Christabel Reed, cofounder of the climate action platform EcoResolution and the systems change platform Advaya, hosted a panel talk.
Stella Talks: Christabel Reed, Ben Goldsmith, Derek Gow, Mya-Rose Craig and Hans Schutten.COURTESY OF STELLA MCCARTNEY
LONDON — A new year calls for new sustainable initiatives at Stella McCartney.
The British designer is focusing on the concept of rewilding and rechilding, motifs that inspired her pre-spring 2023 collection, featuring brightly colored birds on a short black dress and a menagerie of hare, hedgehogs and baby deer on a boxy-sleeve shirt and miniskirt combo.
The prints on the pieces are of the species in need of protection or reintroduction, such as the hedgehogs and the extinct Eurasian lynx.
Sticking to the theme, Christabel Reed, cofounder of the climate action platform EcoResolution and the systems change platform Advaya, hosted a panel talk on rewilding at the Stella McCartney store on Old Bond Street with rewilding experts Ben Goldsmith and Derek Gow; author, activist and environmentalist Mya-Rose Craig, also known as Birdgirl, and Hans Schutten from Wetlands International.
Rechilding is inspired by psychotherapy, using fashion to return people to a more childlike state — the idea is to help expand lifespans. Rewilding is about restoring natural lands and ecosystems by removing human intervention and reintroducing species that people have either pushed out or made extinct.
Mya-Rose Craig, also known as Birdgirl COURTESY OF STELLA MCCARTNEY
In the U.K., more than half of all species are in decline and 15 are facing extinction — globally 70 percent of animal populations have disappeared since the 1970s.
“Don’t be tribal in your voting, vote for the candidate who takes this really seriously,” Goldsmith said about practices which can help with rewilding.
“Be really mindful how you spend your money, every pound you spend has some kind of impact without being sort of hair shirted about it,” Goldsmith added.
Craig went on to discuss biodiversity in the U.K., which is at an all-time low.
“Rewilding is incredibly important in terms of just trying to keep hold of the bits of biodiversity that we still have left,” she said.
https://wwd.com/sustainability/environment/future-rewilding-rechilding-according-stella-mccartney-1235479434/