Stella McCartney Resort 2024 Collection

When the press notes said “Lady Garden,” you could only guess what the Stella McCartney experience had in store. Her self-referential Y2K moment of previous seasons has been a hit with Gen Z. Young women of the early 2000s swore by the Brazilian, but perhaps she had decided to embrace the pro-pubic attitude of a new youth? It wasn’t what her Lady Garden was about, “but pubic hair is a whole other conversation, which I’m quite obsessed with,” she acknowledged on a video call from her West London studio.

The title of the collection—created from 90% environmentally responsible materials—referred to a woman-centric way of dressing: women claiming their own wardrobes for themselves; imbuing them with comfort, sexiness, and empowerment; and turning fashion into a female-driven support system. “It’s about having a group of people around you, who allow you to be yourself. There’s something about this wardrobe that supports you and brings out the best in you. They comfort you and celebrate you,” McCartney said.

She translated the idea into a collection that accentuated the female form through the dramatic sculpting of otherwise easy dresses, or through the exaggerated curves of tailored suits and blazer dresses. Her ongoing Y2K spirit invoked a knitted body-con jumpsuit with a deep V-neck decolletage fit for a music video circa 2003, baggy jeans with crystal-encrusted star cut-outs around the hip bones (a revived erogenous zone), and the corsets McCartney still wants women to reclaim.

“Chanel’s idea of freeing people from their corsets was based on Victoriana, which was traumatic and horrific, and I don’t think corsets are like that for women anymore. It’s in need of modernizing, that conversation. It’s about embracing a corset because you want to wear it and it’s not underneath 25 layers of fucking crinoline,” she smiled. McCartney tucked the bottom tip of hers into a pair of oversized, low-slung tuxedo pants that backed up her point.

A new floral print visualized the Lady Garden in graphic form with hidden images disguised in seas of flowers. “No, they’re not vaginas. They’re faces. It’s got a little nod to surrealism, and a lightness of touch,” she said. An all-over denim print paid tribute to the animals that also fill McCartney’s Lady Garden, including little outlines of horses that linked to the incredible live horse show she put on in Paris in March.

It summed up the synergies—from horses to Y2K and the increased female-driven sensibility—that are really doing it for Stella McCartney at the moment, and which this collection easily reflected. It works because it’s authentically her, she explained, and pulled up a video on her phone. “This is one of my proudest-ever achievements: a foal! Her name is Whistler,” she said, showing off the first horse she’s bred on her farm in Gloucestershire, a two-week-old Quarter horse with legs for days.