Stella McCartney hosts Sustainable Market alongside SS24 PFW show

For her latest spring/summer 2024 runway show, Stella McCartney complemented the event with a street market that showcased some of the British fashion designer’s sustainable and materials innovation partners.

The occasion came as part of Paris Fashion Week, during which McCartney held her runway show at the Marché Saxe-Breteuil where the designer unveiled a slew of ready-to-wear looks, from flowing dresses to tailored suiting.

Models paced the runway alongside the ‘Stella Sustainable Market’, which like the Eiffel Tower served as a backdrop to the event.

A total of 21 market stalls were present, each participating in order to both inspire and educate show attendees on sustainable materials and circular fashion.

Among those presenting were the likes of LVMH-owned deadstock platform Nona Source; vegan leather supplier Mabel Industries; plant-based leather manufacturer Natural Fiber Welding (NFW); and traceable wool supplier Nativa.

‘Sustainable alternatives becoming the standard’

In a release on the event, Nativa’s global sales and marketing director, Maria Estrada, said: “Today’s presentation by Stella McCartney not only highlighted our partner’s commitment to sustainable and circular fashion, but also provided suppliers like Nativa with an opportunity to explain and showcase the valuable work we all do to a much broader audience. Nativa is thrilled to work with such a supportive and dedicated designer.”

Many of the market’s participants are current brand partners of the McCartney brand. Nona Source, for example, supplies deadstock fabric for a range of the designer’s collections, while NFW made its runway debut with the label for AW23, when its leather alternative Mirum was used to produce McCartney’s Falabella and Frayme bags.

This was also true for Kelsun, which provided its seaweed-based yarn for McCartney's knitted dresses for SS24, some of which came complete with mirrored detailings that were hand crocheted into the silhouettes.

In a statement to Vogue Business, she said: “I’m hoping I can use my runway show as a platform to raise awareness for some of the innovators we work with as well as others who are doing amazing things.

“Success looks like these sustainable alternatives becoming the standard. We absolutely need to support these innovators, or they will not make it.”

McCartney’s values could also be seen in the SS24 collection, which had reportedly been crafted from 95 percent 'conscious materials'.

The line was one of McCartney's most personal yet, as she further explored her own roots in music and her parents' relationship to inform many of the pieces, some of which were reinterpretations of archival styles and looks she borrowed from her family.