Modern Femininity
Stella McCartney’s SS19 collection is the epitome of effortless elegance
Stella McCartney has long evidenced that responsible fashion can still be luxe, directional and desirable. From her organic cotton tops right down to her vegan faux-‘leather’ shoes, her collections espouse style with substance. This season, the British designer also mixed masculine and feminine dress codes and blended hard and soft materials – in McCartney’s very capable hands, style is subversive, playful and subjective.
The resulting SS19 collection offers intricate but uncomplicated clothes that are rich in texture and color and varied enough to appeal to maximalists and minimalists alike. One of the standout pieces that encapsulated this playful mood at the Paris Fashion Week show was a floral lurex mini dress, with capacious swinging sleeves that riffed on ’60s disco dresses. McCartney tempered its plunging neckline with chic ballet flats that lent a tomboyish touch. She turned out a more romantic version, too, this time in pale lime-green with a ditsy floral print and a ruffled hem. McCartney gave it a practical feel with flat shoes, but this ethereal silk number will look just as elegant with a pair of stilettos for glitzier occasions.
“The resulting SS19 collection offers intricate but uncomplicated clothes that are rich in texture and color
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As for other day-to-night highlights in the collection, a fine blush-pink lingerie top was tucked nonchalantly into a pair of sweater-knit pajama pants, perfectly epitomizing the kind of ease in dressing that McCartney is renowned for. Pink is one of the colors of the season and we can’t help but feel enamoured by its pretty optimism, which evokes the buoyancy of long summer days. Needless to say, no summer wardrobe is complete without a pair (or two) of chic sunglasses. In keeping with this season’s ‘logomania’ trend, both McCartney’s crystal-embellished aviator-style sunglasses and the D-frame wrap-around mirrored sunglasses make a stylish finishing touch to any outfit.
Of course, Stella McCartney is a label adored for its red-carpet attire as much as its effortless daywear: at this year’s Golden Globes, Olivia Colman wore a long black Stella McCartney gown when she picked up her Best Actress award, while Julia Roberts’ one-shouldered tulle dress over a pair of crisp black pants embodied exactly the sort of masculine-feminine ease that McCartney championed this season. One of the designer’s finest juxtapositions is her ability to make formal pieces with a carefree spirit, and this season’s diaphanous, mint-colored, floor-length maxi dress is destined for the red carpet.