Reading Stella Mccartney

Read the text and choose the correct answer A, B, C or D.

Stella McCartney

When designer Stella Mccartney arrived on the fashion scene, many people claimed her successs was due to her famous name. Her father is, after all, Beatles legend Paul Mccartney. This, however, is not true. for Stella, becoming a success took hard work, determination and, of course, talent.

In 1995, after graduating from Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London, she enjoyed almost immediate success. Two short years later, at the age of twenty-six, she became the head designer at Cloe,- a famous Parisian fashion house. After four highly successful years at Chloe, Stella launched her own fashion label and showed her first collection in 2001.

Since then her company has been growing steadily. In that time, it has developed a reputation as a fashion company with a difference. When Stella was growing up on a farm, her parents taught her to respect animals, to be aware of nature, and to understand that human beings share the planet with other creatures. These beliefs have had a huge impact on her and, as a result, she believes in ethical fashion now. Ithical fashion covers issues such as working conditions, Child labour, fair trade and responsible production that does not harm the environment.

As a lifelong vegetarian, Stella does not use any natural leather or fur in her designs. The fabric she prefers is organic cotton and she has been experimenting with eco-friendly materials and production processes for some time. Recently, Stella decided not to work with a fabrics factory because the process used by it to colour the fabrics was very harmful to the environment. An entire river near the factory became red, making the water unsuitable for drinking or for use in agriculture.

Stella's ethical fashion also aims to her poor workers. For this reason, she has created a range of cloth bags together with the United Natiobs' International Trade Centre. The programme provides work for pooor communities in Kenya, where the bags are created by hand. So far, 160 people in disadvantaged areas have been involved in the production. They are earning money, which has improved their lives.

Stella Mccartney has an interesting philosophy. Instead of just creating new designs season after season, she believes designers should ask themselves how they make their clothes and accessories, where they make them, and what materials they use. Thinking about these questions makes designing more challenging and more interesting, but still allows designers to create luxurious, beautiful items that people want to buy. Stella is proof of that.