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.
Interpretation
This quote challenges the notion of luxury tied to materials, specifically leather, arguing it is mass-produced and exploitative rather than exclusive.
Stella McCartney's quote critiques the conventional perspective on luxury materials like leather, asserting that the mass production and exploitation inherent in the fashion industry strip away any true luxury status. She highlights the ethical implications of using leather, drawing attention to the millions of animals sacrificed each year for fashion, and suggests that true luxury should align with values of sustainability and compassion rather than mere opulence.
In practice
This quote can be used in a fashion industry seminar to spark discussions on ethical sourcing.
I never want to promote an ad that makes women feel bad about themselves, because when I was young, I never felt rich enough or fashionable enough or good enough. I felt talked down to by luxury fashion labels. There was a disconnect. They made me feel we weren't right for each other.
It's not about what it looks like in the studio or on the runway. It's what it looks like on a real person that matters.
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.
Sadly, we do a much better job of making people feel guilty than we do of delivering them from the guilt we create. We need to confess this and change our ways.
I don't want you to praise me...Some praise me because I am a colored girl, and I don't want that kind of praise. I had rather you would point out my defects, for that will teach me something.
When a mystery is too overpowering, one dare not disobey.
Wounded vanity knows when it is mortally hurt; and limps off the field, piteous, all disguises thrown away. But pride carries its banner to the last; and fast as it is driven from one field unfurls it in another, never admitting that there is a shade less honor in the second field than in the first, or in the third than in the second.
The world doesn't understand me and I don't understand the world, that's why I've withdrawn from it.
An event may be small and insignificant in its origin , and yet, when drawn close to one’s eye, it may open in its center an infinite and radiant perspective because a higher order of being is trying to express itself in it and irradiates it violently.
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