Stella McCartney credits her upbringing for her passion for sustainable fashion.
Stella McCartney
The 48-year-old designer is keen to push for "better practice" in the industry and she admitted her own outlook was heavily influenced by her parents, Paul McCartney and his late wife Linda, and is thankful newcomers to the trade want to work somewhere "with ethics".
She said: "What I do every day in my place of work is to practice a better practice in the fashion industry. I was privileged; I grew up on an organic farm, I saw the seasons, and my parents were vegetarians and change agents, so I had a privilege already in that way of looking at the world.
"But I took it into my work. And I was lucky enough that I'm a boss--I am really lucky.
"But I find now that the people who want to work in the fashion industry--and even more so in five years or 10 years or 15 years--they want to work in a company that has ethics."
Stella thinks conversations about sustainability are at the forefront right now and she thinks there's a number of questions which fashion designers need to ask.
Speaking during a roundtable discussion before her Paris Fashion Week show, she said: "How are you making old clothes into new clothes? And how are you making that a business? That's got to be something that the fashion industry starts to take seriously. Resale, renting clothing, vintage. That kind of conversation is definitely at the forefront now."
But the designer thinks it's a subject that needs to be raised more with older generations.
She said: "There's a greenwashing happening everywhere. So how can we encourage not only the youth--because hopefully, God, hopefully, they feel it and they've got it in them--how can we turn the light on amongst the people who are a bit older? If you can answer that you should be basically running for Prime Minister!"