opposite: leather is everywhere – it’s so cheap a material; it’s so mass produced. Over 50 million animals a year are killed just for fashion. For me, it doesn’t have a luxury element to it.
Stella McCartney
I like doing slightly masculine, Savile Row tailoring. A nice jacket. Wearable – it’s almost a dirty word in fashion, wearable, but that’s what I do.
Stella McCartney
Some days, I get overwhelmed and a bit breathless… I’ve probably cried at work, but I’m limited with my crying: I’m the boss; I’m not really allowed to cry at work.
Stella McCartney
I literally have meetings at eight o’clock in the morning, and I finish at nine o’clock at night. It sounds pathetic, but I don’t even have time to go shopping.
Stella McCartney
It’s immoral that people make money out of writing crap, but I try not to obsess about it. I don’t want to spend my life being angry.
Stella McCartney
My biggest surprises in my everyday job have to do with the challenges of trying to be slightly more responsible as a brand.
Stella McCartney
You have to be hopeful that people will be more educated in how they buy things, and hopefully more luxury brands will start to think that way on a longer-term basis.
Stella McCartney
I think deep down I’m spiritual, but there’s nothing I practice.
Stella McCartney
I’m incredibly sad that my mother’s not here to see my kids and that my kids don’t get to know her. And she didn’t meet my husband. That’s one of the hardest things. I don’t even know how to put that into words.
Stella McCartney
Sometimes I wish I were less sensible.
Stella McCartney
Depending on the season, between 20 and 30 percent of my collections contain some sort of eco or sustainable element, whether it’s a beautiful organic fabric or a natural dye. And obviously I don’t use animal skins or fur of any kind.
Stella McCartney
We try to make earth-friendly decisions whenever we can, as it’s part of our brand DNA.
Stella McCartney
We always had our own vegetables growing up and now I’m doing it with my kids at our house in the country.
Stella McCartney
I used to get embarrassed about the fact I liked fashion. I still get a bit cringy.
Stella McCartney
I love that you can have the language between the two worlds of technology and fashion, because I don’t think that many designers get to do that.
Stella McCartney
Losing my mum. That was a punch-me moment.
Stella McCartney
I feel like a different person since my mum passed away, like I’m driving a ship with my husband alongside me and we’re leading these four children into unknown waters.
Stella McCartney
I think the moment that I’m very proud of is building a business without using animals. And, hopefully, changing people’s perception of how you can do luxury fashion.
Stella McCartney
If you try to create something people enjoy, and it happens to be made in a responsible way, then that’s when you can really strike an incredible balance.
Stella McCartney
I confess to being a frustrated musician.
Stella McCartney
For me, singing is the most natural thing in the world. I’ve grown up with it and I know I’ve got that gift.
Stella McCartney
If people stop liking my clothes, I’ll make a record.
Stella McCartney
At times I make music, but in private.
Stella McCartney