The H&M X Stella McCartney collaboration celebrates nostalgia and embraces a conscious future

Two decades after their partnership, H&M returns to collaborate with acclaimed designer and the driving force for sustainable fashion, Stella McCartney, to present an exclusive collection that builds on legacy. The partnership unites the past and present—think the current signatures like oversized shirting, sweeping trenches, and sharp tailoring mixed with playful iconic hits from McCartney’s early archive, including bejewelled prints and slogan tops. 

“What’s evolved is the possibility,” remarks McCartney about the evolution of accessible luxury since her first partnership with H&M in 2005. “Twenty years ago, we were proving that you could do this—that you could bring design and a more conscious way of making into a more accessible space. Now, there are more solutions, more materials, more knowledge. What hasn’t changed is what I won’t compromise on; I won’t harm animals, and I won’t design in a way that ignores the impact on the planet. For me, accessibility should never come at the cost of responsibility.” The collection is defined by the designer’s said approach to materials, that prioritises recycled content, organic cottons, wool certified to the Responsible Wool Standard (RWS), and innovative usage of feedstock for coated materials, such as industrial corn and recycled vegetable oil.

From the perspective of design, the collection highlights the intersection of retrospective and a reset—sharp suits, McCartney’s signature grey melange, oversized trousers with elegant pleat details, single-breasted blazer, drop crotch trousers, denims with a twist of comfort, and more. The designer’s take on strong femininity extends to cape details, ruched sleeves, intelligent layering, semi-sheer lace, knitted tanks, playful sparkles and embellishments—crafted from 80 per cent recycled glass. “I went back and looked at the pieces that had real longevity—the ones people held onto, that still felt relevant, that defined the ‘Stella’ wardrobe. And then it became about resetting them—making them with better materials, better processes, and bringing them to a new audience in a way that feels right now,” shares McCartney on revisiting the 25-year-old archive for the collection.

Known for pioneering global designer collaborations for two decades, including Karl Lagerfeld, Simone Rocha, Isabel Marant, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, and Anamika Khanna, H&M’s revisit to McCartney’s legacy stems from intention. “She was the second ever designer we worked with—after Karl Lagerfeld—back in 2005. Stella is a rule-breaker: that is what attracted us to her all those years ago. We felt she had ideas for how to disrupt the industry, especially when it came to materials, and we wanted to champion that. And I’d say, that is what got us to the idea of working with her again. We wanted to keep those conversations on the agenda: to push for change, as Stella has, throughout her career,” shares Ann-Sofie Johansson, Creative Advisor, H&M. To add to that, Johansson wants to highlight McCartney’s artistic legacy and approach to fashion: from the designer’s pioneering work at Chloe in the 90s, when she brought cool young London energy to Paris, to her 00s designs under her eponymous label, where she continued to define rule-breaking femininity. “This collection is full of must-have pieces that nod to that legacy, and to some of her 00s signatures—the prints, the sparkles, the lace—and I think it’s very special to give a younger audience an insight into Stella’s remarkable history in fashion.” The collection leans onto the tongue-in-cheek aesthetic and vibrancy through prints and embellishments with studs reading ‘Rock Royalty’, a homage to a style worn by McCartney herself at the 1999 Met Gala.

But McCartney is not interested in nostalgia for its own sake. For her, it’s about evolution. “Those pieces come from real moments—from a history, from a point of view, but they have to be reworked in a way that feels relevant today. Otherwise, it’s just copying yourself. And I think people are too aware now for that to feel meaningful.” In addition to clothes, the accessories range is strong, and rich in bags with six styles to choose from, including small, branded shoulder bags, giant totes, and a timeless chocolate-toned bag with a chain-detail strap. It is one of several pieces in the collection that incorporate the designer’s iconic Falabella chain, including necklaces and earrings, crafted in recycled metal in mixed tones, and loafers with chain detailing on the front. So, what makes Falabella an enduring symbol of McCartney’s design language? “It’s that tension I’ve always been interested in. It has a strength to it, a kind of hardness, but it’s paired with something soft, something effortless, something quite feminine. That balance—masculine and feminine, structure and fluidity—is really at the core of how I design. So, it’s become a language that carries through everything,” she elaborates.

In her words, the edit is “playful, strong, sparkling, joyful, refined,” while balancing the emotional exuberance with the discipline of sustainable design. “You shouldn’t have to choose between something feeling joyful and being responsibly made. That’s the whole point—that it looks desirable, that it feels effortless, and that you don’t even realise you’re making a better choice. The discipline sits behind the scenes. The emotion is what you see,” McCartney reflects.

The campaign, shot by Sam Rock in London, and starring Renee Rapp, Angelina Kendall, and Adwoa Aboah, builds on the playful mood effortlessly. The tagline “&Stella” evolves into “&Here &Now &Me &You”—overarching the idea of connection that shapes the way H&M approaches fashion storytelling in the present times. “Connection is at the heart of everything we do. I think that H&M as a brand has become synonymous, in people’s eyes, with collaboration, and we are really proud of that. We believe that dialogue is everything and that working together is essential to innovation and experimentation in fashion,” shares Johannson. It goes beyond storytelling: one important aspect of this new collaboration with McCartney is the launch of a brand-new Insights Board, which will unite different voices and figures from across the fashion industry, to create a space for curiosity, debate, and discussion on issues related to materials, sustainability, and life cycles of clothing. “We want to put sustainability firmly on the agenda: to embrace conversation and to say that it mustn't become something people are too overwhelmed or nervous to discuss. The Insights Board is about challenging us, at H&M, but also pushing the entire industry as a whole to talk, to work together towards change, and to embrace innovation-driven solutions. Both Stella and all of us at H&M are very aligned in the belief that to really ensure change, the industry needs to come together.”

Sharing her concluding thoughts on the requisites of viable collaborations in fashion today, McCartney adds, “You must share values, you must learn from each other, and you must actually create something that has meaning—not just something that looks good for a moment. With H&M, what mattered to me was that they didn’t just do it once and move on. They took what we did twenty years ago and built on it. That’s why I came back—because there was integrity in that, and because together we can reach more people, and have a bigger impact.”

The collection will be available in select stores and online at hm.com from May 7, 2025.

Images: H&M

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