Stella McCartney to launch lingerie collection

Eco-aware designer Stella McCartney is to launch a lingerie line, in association with Elle Macpherson Intimates licensee Bendon, a New Zealand based company. The news comes after the recent announcement of her newly launched organic skincare range called Care by Stella McCartney.

"Lingerie is an obsession of mine," McCartney told WGSN. "I've been inspired by it for years, and ever since my degree collection at St Martins, I've used it in my work. This is a natural progression for me."

The lingerie collection will have an emphasis on "naturally sexy, confident and modern designs," the company said. It will come in silk, organic cottons and georgette silk chiffons in a signature Stella McCartney palette of soft shades of vintage pink, cream, blue and pearl grey.

Marco Bizzarri, CEO of Stella McCartney said: "This is a real partnership with Bendon and a unique opportunity for Stella McCartney to address her sensibility for lingerie.

www.stellamccartney.com
1st August 2007

Stella McCartney to launch online antifur protest

Stella McCartney is launching a virtual antifur protest. On July 12, the designer and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will co-host an online event on a specially created island in the virtual world. Visitors to the island — which is inspired by the English countryside, complete with stables, picnic tables and a Linda McCartney veggie burger stall — will be able to show their support for PETA in virtual terms.

All visitors will receive a selection of antifur accessories for their Second Life character to wear; they can donate money in Linden dollars, the community's currency, which the animal rights group will be able to exchange for real U.S. dollars, and they will be able to dress their character in a T-shirt bearing the slogan "I'd rather be pixilated than wear fur."

"Sometimes it's nice to have a bit of humour on serious subjects," said McCartney, whose island will be open through July 29, in a statement. Those who take a trip to the online idyll will be able to scoop real-world prizes, too. A competition will run until July 19, for which visitors can submit a new PETA slogan, based around its tag line, "I'd rather go naked than wear fur." Prizes will include two tickets to McCartney's spring 2008 show in Paris, one of the designer's Appaloosa bags and her entire Care skin care line.

27 June 2007

Bags of style

Stella McCartney is to design a limited-edition collection for the accessories label LeSportsac. The collection, which will consists of travel bags, luggage baby accessories and bags for mother with infants and toddlers, will launch in spring 2008. The line will be available in upmarket boutiques and department stores worldwide, will be sold at the Stella McCartney stores in New York and Los Angeles , and may also be purchased online. Marco Bizzarri, president and chief executive of Stella McCartney, revealed the news to WWD ahead of the official announcement.

The Stella McCartney for LeSportsac collection will consist of between 30 and 40 styles, with average prices ranging from $200 to $250.

“LeSportsac has a strong history of making non-leather goods, and this is a unique opportunity for Stella McCartney to address a new category of accessories for the busy woman of today,” Bizzarri said. The collaboration with LeSportsac is an opportunity for the designer, whose own-name non-leather accessory designs easily exceed the LeSportsac prices, to speak to a broader audience. As Bizzarri told WWD: “It will give her bags a wider appeal.” Her collaboration with Adidas has also helped her appeal to a younger audience in a lower price bracket, as has her one-off collection for H&M in November 2005.

President and ceo of LeSportsac, Steve Jacaruso, said the label wanted to “tap into Stella McCartney's creative vision and take (LeSportsac) to the next level of high-end design and style.” He said women would take to the diverse collection, whaether they have young children or not. The collaboration will initially be for 18 months with the possibility of a renewal.

www.lesportsac.com
www.stellamccartney.com
29 January 2007

Stella McCartney enters Japan

Stella McCartney is to open her first flagship store in Tokyo in 2008. The designer, whose label has thrived under Gucci Group, has signed a five-year licensing contract with Unit & Guest Co. Ltd. The company will distribute her ready-to-wear and accessories lines in that country. President and chief executive of the brand, Marco Bizzarri, told WWD that the label would also be opening shop-in-shops in select Japanese department stores.

Although many luxury firms are beginning to regard the Japanese market as a mature one with little room for growth and are increasingly turning their attention to China , Stella McCartney has waited until now to expand into Japan . The label already as a number of existing wholesale accounts in Japan , which it established in 2001. According to Bizzarri, the business has been growing especially fast in Japan and “we thought it was time to have a partner based there to develop it.” He said that the mature market conditions that other luxury brands have been complaining of did not apply to Stella McCartney. “We are a small company, and the Japanese market is not a mature one for us. We are a new brand in the growing stage of our lifecycle, and we see Japan as an opportunity.” He declined to reveal sales results or projections for the country.

In a statement, president of Unit & Guest, Tetsuya Hashida, said he looked forward to creating “a strong Stella McCartney brand” in Japan . Only three years old, Unit & Guest already has a proven track record distributing and developing luxury brands like Diane von Furstenberg, Luella and Biba in that country. The agreement with Stella McCartney will come into effect in January. All products will be imported from Europe .

www.stellamccartney.com
4 December 2006

Bankable Stella

Stella McCartney is to design the latest account card for private bank Coutts & Co. Just as menswear designer Ozwald Boateng did before her in 2004, McCartney will design the card combining “the intricacies found on banknotes and on the Coutts cheque book with aspects of the British countryside.”

“It was refreshing to be asked by Coutts to design something I have never done before,” said the designer. “It is a design area that has been overlooked in the past it's about time you get to spend your hard earned money with an account card that looks good.” Sarah Deaves, chief executive of the British private bank, appeared delighted with the collaboration. “We are very excited to be working with Stella McCartney who has brought imagination and creativity to a key component of our current account,” she said. “The new card has been designed to complement our ‘famous' Coutts cheque book – we hope that our clients will enjoy using it!”

10 October 2006

Stella McCartney expecting baby

Designer Stella McCartney is expecting her second baby, according to the Daily Mirror. This will come as good news to Sir Paul and the McCartney family as the recent divorce with Heather Mills is set to cost the singer millions of pounds.

2 August 2006

Stella McCartney launches skiwear

Those who like to be fashionable on the slopes will be pleased that Stella McCartney launched her new line of Adidas by Stella McCartney skiwear earlier this month. Aspen was host to the debut of her signature feminine silhouettes mixed with Adidas' technology and sportswear knowledge.

Ice-skaters wearing the new looks spun and twirled around a small ice-skating rink as reporters huddled in the cold outside the Elk Mountain Lodge in the remote Castle Creek Valley to view McCartney's first run into skiwear.

"I've been desperate to get some chic-looking skiwear," McCartney said to WWD, who skis and snowboards. "I think it's been missing. I've gone to buy ski clothes, and I've found it really difficult to find something I wanted to wear. Everything was always badly cut, and the fit was appalling. I don't want to look like a man when I'm skiing. Something about it was always quite wrong to me."

McCartney's solution to that is ski pants and jackets in muted shades of rosewood, dark bone, dark chocolate and dusty rose. Key pieces from the line include a soft-shell jacket, a full-piece ski jumpsuit and a padded ski coat with a removable fleece vest, all featuring details such as pockets for MP3 players, cell phones, goggles and money, as well as ski-pass and lipstick holders.

McCartney also designed her version of the moon boot as another signature item. This two-in-one shoe has a booty inside the water-repellent shell that may be removed and worn by itself for après-ski footwear.

29.03.06

Stella McCartney in art battle

Stella McCartney is involved in a family battle over the proceeds from her late grandfather's £27.5m fine art collection.The designers and her relations are being sued for a share of the money raised from the collection of Lee Eastmen, who was a successful American lawyer.

The McCartney relations (7, including Stella) were beneficiaries of the sale at Christies in New York last year, which included words by Picasso, Matisse, de Kooning and Rothko. It's unknown how the profits were divided, but if the shares are equal, Stella McCartney would have received about £4m.

The claim was made in January by the sons of Eastman's second wife, whom they say built the collection with her husband, and are therefore rightful heirs. In addition to Stella McCartney and Linda's three other children, the defendants include John Eastmen, Lee's son and executor and two other relations.

The single most expensive item in the November sale at Christies was an abstract work called Untitled 1977, by Willem de Kooning, the Dutch artist whose business affairs were managed by Lee Eastman. It fetched nearly £6m. Anther de Kooning abstract from 1975 was sold for more than £2m. Picasso's Buste de Femme, dated December 1939, went for more than £4m.

Stella McCartney, who is the most high profile of the defendants, set up her design company in 2001 after leaving her design post at Chloe. McCartney's label last week posted losses of nearly £1m for the last trading year, although turnover had doubled to £7.3m.

Stella McCartney sales on target

Stella McCartney has said that it is on target to turn a profit by 2007, a stipulation made by parent company, the Gucci Group.The company said in a statement on Tuesday that its losses in 2005 – from 1 February to 31 December 2005 - had declined 70 percent to £948,899 from £3.2 million. Revenues almost doubled to £7.3 million from £3.7 million.

The company reported its results for an eleven month period in order to bring itself in line the Gucci Group's parent PPR's fiscal year, which ends on 31 December.

Chief executive of Stella McCartney, Marco Bizzarri, said that the diminished losses were due to a rise in revenues and an increased efficiency in the running of the business.

The revenue figures include all sources of income, such as royalties from the firm's eyewear and fragrance licenses, except for wholesale revenue from McCartney's business outside the UK or retail sales from its stores in New York and Los Angeles.

The US is now Stella McCartney's largest market.

Although the Gucci Group does not release global sales figures for each of its companies – which include Alexander McQueen, Boucheron and Bedat & Co. – it did say that if McCartney's sales were measured at retail prices, they would amount to approximately €120 million (£82 million).

“Business is very, very positive and there's a great energy in the company,” said Bizzarri. “This is still a new brand. It was only set up in 2001 and sold its first collection in 2002.”

Speaking about the company's future, Bizzarri said: “The goal is to build on all the groundwork we've laid.” He was referring to McCartney's design projects with the likes of Adidas, the launch of an accessories collection earlier this year and the continuation of her fragrance and eyewear businesses with YSL Beauté and Safilo, respectively.

Furthermore, the statement also said that the designer's husband, Alisdhair Willis, had become a director of the company, replacing James Seuss who quit his post as chief executive in 2004 to join Harry Winston.

www.stellamccartney.com
15 February 2006

Stella McCartney launches accessories line

Stella McCartney has launched her first-ever accessories collection. The designer is known for her love of animals and her aversion to leather. With this new collection she introduces designs made from man-made and natural fabrics like nylon, vinyl, velvet and canvas.

“I'm not trying to take over the world, but I do want to show that accessories can be made from a more ethical viewpoint – and can be sexy and cool,” she told Women's Wear Daily in an interview. “The myth of leather – and that every bag and shoe needs to be made from it – needs to be broken down. It's a bit caveman.” She believes that there is a market for non-leather accessories and rues the fact that “ there aren't 20 other fashion houses making non-leather products”.

The line will be available in Stella McCartney flagship stores in London, New York and Los Angeles and in selected stores like Selfridges and Le Printemps in June. Prices vary from $195 (£110) for a nylon bag to $1,395 for a vintage-inspired Appaloosa – the nine handbag models have all been named after horse breeds - made from shiny, high-tech strop patent faux-leather. The bags don't have large, eye-popping logos, but figure subtlely on a bronze medallion. “I don't think my customers want to scream about having a designer bag,” she said.

The line also consists of purses, luggage, shoes, belts and jewellery. Prices for jewellery start at $95, but the price of a pair of embroidered shoes in sating or moiré can be as high as $1,595.

The accessories line is produced in-house in Italy. Chief executive Marco Bizzarri expects that in less than three years' time accessories will account for 30 percent of the brand's total annual sales. Currently they account for 16 percent.

In an interview with WWD late last year Bizzarri said that the reasons for launching an accessories line were fairly straightforward. “Our companies have been asking for it. There is a huge opportunity for growth here,” he said. “We think we're in a unique position, and we're ready to exploit our strengths.”

Working with non-leather materials has been a challenge for McCartney. “Yes, non-leather is a point of difference for us, but I want people to buy this collection because they love it, because it's cool, and because there's a must-have bag or shoe,” she said.

“For autumn-winter '05, our thigh-high boots sold out, and I'm willing to bet that 90 percent of the customers didn't even know they were non-leather.”

www.stellamccartney.com
1 February 2006

Stella unveiled

After months of hype, mystery and great expectations, Stella McCartney's collection for H&M was unveiled during a star-studded event in London last night. Gwyneth Paltrow and Jasmine Guinness were there to admire the clothes, and Paltrow made a point of telling Vogue that she loved the entire line.

The collection consists of skinny cotton-mix trousers, silk-chiffon tops and silk-mix dresses that are resolutely Stella-ish, but won't break the bank. In an interview earlier this week she said: “I've always felt there was something wrong about making high-priced cloths.” This is in stark contrast to the prices her own brand commands under ownership of the Gucci Group.

Referring to this collection as “the best of Stella”, McCartney has indeed included her bestsellers. “Why not give them the best of Stella McCartney? The greatest hits – the compilation of things that you think of when you think of me. Like a sexy jean and sharp masculine tailoring,” she said in an interview with Elle magazine. Margareta van den Bosch, H&M's design director told Elle: “Our customers asked for Stella. She's a very popular choice. They feel like they know her.” We can't wait for the collection to hit H&M stores on 10 November.

>> more H&M on FashionUnited
27 October 2005

Stella does affordable fashion

I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine, and if you're famous girlfriends, then the world can enjoy your collaborative efforts. To that end, Kate Moss is to be the face of Stella McCartney's one-off collection for H&M. The unveiling will take place on 10 November.

The new collection consists of 30 pieces, which will be sold at approximately 400 stores in 22 countries. The ads for the collection were shot by Mario Sorrenti and will appear in print in Europe and throughout the US .

“This one-off collection is a ‘best of' Stella McCartney,” said Stella. “So many people come up to me and say ‘I love your designs but could never afford them'. This collaboration is a great way to speak to a wider audience and let them get to know me and my designs better.”

>> more H&M on FashionUnited
8 September 2005

Stella McCartney teams up with H&M

Stella McCartney is to succeed Karl Lagerfeld by collaborating with H&M, according to industry insiders. McCartney, who's recent collaboration with Adidas has proven very successful, is no stranger to designing effortless chic, sexy, urban clothes - the trademark of the Swedish retailer.

Expect cool, feminine, separates. All affordably chic. McCartney said designing for H&M "is one of the most exciting and innovative ways to introduce my clothes to a broader range of women." H&M design director Margareta Van den Bosch said choosing McCartney was a no-brainer. "We didn't want to think of Stella as a follow-up to Karl Lagerfeld," she said. "We wanted something completely different."

She said McCartney would contribute some 40 pieces, including accessories and some underwear - but no men's wear.
"It's all very feminine, with soft colors and very sweet," said van den Bosch. The collection is due to be in store by the holidays.

>> more H&M on FashionUnited
11 May 2005

Stella does it again

Designer and Beatle progeny Stella McCartney has hit the jackpot once again with her new collaboration with sportswears giant Adidas.

Last September the announcement was made that Stella would be designing a range of fitness clothes for the German company. Expectations were high and, still, Stella has managed to surpass them. The collection went on sale at selected Adidas flagship stores, including Oxford Street in London, on 17 February (at the start of London Fashion Week) and already people are fighting over the items on eBay.

Stella McCartney for Adidas includes pieces for running, gym/workout and swimming. The pieces incorporate Adidas' expertise and Stella's design details, like laser-edge eyelets, contour seaming and raw-edge trims. Items include reversible jackets, snug gym tops, limited edition yoga shoes and boxer-style swim robes executed in soft pink, lemon and grey. Prices range from GBP 27-137 for all items.

According to reports, the collaboration between Stella and Adidas is long-term and the company has confirmed that next season's collection is in the making.

>> more Adidas on FashionUnited
10 March 2005

Stella McCartney Gives Birth To Boy

Designer Stella McCartneygave birth to a healthy baby boy weighing almost 8lbs at London's Portland hospital yesterday morning.

Insiders said the baby has already been given a name. According to family tradition, boys names should begin with a J. Stella's famous dad was christened James Paul McCartney and his father is called Jim McCartney. Sir Paul has a son called James.

3 March 2005

New CEO for Stella

The Italian luxury goods concern Gucci Group announced yesterday that it had appointed Marco Bizzarri as the new chief executive of Stella McCartney. Prior to this appointment Bizzarri worked for the Mandarina Duck group, which he joined in 1993. At Stella McCartney, he will be working together with Stella herself to build and expand the brand. The aim is to develop a strong global brand.

McCartney was very complimentary and told reporters that she immediately warmed to Bizzarri. Gucci Group CEO Robert Polet was equally positive about Bizzarri, claiming he brought "a wealth of entrepreneurial, strategic and operational talent together with a tremendous amount of energy." This move may put to rest the rumours that the Stella McCartney brand is struggling.

www.gucci.com
24 November 2004

Stella McCartney Business to Expand

Stella McCartney is planning to open stores in Milan and Paris as the Gucci Group-owned company is planning its growth over the next three years. With sales rising by 50 per cent this year, the Group's emerging brand is on course for solid profitability, according to James McArthur, an executive vice-president of Gucci Group.

According to The Times, accounts for the British arm of Stella McCartney's business show that Gucci invested £6.5 million in the company in the year to January 31, 2004, while losses for the UK business were £3.9 million compared with £4.5 million a year before. Mr McArthur stated that Stella McCartney Ltd, which includes design and creative studios, some product development and the London store, is responsible for "a great part" of the brand's losses and a small proportion of turnover, but refused to outline global losses.

National sales for the brand increased from £434,000 to £2.5 million in the UK business and continues to grow and expand. The main focus will be to expand sales in major European markets such as France, Italy and the UK as well as further expanding into US market. The brand, which has had collections in stores for less than three years, is on track for worldwide sales of more then £20.8 million from sales of clothing, accessories as well as royalties from perfume, in the year to January 31 2004, up from £20 million in the previous 12 months.

www.stellamccartney.com
2 November 2004

Stella McCartney For Adidas

If you like your sportswear sexy and feminine, you will adore the Stella McCartney range for Adidas. The new sport performance collection is due to hit the stores next February, and will team McCartney's signature design with Adidas' knowledge for function sports products.

www.stellamccartney.com
>> more Adidas on FashionUnited
9 September 2004

Stella McCartney For Charity

Stella McCartney has designed an exclusive, limited-edition t-shirt for Saks fifth Avenue's new Key to the Cure initiative. Proceeds go to more than 60 charitable programmes that research cancer in women. The white Danskin three-quarter sleeve Tee costs about $30 and can be purchased at www.saks.com. Only 12,000 have been made, and the waiting list is currently in the four figures.

27 August 2003
www.stellamccartney.com

Stella Opening

Stella McCartney swung open the doors of her new Mayfair boutique last week. Among the guests at the lavish party were artist Sam Taylor-Wood, actress Tara Fitzgerald and personal pal Madonna. Besides the beautiful clothes, the VIP changing room is worth a visit for its revealing image of a uniformed beefcake...

26 May 2003
www.stellamccartney.com

Honorary degree for Stella

British fashion designer Stella McCartney (30) is to receive an honorary degree from the University of Dundee. Miss McCartney will receive the honour at a graduation ceremony for design students in London in July. Last year, she opened her first store in New York City.

The top designer with the Gucci group will attend the ceremony at the city's Estorick Gallery and be awarded an LLD by Chancellor Sir James Black. The popular designer, daughter of former Beatle Paul McCartney, worked with Christian Lacroix on his first couture collection at the age of 15.

Miss McCartney later studied fashion design at London's St Martin's College of Art and Design. She made the front pages of the national press with a graduation show that included friends Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss on the catwalk - and her proud parents watching from the front row. In 1997 she was appointed chief designer at French couture house Chloe.

She left Chloe in 2001 and joined the Gucci Group, where she has developed her own label.

www.stellamccartney.com
March 5, 2003