"My clothes didn't kill anything": Stella McCartney says it with horses on the Paris catwalk

Stella McCartney opened her winter show not with pyrotechnics or a light show, but with seven speckled gray horses galloping around the sandy equestrian center of the oldest school in equitation from France, L'École Militaire.

< p class="dcr-1b64dqh">It was the first time the British designer had shown live animals on the catwalk, but that was the goal. “There is so much leather, fur and feathers on these catwalks, especially in the winter. I just wanted to show that you can show animals in a different way,” she said. Francois Pignon. Some found it entertaining, others worse. McCartney worked to reassure the public that the horses were "trained by him in a humane manner" and "accustomed to being around large groups of humans," the brand said in a statement. Behind the scenes, McCartney added, "The difference is that these animals are alive and my clothes didn't kill anything."

The most striking examples of this are outerwear and bags. Coats and jackets were long with pointed shoulders and cropped with nipped-in waists, and were available in red, black and white versions of quilted vegan leather and responsibly sourced yarn. The "leather" bags and boots were made from grapes, apples and mushrooms.

In the brand's 22 years, McCartney has never used of leather, feathers, fur or hides, making it a fashion outlier. Although almost every brand has now banned fur, and while it's rare to see a show that doesn't wink at 'sustainability', leather has featured in almost every Paris runway. McCartney's goal has always been to prove that it is possible to make "beautifully designed clothing" using alternative materials, the idea being that you shouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two. /p>