Stella McCartney is renowned for her environmental activism, but the fashion designer’s latest collection might just be her most politically charged yet.
On Tuesday, McCartney announced that her company was making a bold call for action against climate change and had collaborated with members of activist group Extinction Rebellion to front its new autumn/winter 2019 range.
Activists Deya Ward, Ruby Munslow and Tori Tsui are among those featured and pose alongside models Amber Valletta, Chu Wong, Chloe Pearson and Trinity Hill, all of whom are passionate environmentalists.
The campaign imagery, shot by Johnny Dufort, packs a punch. In one shot, Valletta is photographed reclining on a giant globe wearing a rainbow knitted dress at the edge of the sea.
In another, the 45-year-old model poses against a backdrop of rolling green hills in Wales while wearing a faux fur coat with two alpacas standing beside her.
Another particularly striking image shows Valletta standing on the edge of a cliff along the Welsh coast wearing a pastel pink gown with structured shoulder pads and chestnut brown belt detail.
Every piece in the collection upholds McCartney’s commitment to sustainability with several garments made from upcycled materials and archival fabric.
Sustainable viscose is also used and every jersey and denim piece has been crafted using organic cotton.
The luxury fashion house will release a short film to accompany its new campaign in September, in which environmentalist Jane Goodall reads a poem by American novelist Jonathan Safran Foer.
The poem contains lines such as: “Here is where we have our long moment, where we cannot help but leave things differently than how we found them, and have the choice to leave things better. Here and only here are we at home.”
Valletta also fronts a short video for the campaign, which has been posted across Stella McCartney's social media channels. In it, the model shares her five ways to save the world. These include: "everything should be circular, get rid of all guns, reform prisons, make love not war and, besides being kind and grateful, we should definitely make sure we can feed everybody on this planet".
Stella McCartney’s autumn/winter 2019 collection is available online and in stores from August.
