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.
Interpretation
The essence of clothing lies in how it fits and looks on real people, rather than just in a controlled or idealized setting.
Stella McCartney's quote emphasizes the importance of practicality and reality in fashion. It suggests that the true measure of clothing is not merely its appearance in a studio or on a runway, where settings are often idealized, but rather how it interacts with and enhances a real person's body and individuality. This perspective challenges superficial beauty standards and underscores the need for authenticity in fashion.
In practice
In a fashion show discussion, to highlight the importance of real-world application of designs.
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.
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.
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.
When you think of the blur of all the brands that are out there, the ones you believe in and the ones you remember, like Chanel and Armani, are the ones that stand for something. Fashion is about establishing an image that consumers can adapt to their own individuality. And it's an image that can change, that can evolve. It doesn't reinvent itself every two years.
Though designed as a mere convenience, clothing sizes establish an unintended norm, an ideal from which deviations seem like flaws. There's nothing like a trip to the dressing room to convince a woman - fat, thin, or in between - that she's a freak.
I don't understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little - if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that's the day she has a date with destiny. And it's best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.
All it takes are a few simple outfits. And there's one secret - The Simpler The Better
It's always the badly dressed people who are the most interesting.
She had a womanly instinct that clothes possess an influence more powerful over many than the worth of character or the magic of manners.
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