“She has developed a witty, down-to-earth approach to dressing women like her: well-to-do, yes, but working women with lives of responsibility and complexity, women who have more use for a well-cut pantsuit for work or a roomy knit jumpsuit for hanging out with girlfriends than they do for a floor-length gown. McCartney is one of the very few designers, male or female, who make clothes for all hours of the day and not just the evening“.
“This is a company of mothers. It’s a unifying trait. These are organized, efficient moms. There are not many men, and the few are usually stunned by the level of organization of the women.”
“You know, the fashion industry has got some funny personalities,” she said delicately. “We don’t. We like a nice atmosphere. We don’t see the point in too much ego or competition. We just want to get on with it.”
“My mum used to have a Mini Cooper. She had it custom-sprayed this metallic hot pink. She had a little microphone put in it, and she would sing to her eight-track. And she had a bench seat put in the front, and she’d always have four dogs in the back. My mum was renowned for collecting us late from school. I’d be on the village lane in Peasmarsh, and all of sudden — yeeooww — racing around the corner was this pink Mini with Neil Young screaming out.”
Talking about her insistence on being leather-free, McCartney told me that she doesn’t think the rules of the fashion industry change very much. “They do on the design level, how a dress is made, but when it comes to how business is done, people pretty much follow the same rules,” she said. “Obviously I believe that using crocodile or leather to make a handbag is cruel. But it’s also not modern, you’re not pushing innovation.”
She’s two women, in a sense,” Barron told me. “She’s the woman who stands behind her man — I’m sure you’ve seen that with Alasdhair. She cooks. She’s that total ’50s woman. But she’s also the Madonna type, the woman who does everything herself.”
“As if all those exotic skins and corduroy hamster fur were going to turn me on and make me change my entire ethic. Ultimately, what you offer the market is derived from how you live your life.”
Ao ler estes trechos de um artigo muito interessante sobre Stella McCartney no NYT, fiquei pensando sobre o perfil da “super-mulher”: a Madonna que resgata os anos 50, dá conta da casa, dos filhos, do marido, da luta pelos seus princípios, da vida sexual, do trabalho (no caso, até da indústria da moda) e que usa a roupa da Stella – com muita inspiração no vestuário masculino.
O que me lembrou este infográfico do “coração feminino” de cerca de 1833–1842 que definia o “ideal feminino”: sentimental, superficial, guiado pela vaidade, centrado no amor, no bom senso e na paciência. Colunas de conselhos de jornal e desenhos como este serviam para estimulavar as mulheres a não se desvirtuarem da sua real “feminilidade”, em tempos de muitas mudanças sociais (urbanização, novos modelos de transporte, mecanização das indústrias, etc).
É claro que a mulher já caminhou para muito além do “ideal feminino” do século XIX. Mas ainda fica a pergunta: não seria este artigo sobre a filha-beatle um retrado de um novo “ideal feminino”?
Fato é: estamos todas correndo atrás destes super-poderes sonhando ser Stella?
