Stella by Stella: Stella McCartney reimagines Frank Stella’s artworks for A/W 2022

The upper floor of the Centre Pompidou in Paris provided the setting for Stella McCartney’s A/W 2022 collection. The location was chosen not simply for its majestic views of the city beyond, but for its collection of artworks by American painter and sculptor Frank Stella, which McCartney notes is the most comprehensive in Europe. 

The collaboration between the pair is titled ‘Stella by Stella’, seeing one Stella (McCartney) interpret the work of another (Frank) in a fashion-art crossover which informs the entire A/W 2022 collection. Such a catchy refrain makes their partnership seem written in fate; indeed, McCartney notes post-show that she had been a fan and acquaintance of Stella for some time, seeing the movement across his career from minimalist to maximalist abstraction as similar to the juxtapositions in her own clothing. 

His vivid works illuminate a collection in which McCartney evokes her woman for the season as both creator and collector, transforming clothing into ‘pragmatic works of art’. Spanning the late 1960s to the mid-1990s, the various artworks by Stella – including Swan Engraving III (1982), Ahab (1988), Spectralia (1994) and V Series (1968) – are either printed verbatim onto the clothing or otherwise used as a starting point for McCartney’s own linear motifs, which zig-zag across tailoring and knitwear, the latter sliced-away at the sleeves. 

The designer has also drawn on Stella’s own life, looking towards his time spent embedded in the New York art scene in the 1980s, when he would work during the day and party with the city’s burgeoning creative community at night. Strong shoulders are a distinct reference to that era – notably across McCartney’s now signature fur-free coats, here nipped at the waist with a tie fastening – while looped and ruched viscose dresses arrive in a vibrant palette, primed for the dance floor. As ever, sustainable innovation is present throughout, from grape-leather sneakers to recycled nylon, polyester and regenerative wool.

McCartney notes that Stella had final approval on each of the garments, a process she admits was ‘terrifying’ due to what she deemed the artist’s own great taste and encyclopaedic knowledge of art and design. On his part, Stella had an unexpected link to fashion in his mother, who initially studied fashion design before retiring to become a housewife. ‘When she dressed up, she was glamorous,’ he remembers. 

At heart, though, it is the artist’s rule-breaking approach – rarely sticking to a defined style for long and having a reputation for a feisty reproach – which provides the energy behind Stella by Stella. It’s a spirit of rebellion long evoked by McCartney in her own collections, which confound expectations of sustainable design.

INFORMATION

A version of this article appears in the November 2022 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today!

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