Katie Kutskill, Leather Industry Advocate | Consultant | Sustainability Geek writes on LinkedIn:

“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.” A Linda and Paul McCartney quote. Today, “glass walls” are videos posted on social media, where the 20% speaks for the 80, and yet 6.5 billion people still eat meat. Why then is animal-free trending?

A short history of Stella McCartney will begin to answer this question. But in addition to her animal-free passion, she has something that previous generations didn’t: online marketing. She has obtained influence with having the most views, most likes, and ultimately, the loudest voice. Truth really isn’t a factor.

Stella McCartney is the daughter of Paul McCartney, from the world-famous Beatles, and Linda McCartney, a photographer and animal-rights activist. Linda paved the way for meat-free eating and jointly raised their children under the umbrella of animal rights. In the UK, their family launched “Meat-Free Mondays” in 2009, and in 2022, they requested Starbucks drop the vegan milk surcharge—they did later that year.

It’s obvious where Stella gets her passion. She isn’t wrong for holding her ground on her beliefs. What is wrong is using her influence to share incomplete, inaccurate data with innocent consumers.

Stella designed her own clothing at 13, landed internships at Christian Lacroix and British Vogue, and graduated with a bang from a fashion show at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. She went on to the Chloé fashion house in 1997, where she adamantly refused to work with animal products.

In 2001, Stella left Chloé to start her self-named brand with Gucci Group, an odd partnership given Gucci’s investment in animal products. Some suggest Stella did this strategically, viewing the partnership as an opportunity to infiltrate the “system.” This may be true—or simply a ruse to allow her to reap the benefit of animal-product funds while denying she has “blood” on her hands. Either way, I’m not sure the infiltration worked.

Stella became a sole proprietor in 2018 and partnered with LVMH a year later. That same year, she told British Vogue, “Killing animals is the most destructive thing you can do in the fashion industry.” Funny, Stella. You claim using animal products is the most destructive thing you can do, and yet you take money from one of the largest fashion houses that use real leather (and own tanneries themselves!) to line your vegan pockets.

Stella has created a cloud of questions, producing vegan bags over $1000 a piece (with a profit margin that I can only guess is near 90%), touting her righteous claims that aim to destroy the reputation of an industry that feeds the world and was one of the first to upcycle their waste! With studies now proving the CO2 footprint of real leather was exaggerated by over 640%, it is clear that this isn’t just about saving the planet – it is about infiltrating quality fashion houses to spread misinformation for your own benefit. And who are the ones that suffer? That’s right: humans. the consumers.