Art Before Fashion.. What Stella McCartney Told Me!

Stella McCartney designs, shot by Pamela Berkovic for  the latest Whitewall Magazine

A few months ago, fashion designer, Beatles daughter Stella McCartney and I had lunch. She’s a grown woman but she can travel right back to her childhood in a flash,with one reference, often art inspired. She was a lucky little girl: close to her grandfather who introduced her to a vast art collection and the joys of hiding in East Hampton when the town was still marked by the likes of Jackson Pollock. Her mom, Linda Eastman, turned Stella on to her own bohemian spirit and off beat independent sense of dressing. And dad, Paul, took her round to museums, where she would comment on details some of the adults, including her dad, missed in sculpture and painting. Thus, her father deemed her a “genius” early on.

You can read the full story in the latest Whitewall Magazine:

Women with a certain self-knowledge adore the designer Stella McCartney’s clothes because they’re reliable. Not gardening-overalls reliable, but reliable in the sense that,season after season, her classic, intelligent pieces will stand the test of time. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that McCartney — the daughter of the legendary Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and the late photographer and musician Linda McCartney — has been influenced partly by an earthy humility instilled in her by her parents, but also by a rich art tradition that began with the collections of her maternal grandfather, the entertainment lawyer Leo Eastman. Eastman oversaw the estate of Willem de Kooning, whom McCartney refers to as “Bill.” She and her husband, Alasdhair Willis, a co-founder of the British furniture company Established & Sons, give each other art and have built their own collections, although McCartney prefers to talk about what inspires her rather than what she owns. She does share funny stories about the placement of special pieces in their home and how she navigates their three children — Miller, 5, Bailey, 3, and Beckett, 2 — around provocative or precious items. She recently collaborated with Jeff Koons on a bunny necklace  and launched her latest resort collection. At Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in the West Village in June, McCartney — an animal-rights activist — displayed sexy shoes and bags created without leather on pedestals on the main floor, then served cocktails and ice cream cones on the deck upstairs. A month or so earlier, she sat down with Whitewall at the Carlyle Hotel to discuss her artistic flights of fancy. STORY IN PRINT MAG, FOR MORE: WHITEWALL MAGAZINE

More Stella style…  Personally, I’m feeling very Gustav Klimt here ! (shot by Pamela Berkovic)

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