Stella McCartney displays how she is Pioneering a Greener Future for Fashion at Blenheim Palace, British Icons of Fashion Exhibition

The palace may seem an outlandish place to keep such an eye-opening exhibition exploring the depths of British fashion, but really it fits perfectly and a visit there may make you agree. Blenheim acts as a perfect backdrop, to truly showcase the beauty of these major fashion houses and their pieces.

The priceless collections merge the old and the new, with Turnbull and Asser embracing the 150-year anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill by showcasing the famous siren suit, one of his most iconic fashion statements. While other of the British fashion houses display some of their latest achievements. Terry de Havilland showcases one of his most recent designs worn at Comic Con in 2023 by beloved actor and fan favourite Millie Bobby Brown.

Although all the designer’s pieces were breathtakingly beautiful the star of the show was Stella McCartney’s catwalk inspired exhibition, which sprawled across one of Blenheim’s long library rooms. Contrasting the hundreds of years old, painting and décor, the catwalk was instead flooded with some of her most recent designs, giving them some much valued appreciation. Whilst as expected the other designers showcased an array of clothes which blend in among the palace’s historic décor.

Stella McCartney’s runways have been sought after by anyone who knows anything about fashion, since her legendary 1995 Central St Martins degree show, which saw the likes of modelling icons strut the runway in her clothes from Naomi Campbell to Yasmin Le Bon and Kate Moss. That show paved her path for success, it allowed for her to become the youngest ever creative director for Chloe and her own fashion house to present her garments at the next Paris fashion week. Fashion shows are the greatest form of expression for any designer and Stella McCartney’s has been a desirable one to attend ever since that day.

If there was any designer to be granted this biggest space for their exhibition it had to be Stella McCartney displaying all her latest achievements. Blenheim Palace is a key part of British culture, and so is the McCartney name, from the Beatlesto Stella. They are both key British icons. At her 2023 winter runway show she introduced UPPEAL™, a vegan apple-based alternative for real leather crafted from Northern Italy’s juice and jam industries wastage.

Major fashion houses tend to be let off lightly for using animal skin in their products, because people think it’s a luxury, to buy a dead animal’s skin. Another neighbouring brand in the exhibition Barbour still uses animal skins to curate their leather garments, even though it’s well sourced it is still not something McCartney agrees on saying:

“An animal decomposes when it’s natural, but after all of the chemical treatments [applied] to a leather handbag, it isn’t going to decompose in your wardrobe. That product is staying alive because of the chemicals that have been put on it—because if you just had a dead animal in your closet, it would be a very different situation.”

Her eponymous fashion house is one like no other, striving for a more economically friendly and recyclable ways to curate high end luxury fashion. In 2008 McCartney partnered up with Adidas one of the most well-known sporting brands across the globe. In 2019 they were able to launch a range of both clothing and footwear which was made up of 70% recycled materials installing her eco-friendly fashion motives on a platform which was not doing much for sustainability at the time.

Her exhibition showcases a wide range of custom dresses fitted for a selection of notable celebrities to strut the met gala red carpet, including a long flowy, scoop neck, white dress for Kate Moss to support at the 2008 event. She even crafted a dress for Madonna the musical mogul’s 2011 met gala look, which saw her wearing a tight blue, satin, high collared, V-neck dress followed by a silver-star encrusted train.

She not only thinks and decides to make more environmentally conscious choices for her own brand, but rightly so criticises the likes of other brands who can, and should be doing better to work towards making the industry more of a green outlet “It’s one thing to give up fur, but [many of those brands] weren’t really selling fur. Or to give up exotic skins when, really, who’s buying exotic skins anymore?”. Calling them out for something which they are receiving underserving appraisal for.

Since 2006 Stella has been doing exactly what every major fashion house should do and pioneered a way around animal cruelty, to create garments which do not result in the death of over 1 billion animals on an annual basis. That’s why her brand is completely vegetarian, cruelty free, and sustainable. But this in no means takes away from her amazing skills as a designer nor limits her potential. Instead putting her one step ahead of the competition and finding new and better alternatives. With her focus being to design garments that her audience love she even says, “one of the things you have to do, and the most sustainable thing you can do as a designer, is to create pieces that people want and won’t want to throw away.”

The palace show cases this wonderful aspect of the fashion powerhouse by having a spread of the different faux leather options which the brand uses in replacement of killing an abundance of an animals just for the benefit of having a new leather bag or pair of leather boots for their buyers to wear.

Her sustainability is unmatched within the industry, but hand in hand with that is her designing skills. The exhibition is a great opportunity to show how much her pieces stand out within society, with a blur of beiges and browns in the background only allowing for her beautiful brightly coloured garments to stand out. In front of an ancient statue of John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough lies a crystal embellished maxi dress with an array of different cut outs in the most beautiful lime green colour. The Italian made piece which retails for around the £5000 mark is a staple to her skills as a designer.

From Adidas to theBeatles,Stella McCartneyhas collaborated with some of the best. Her latest collaboration is withYoshitomo Narathe Japanese artist, for their spring/summer 2023 range making it their second ever unisex collaboration. The two make for the dream collaboration both wanting to use creative outlets to express and bring traction to serious issues, by disguising them in beautiful pieces of clothing. The main aim and branding surrounding the collaboration is to “change the history”. The pieces are all covered in writing spreading the word of serious problems occurring across the globe, and bringing attention to them with a cream hoodie, with an illustration of a young girl on the back saying “stop the bombs”.

 Her father Paul McCartney being a member in the Beatles music group has majorly impacted her as an individual designer. In 2019 she introduced an ‘All Together Now’ collection. The 50th anniversary of the Beatles film ‘Yellow Submarine’. The art curated by Heinz Edelmann is what inspired the collection which displays an array of clothes with bold colours and statement patterns very on theme for the band who were known for their ‘funky’ fashion choices relating to their psychedelic phase.

Stella’s goal is to pioneer a conscious luxury fashion movement, people think ethically sourced pieces of clothing is limited to ‘small brands’ who can be more particular because they have a smaller group of buyers. She wants to extend this to bigger high end designer labels and make them see everyone has the choice to produce their garments in a more ethical manor.

Since her graduation from Central St Martins in 1995 she’s been an unstoppable force to be reckoned with in the fashion industry, doing what nobody else is doing. Her most popular and iconic piece is her falabella bag known for being the first high end completely vegan luxury handbag, made in Italy the bag is “not only inspired by nature but designed to protect it” the bag is the epitome of what Stella McCartney stands for.

With the exhibition drawing to a close in June, Stella’s forward-thinking mindset is not something which will draw to a close any time soon with the future only drawing her more opportunities to extend her greenness and sustainability.