We’ve been told pretty consistently that it will take an upheaval of our lives just to begin to reverse the damage wreaked on our planet. A decade ago, minor inconveniences had been shilled as our salvation (reusable bottles, recycling, composting, etc). But in the 2020s, the greater impacts of our more affecting habits—mostly, what and where we shop—are coming into focus, and with these changes, comes certain concessions. After all, a hemp dress just doesn’t flow like silk. But as the first few looks from Stella McCartney’s Fall/Winter 2024 collection traipsed down the runway, it was too easy to forget that her brand was founded on sustainability principles.

As narration by Olivia Colman and Helen Mirren expressed pleas from Mother Earth herself, McCartney endeavoured to show us the power of fashion’s evolving role in our world. In creating what we hesitate the consider possible with environmentally friendly materials, she lifted some of the weight off of this heavy subject matter.

“I am here to remind people that this is one of the most harmful industries. But I’m not here to make people depressed and scared,” she said. “I want to celebrate Mother Earth and all of her creatures and to remind us all to be conscious of that, but at the same time, I want it to be an uplifting experience.”

In McCartney’s creations, ‘sustainability’ as we’ve come to know it was nowhere on the runway. Through the unbridled opulence of ‘leathers’ made from bio-based alternatives and agricultural waste, lead-free crystals that adorned tailored pieces and glamorous vegan furs, the trailblazing designer proved that there doesn’t have to be a compromise with clothes.

If daily headlines spelling out irrevocable calamity didn’t already spell it out, our complicated relationship with this dying planet is a divisive topic, one that can leave a person rather nihilistic. But for McCartney, who remains at peace with her work, inspiration comes from finding alternatives that do better and go further.

“We all get angry, but anger is not a positive form of energy for me, and I don’t think anger helps,” she mused. “We are solution-driven here. We are not cutting down rainforests to make way for animal agriculture, and we’re not using plastics in our sequins.”

Elsewhere on the moodboard were personal touches established in a crosshatch pattern on a tweed jacket plucked from a garden path from the designer’s childhood and the inclusion of Lila Moss on the model lineup, a close family friend since the day she was born—as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Paris Jackson and Charlotte Rampling cheered her on from the front row, no less.

And demonstrating the dire need for a woman’s eye in making womenswear, the brand’s signature powerful suits, courtesy of some David Byrne inspiration, were compelling enough to make you ditch any alternative.

“For me, the perfect suit starts with a borrowed man’s suit, but as a woman designing for women I know the exact spot on the hips where I want the pant to sit,” explained McCartney. “I know how the perfect trousers feel when your hands are in your pockets.”

These were not concessions for the real thing; they were even better.