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PARIS, October 2, 2008

By Nicole Phelps

A report out today says profits at Stella McCartney's company increased sixfold last year. Clearly, her feel-good formula is working, and all the elements were in place at her Spring show: the best soundtrack in Paris (this time including a song from papa, Sir Paul), an arty backdrop (inspired by coloring books and designed by the British artists Dinos and Jake Chapman), and clothes with her trademark mix of effortlessness and sex appeal.

She started by tweaking her beloved jumpsuits. They came tailored in makeup-pink, with deep lapels that plunged to the navel. McCartney's kind of slouchy, slightly oversize tailoring has caught on in a major way: The longer boyfriend jacket with the strong shoulder and the pushed-up sleeve that she showed today over little cocktail dresses or with cropped pants has become a big trend. Her trench coveralls might not be as adopted as readily—we don't all have legs like Natasha Poly.

 

LONDON, September 16, 2008

By Sarah Mower

It's a little harder than usual to concentrate on making fashion notes when your mouth has just fallen open and your head is cricked back at 45 degrees, and the "model"—the champion trampolinist Bryony Page—has just rotated her body in a perfect circle in midair 30 feet above you. But such were the thrills taking place at Linley Hall in Victoria—transformed overnight into "Stella's Gym," complete with Olympic athletes including Allyson Felix and Victoria Pendleton—at the launch of Stella McCartney's Spring Adidas collection.

"We like to push it a bit further each season," said McCartney, who in recent years has streaked ahead of the field in transforming the aesthetics of women's performance sportswear. Now the collection spans running, gym, yoga, dance, tennis, golf, swimwear, and accessories, all characterized by a sharp eye for fashion detail and, this season, popping with neon pinks, grass green, yellow, and periwinkle blue. In one corner were gymnasts performing on the balance beam in leotards and yoga sweats; in another, the tennis team knocked balls about in scalloped-edge dresses over orange shorts. Elsewhere, runners warmed up on treadmills wearing high-tech spray-painted leggings. What gives McCartney the edge? Personal commitment, of course. Strolling around looking super-toned, she pointed to a group of girls working out on an apparatus devised by her personal trainer, Tracy Anderson, the woman who's given Madonna her body. Anderson has consulted on the development of McCartney's gym line, and if that's the first step to looking that good, we're in.