As part of the opening of London Fashion Week, Stella McCartney brings a curated installation celebrating sustainable British innovation, reinforcing her longstanding leadership in responsible fashion and her appointment today as an Ambassador of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, founded by His Majesty King Charles III as Prince of Wales in 2020. Marking the occasion at London Fashion Week, His Majesty presented McCartney with a sustainably sourced Mongolian cashmere scarf made by Erdos, embroidered with the Terra Carta seal.

Hosted by the British Fashion Council, the exhibition brings together pioneering material innovators including FEVVERS, Sequinova, Radiant Matter and YATAY. Each represents a new generation of solutions - from plant-based alternatives to feathers and mycelium-based leather alternatives to biobased and plastic-free sequins.

Currently, the global fashion industry produces over 100 billion garments annually, contributing to 10% of global emissions, 20% of global wastewater, and a fifth of the world’s plastic waste. In response, the private sector is shifting toward implementing circular practices across the value chain. As the private sector’s ‘go-to’ CEO platform for driving the sustainable transition, the SMI connects key stakeholders across the fashion eco-system, intersecting design, retail, finance and beyond to accelerate private-sector progress in the industry. Complementing this work, Stella McCartney co-founded the SOS Fund – providing critical early-stage investment to next-generation material innovators, and helping to scale the solutions needed to decarbonise fashion at speed.

“The Sustainable Markets Initiative is an organisation I have proudly supported since its inception in 2020, and I am so grateful to His Majesty for this recognition. For me, the most important thing about the SMI is that its focus goes beyond discussion to driving action. I am deeply honoured to become an Ambassador.”

- Stella McCartney

For over two decades, Stella McCartney has built her brand as cruelty-free and sustainable from the ground up - never using leather, feathers, fur or exotic skins, and consistently challenging the industry to rethink materials and supply chains.

Her work has spanned next-generation material innovation, regenerative agriculture, supply chain transparency and the publication of impact reporting long before such transparency became industry standard. By convening innovators within a fashion context, she continues to champion collaboration between science and design, demonstrating that lower-impact alternatives are not conceptual but commercially viable and scalable.

“We are proud to welcome Stella McCartney as an official Sustainable Markets Initiative Ambassador as we continue to accelerate the private sector shift toward circular and responsible fashion. As a pioneer in sustainable fashion, her expertise and unwavering commitment will help drive meaningful progress across the sector. Stella’s leadership is deeply aligned with the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Fashion Task Force, chaired by Federico Marchetti, which, together with the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance, promotes regenerative practices and supply chain transparency through digital passports. Together we are joining forces to put Nature, People and Planet at the heart of global value creation.”

- Jennifer Jordan-Saifi, CEO of Sustainable Markets Initiative

A member of the Sustainable Markets Initiative Fashion Taskforce since its inception in 2020, Stella’s ambassadorship reflects both a lifelong alignment with His Majesty’s environmental leadership and a natural extension of her own career-long commitment to responsible fashion.

The event underscores her belief that sustainability must move beyond intention into delivery - embedding innovation directly into collections, accelerating adoption across supply chains and helping reshape the fashion ecosystem through collaboration and accountability. The installation will be showcased once again at the upcoming SMI 2026 Roundtables & Exhibition taking place at Hampton Court Palace in March.

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