For the 2021 Met Gala, Stella McCartney with adidas by Stella McCartney can be dressing Ella Emhoff, a mannequin, artist and style and Nia Dennis former UCLA gymnast. In addition to a 30-person marching band from Brooklyn United, a community-based music and humanities group that serves New York Metropolis youth.
Stella McCartney takes us by means of her and her groups’ ideas creating the appears, the concept behind all of it, and what this implies for the way forward for luxurious and sportswear.
Are you able to speak a bit of in regards to the course of and work that goes into making a search for the Met Gala?
The Met Gala has been such an vital a part of the Stella story for over 20 years, each for me personally as a designer and my model. It’s the landmark second of the style calendar; a world platform to share our message of sustainable style and supporting next-gen expertise. Making the appears is a collaboration between myself, the expertise and my staff that begins months prematurely – as soon as we all know the 12 months’s theme, we get sketching!
Every little thing is customized made at our London atelier and, this 12 months, collaborating with our long-term companions adidas – I consider it’s among the many first and solely instances a significant sportswear label has been on this crimson carpet. It speaks to the brand new world of the Met Gala; one that’s extra numerous, inclusive and with athletes and activists, not simply celebrities and fashions. We match the expertise and earlier than you recognize it, it’s the large night time!
What are a very powerful issues to recollect when getting ready for such an occasion?
The Met Gala crimson carpet is actually iconic, and everybody loves revisiting their favorite appears from the previous. Everyone knows when the particular person is sporting the gown, and when the gown is sporting the particular person. I by no means need that to occur with my items – they should look effortlessly stylish and cozy, instantly recognisable as a Stella. Success for me is that if they proceed to look fabulous and timeless within the images for years to return.
How have Nia and Ella impressed the creation of the designs that they may every be sporting?
The palette for each appears was impressed by this 12 months’s Americana theme, with Nia in blue and Ella in crimson. Each have been additionally sporting bespoke masks and embellished customized adidas by Stella McCartney Earthlight trainers, which I’m proud to say are our latest technical working shoe that assist athletes to maneuver with function, crafted with PRIMEBLUE, a high-performance recycled yarn, in addition to {a partially} recycled midsole. The appears we created for them replicate them as subsequent gen changemakers and have a good time their femininity, modernity and energy.
I’m such a fan of Nia and I’m so excited to work nearer along with her on some superb initiatives we’ve within the pipeline. At this 12 months’s Met Gala, Nia is sporting a bodycon jumpsuit from our adidas collaboration – considered one of my private favorite kinds and one thing we’re fairly identified for, highlighting and accentuating the female shapes of her silhouette with contrasting clear and opaque supplies. That is additionally a nod to her gymnastics and athleticism, permitting her to go from doing the routine second to the crimson carpet. We then draped her in a Stella McCartney blue rhinestone internet layer robe.
For Ella’s androgynous look we had enjoyable taking part in with the dichotomy of female and masculine energies that I’ve all the time cherished, and I believed it was solely becoming to decorate her in a voluminous pair of high-waisted trousers – made athletic with drawstring particulars, worn over an adidas by Stella McCartney embellished bodysuit and our Earthlight trainers reimagined for the glamour of the Met. Representing the next-gen activists I wish to share my platform with, she may also be the face of our adidas by Stella McCartney aw21 marketing campaign which additionally launches very quickly!
Ella Emhoff and Julia Garner, Getty Pictures
There’s additionally a efficiency by Brooklyn United occurring that’s complementing the appears, are you able to speak in regards to the thought behind connecting the 2 to create an unforgettable expertise.
This 12 months we’re celebrating a lot – a return to glamour and gatherings just like the Met Gala, plus 20 years of Stella McCartney! Since I couldn’t be there in-person, I wished to create an expertise becoming of the second. I labored intently with Anna [Wintour] and adidas’ groups to deliver the spectacle to life: a 30-person marching band taking up 5th Avenue, all sporting customized crimson, white and blue adidas by Stella McCartney jumpsuits and Earthlight trainers. Nia additionally did essentially the most unimaginable gymnastics routine, combining my love of music with athleticism and style to really embody this cultural second.
It is a uncommon second the place excessive style meets efficiency put on, how does it really feel to turn into the bridge between the 2 at such an iconic occasion?
We’ve got been bridging excessive style and efficiency put on for 17 years, after we launched adidas by Stella McCartney! I’m thrilled that individuals are lastly giving sustainable sports activities performance-wear the eye it deserves, significantly on a platform as globally recognised and prestigious because the Met Gala. Nothing like this has ever been executed earlier than.
If the final 12 months has taught us something, it’s that efficiency put on is not only for the fitness center – and the divide between luxurious and sportswear has by no means been much less related. I don’t even suppose this new era sees a distinction between the 2. Moments like this progress us ahead as a tradition right now, serving to to form and outline what glamour will seem like for tomorrow.
Nia Dennis, Getty Pictures
Do you suppose after this we’ll see increasingly more of this overlap between efficiency and excessive style?
Completely, it has already occurred and can simply proceed evolving. The garments you run in will seem like these on the runway, and vice versa, while nonetheless staying true from a efficiency perspective. The values of this subsequent era and social media have democratised style, and adidas by Stella McCartney is reflecting their beliefs in authenticity, transparency, and sustainability.
What’s one factor you need viewers to remove after seeing the ASMC outfits and efficiency?
Trend is one thing we must always have enjoyable with, to get experimental and push boundaries. In the end, the Met Gala is a joyous celebration after a difficult 12 months and a chance to spotlight what issues – range, sustainability and highlighting the voices of the subsequent era.
