Stella McCartney’s psychedelic, sustainable Paris Fashion Week show – where her dad, former Beatle Paul McCartney, surprised her backstage

Oct 8 , 2021

Stella McCartney’s summer 2022 women’s ready-to-wear collection show put sustainability at the forefront during Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France, on October 4. Photo: Reuters

Stella McCartney’s virus-conscious show was shown to a fraction of the normal Paris audience. But that did not detract from its energy or celebrity pull.

Paul McCartney surprised his designer daughter backstage amid a huddle of guests that included Demi Moore and Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris, who spoke about her environmental concerns.

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A model presents a creation by designer Stella McCartney as part of her summer 2022 women’s ready-to-wear collection show during Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France, on October 4. Photo: Reuters

To make a point about the environment, McCartney used the idea of a mushroom, nature’s valiant survivor. It was also a springboard for myriad hallucinogenic looks.

A model wears a creation for the Stella McCartney spring/summer 2022 ready-to-wear fashion show presented in Paris, on October 4. Photo: Invision/AP

This collection, one of the season’s best, was ripe with energy and vibrant design.

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The mushroom theme was employed creatively. Vegetable prints featured on light organdie alongside a palette mixing natural bright hues with soil browns. The sustainable leather bags were, the house said, also made from mycelium – fungal material that breaks down organic matter.

But the best parts of the display came when McCartney deviated from the vegetable theme. Judo belts flapped around loose white pants in looks that sported piping borrowed from astronaut cooling tubes.

The collection’s finale blossomed with “magic mushroom” looks – lurid 70s shades and psychedelic patterns in skin-tight cutaway tops. Sparkling catsuits sheened like the shiny slug trails left in the forest at dawn.

Models present creations by designer Stella McCartney as part of her summer 2022 women’s ready-to-wear collection show during Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France, on October 4. Photo: Reuters

The British-American designer eschewed the usual Opera Garnier setting for a pared-down location this pandemic season – the Espace Niemeyer, a landmark modernist building designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.

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The celebrities huddled in strange oval rooms, while journalists were led through snaking corridors to meet the designer.

When the former Beatle surprised his daughter, backstage quickly felt like a family affair. Stella joked that photographers had better hurry up with their shots with Paul as “I don’t want to make him wait too long. You can’t make your dad mad at you.”

Demi Moore arrives for the Stella McCartney spring-summer 2022 ready-to-wear fashion show presented in Paris, on October 4. Photo: Invision/AP

Demi Moore, in a net jumpsuit, was there with her daughter, 30-year-old Scout Willis.

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Designer Stella McCartney appears at the end of her summer 2022 women’s ready-to-wear collection show during Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France, on October 4. Photo: Reuters

The daughter of the late King of Pop, Paris Jackson, was also there. She told the AP she loved McCartney and other designers that put the environment at the heart of their work. Jackson, 23, said she thought the hallucinogenic parts of McCartney’s show were not the most important.

Paris Jackson arrives for the Stella McCartney spring-summer 2022 ready-to-wear fashion show presented in Paris, on October 4. Photo: Invision/AP

“It’s less about the trippy stuff and more about saving the planet, which is so powerful,” she said.

Jackson lauded McCartney for being a pioneer with animal rights, cruelty-free fashion and promoting leather alternatives that are not plastic or animal based.

Jackson also admired eco-minded Vivienne Westwood, whose show she also attended, as she too “was a punk at heart”.

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Paris Fashion Week

The spring/summer women’s ready-to-wear presentation became a celebrity family affair, with Demi Moore and her daughter Scout Willis in the audience
Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris praised the environmentally conscious aspects of McCartney’s mushroom-inspired pieces – and admired Vivienne Westwood too