On Wednesday, French department store Galeries Lafayette unveiled its “Go for Good” campaign with Stella McCartney, highlighting the sustainable bent of products scattered around the store, while flagging broader aims.
The designer also launched a pop-up featuring shoes from her Loop collection — glue-free, with clip-on soles for easy recycling — as well as shirts made from trees in sustainable forests.
“You shouldn’t have to sacrifice any style for sustainability, I want you to look at those rack of clothes and I want you to look at my shoes and think oh, they’re leather. I don’t want you to go ‘oh god that’s like a fake leather and they look disgusting and cheap, and why am I going to pay x amount for that shoe?'” she said pointing to the tan colored boots she wore with jeans.
McCartney said her teams are always trying to come up with new solutions when it comes to the environment, citing the Loop shoe as an example.
Watch on FN
“The loop shoe is glueless and has three elements that kind of click apart; they’re all biodegradable and so that’s something [connected] with technology and the future of fashion we’re trying to look at.”
On her phone were images of McCartney wearing the new vegan Stan Smith sneakers she’s created in collaboration with Adidas. They come restyled with her own portrait sitting next to the original drawing of Smith himself. They also bear her signature, along with punched out stars on the side and stripes to the rear.
The designer described a shift taking place between the generations, with younger, teenage customers thanking her for her focus on ethical and sustainable fashion, while the older generation tends to tell her about their favorite pieces of clothing she had designed.
“I’m happy to have a crowded room, I just want it to last more than a season,” she said of the growing number of brands moving into territory she has worked hard to carve out over the years, facing ridicule for being vegetarian and making non-leather goods for a Paris fashion house.
Read a extended version of this story on WWD.
