Stella McCartney free essay sample

Stella McCartney is a long-life vegetarian and an animal rights activist, which is evident in her designs as she does not use any leather or fur in her designs. Stella’s style is elegant and feminine, but her style also involves power dressing, with womens suits, stiff jackets and feminine lingerie. Her designs focus heavily on emphasising strong prints such as leopard and floral. There is a feminine, schoolgirl touch to her designs, as she includes loveheart prints and lips. Many of her designs, such as in the Spring 2014 collection, have very stiff structures, and the general silhouette for most designs, is pointed stiff shoulders, with a straight dress or pants, like one long rectangle. Some designs have an hourglass silhouette, as the skirt is fuller and the waist is thin, with stiff shoulders. In this collection, she uses deep mustards and dark browns, pale creams, and reds for the floral designs, subtle pinks and yellows, bright oranges, and blacks with dark greens and blues. We will write a custom essay sample on Stella McCartney or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Stella has used fake leathers, knitted wool, cotton/polyester, and satins in this collection. There is a range of textures used in this collection. The fake leathers would have a rubbery texture and the print used on them would create a bumpy surface, while the floral cotton/polyester designs would be a soft and smooth texture. The garments with prints would be smooth with a rough surface where the print is, while her designs with applique and beads would be rough and bumpy. Her designs are ‘ready to wear’ garments for women, childrens clothing, and lingerie. Her lingerie is very feminine and petite. The underwear and bras are centred around intricate floral lace that is very sheer and delicate. Stella uses mainly satin and lace in designing her lingerie range, and some designs, such as the bedwear, are made from cotton and polyester. Many of her lingerie designs, are solid colours such as light pinks, apple greens and oranges, while others are shades such as pale metallic aquas. She of course uses blacks and whites in her sexier lingerie and bedwear. The textures used in these designs include a rough texture for the lace designs, and a smooth texture in the designs made from satin. The bed wear lingerie would have a smooth cotton texture. 3. Internal Factors: Expertise: Stella made her first jacket at age 16, on her sewing machine at home and at age 19, she became an intern for Christian Lacroix, and started building her skills working for her fathers Savile Row Tailor for a few years. She graduated from Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, and had her first graduation collection after finishing fashion design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Her collection was modeled by friends and supermodels at the graduation runway show. Stella gained many of her expertise whilst working at French fashion house ‘Chloe’ and later gained a partnership with ‘Gucci’ where she launched her own fashion house. Facilities: In the start, Stella only had her sewing machine as a youngster, but by the age 19 she was working in a studio for Christian Lacroix, which meant she had access too much more equipment and space such as industrial sewing machines, overlockers, fabric cutters and higher quality appliances such as irons and scissors. She launched her own fashion house under her name in a joint venture with Gucci. She currently works with the NRDC(Natural Resources Defence Council), and importing fabric from mills in italy. Stella is based in Haywards Heath, UK which she works from and has people working for her. She operates in 17 freestanding stores in Paris’ Palais Royal, Barcelona’s Passeig de Gracia, Milan, Rome, Miama, Manhattan’s Soho, and LA’s West Hollywood. She currently distributes to over 50 countries in speciality shops and department stores Financial: Stella was born into the family of Beatles Bassist Paul McCartney, so she was already in a great financial situation. Her financial situation boomed when she made front page news for her graduation collection, and sold the entire collection to Tokio, a London Boutique. In 2001, the companies sales rose to 19 per cent. Stella McCartneys company;s profits increased 0. 5 per cent to ? 2. 9 million, which the companys total sales rose to ? 21 Million. As Stella McCartneys brand expands worldwide, her financial situation. Stella lives in a townhouse in West London, which she is selling for ? 2. 9 million, however it seems this price is too high, as she had to lower the price to ? 2. 5 million, because of the lack of buyers. External: Economic: Stella McCartney has taken a very strong ecological stance against the use of animal products in her fashion. Being brought up as a vegetarian, she is strongly against using leather and fur, and killing animals for the sake of fashion. Stella believes in ethical production of her materials, and she joined the Ethical Trading Initiative. She believes that in order to produce sustainable and ethical fashion, there must be an improvement in the way the textile industry manufactures fabrics. Stella teamed up with organisations like the National Resources Defense Council on its Clean by Design Program, which deals with working with people making the products, such as the textile mills. Stella doesn’t make her own fabrics, so she is limited in the organic ranges on the market. She tries to use organic fabrics and low-impact dyes, but many of the dyes dont achieve the desired result. Stella produced her own perfume, and has a strong ecological stance against testing on animals, which means she had to pair up with a company which was also not against testing on animals. Many of stellas stores are also wind powered, which also clearly represents her strong will to save the environment. Political: Through Stellas clothing, she has a strong political statement against issues like animal cruelty, slave labour and protecting the environment. Stella shows her views on these topics by using organic fabrics, not made in sweatshops, and does not use leather or any other animal products. Political relationships between European countries such an Italy remain stable which assists in her production and marketing of her Products. Political relations between the countries she has stores in are stable such as China. Social: There are many societal impacts on Stella. Her range of clothing targets people in society that believe in sustainable clothing and ethical treatment of animals and people. She targets very feminine women who enjoy luxurious items, without the guilt of knowing an animals been harmed, or the environments been damaged. She uses fake leather and fur to appeal to her target audience, and also uses natural and sustainable fabrics to further target women who share the same beliefs and ethics as her. She gives women the chance to feel good wearing her organic clothing. She also provides an alternative, as some people feel that in order to wear organic and sustainable clothing, there is only the option of baggy hemp fashion. Stella has shown that there is a way to be both stylish and sustainable and has appealed to a wide variety of young and old women. Technological: Technology has had a huge impact on Stella’s fashion career. She recently partnered up with Adidas, and has created a voluminous Run jacket that keeps you outside and training even in the harshest weather. This jacket has a built in Climaproof weather protection which acts as a barrier in storm conditions. Body temperature is optimised with increased breathability. New fabrics such Techfit are used in this outfit. Techfit is a body hugging tricot fabric with polyurethane tape that contour the body. This fabric helps to retain posture and supports muscles, making it the perfect workout outfit. New technology is also used on the shoes, such as an open-cell shock absorber, and ‘Sprintframe’ technology which is structure that allow for a lighter, stronger shoe which maintains optimum stability. The use of the internet has had a big impact on Stella’s Fashion line as she is able to globally sell products and display designs, gaining international success. Stella works with cutting edge sports performance technology in the manufacture of the adidas line. 4. Stella is often influenced by current trends in society, such as her use of pastel pinks in her Winter 2014 line. This trend has influenced her designs heavily, as the notion of girliness is apparent throughout this collection. She incorporates pastel colours, coupled with feminine flower patterns to create the look of this trend in society. The trend of ‘vintage’ in younger women has affected stella, and this trend is apparent also in the feminine flower designs that represent the vintage look. An obvious trend that is a big part of stellas collections is the use of fake leather and fur, and not testing on or using animals in anyway. The idea of having sustainable clothing that lasts is also a big trend as people become more educated on the use and manufacture of certain unsustainable fabrics and our accumulating land fills. This trend however does affect Stella’s variety of fabric she can use. In her Spring 2014 line, she uses fabrics that have leopard prints on them and look like leather, however the fabric used is a fake leather and no animals were harmed in the manufacture. Stella’s use of sustainable fabrics has also set a trend in the fashion world for other designers to start thinking about the consequences of their manufacture on the natural environment. Her perfume, is strictly no animal testing, which appeals to a wide variety of women, and further setting a trend in the perfume industry to stop testing on animals. Stella has also incorporated a historical trend in her spring 2014 line. She has been influenced by the ‘power dressing’ trend for women in the 80’s, and has created a design that is a women’s suit, will fuller shoulders and a masculine look to it to create the notion of independence. The trend of a straight dress, like a rectangle, in womens dresses in the 90’s has been an influence for some of Stella’s dress designs in her Spring 2014 line. She has combined the trend of the ‘independent business women’ by having a sharp geometrical silhouette that represents assertiveness and independence. The recent trend of using new technologically advanced fibres and fabrics has influenced Stella’s adidas range. She uses cutting edge fabrics such as lycra and spandex to give her designs high performance and high elasticity, whilst making it durable.