Stella McCartney Spring 2027: She Sells Sustainability by the Seashore

by · WWD
Stella McCartney Spring 2027 Ready-to-Wear Collection at Paris Fashion WeekDominique Maitre/WWD

There’s no doubt humans are at the mercy of the environment.

After Tuesday’s sweltering temperatures in Paris, rain showers awaited guests at Stella McCartney while the South of France joined the list of regions around the world currently experiencing torrential downpours and flooding.

The British designer’s spring show opened with David Attenborough’s prologue to the 2025 “Ocean” documentary, reminding viewers that “the most important place on earth is not on land.”

What covers 70 percent of the planet also had her wondering why people celebrate “sea life” but still eat “seafood,” whose harvesting she later described as “grotesque” given the harm fishing can cause to dolphins, octopuses and other sea creatures.

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As ever, that message came couched in sporty flavors and a dash of whimsy, tapping into McCartney’s childhood awe at the underwater ecosystem. The lineup spoke of warm-weather elegance, with tailored jackets with a drawstring at the waist, or turned into a bodysuit, and trousers with a sheer lower leg, a growing trend this season. Wave motifs curled along lapels, turned a crisp poplin shirt’s edge decorative or held draped evening gowns together.

Stella being Stella, this all came with sporty flavors in the shape of pastel-toned windbreakers, bralettes and utility trousers, plus a dash of whimsy, such as knitwear with transparent fishwire that turned edges frilly like oysters and T-shirts with vintage-style dolphin prints.

Under the easy-to-wear surfaces lay McCartney’s real message: that sustainability needs to start at thread-level — or earlier. Backstage, she mentioned recycled polyester, protein-based materials, deadstock and lab-grown wool, which she has been using for two seasons. But she also insisted on the role large luxury players need to play.

“I just know that it would help me and smaller brands trying to [work sustainably] if the big brands just accepted a new way of working in a new supply chain that’s meaningful,” said the designer, who recently unveiled The Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition.

Noting that she’s worked with “so many” larger players and remains an adviser to luxury titan Bernard Arnault, she considers she is “just here to share all of my knowledge,” she said. “It’s been 30 years. I have all the answers and the solutions.”

The way she wraps it in breezy attractive lineups could do more in fashion spheres than any PETA placard.

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