Stella McCartney has had a lot of fun joining her legendary pop, Sir Paul, watching British athletes compete and conquer in several events in London this famous fortnight. While her dad's presence is being called a charm, as British contestants have prevailed in four events he has attended, daughter Stella is more than "chuffed" not only at Great Britain's medal success, but with the sense of national pride imbued by her designs for her U.K. competitors.
As she watched the British male gymnasts win their first medal ever, the youngest McCartney daughter and world recognized fashion maven could not help being swelled with pride on seeing that "they looked like such a unified team—it was very moving." She enjoyed joining along with her dad on "Hey Jude" with the 80,000-strong crowd for opening ceremonies, but her own life is much more private and focused. Fiercely protective as a mum, she releases no photographs of any of her four children, knowing well the glare of growing up under the frustration of ever-present flashbulbs. Aside from that fishbowl sensation, though, Ms. McCartney greatly credits her parents for raising her very normally, with several years spent in a two-bedroom Scottish farmhouse in her childhood, and with a very keen awareness that she needed to make her own way in the world. "It wasn't mine," she says she realized quite young of her family's regard and wealth. "I knew I was expected to work and make my own way." That work ethic has remained through her rise in the fashion world, despite early dismissals from Chloe founder, Karl Lagerfeld, who said that the fashion house has "chosen a name in music," but not in fashion when she assumed the helm as the youngest designer-in-chief. She says the highest compliment she ever got from her father was that she was the "real deal," whose hard work earned her recognition.
Whether critics or chums, big names don't matter anymore than those of her "non-famous" friends, who aren't separated by status in Stella's affection. She gets inspiration for designs from talks with "my girlfriends" all the time. She hasn't lost the love for the same fun in fashion she had when she first tried on her mother's platform boots worn onstage for early Wings' shows, or just a favorite pair of socks. She's even created very friendly, affordable, and animal harm-free "knickers," aka undies in honor of the London Olympics. Stella McCartney is as comfortable with common as couture.
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