Stellar, sustainable fashion

STELLA McCartney has come a long way from being Sir Paul's little girl, growing up vegetarian under the influence of her late mother, Linda, and designing her first jacket at the age of 13.

Despite a rather shaky start in her career when the fashion industry - and notably Karl Lagerfeld himself - felt that she was more the daughter of a famous Beatle than a serious designer, she soldiered on in various labels until 2001, when she launched her own fashion house in partnership with the Gucci Group (now the Kering Group). The brand currently operates 51 freestanding stores from London to Beijing. Her collections are distributed in 77 countries, besides shipping to 100 countries online. On Friday in Singapore. a new flagship store opened at Paragon shopping centre

At the end of March, the fashion world raised its tattooed eyebrows when it was confirmed that McCartney, 46, would buy back the 50 per cent of her company owned by the French luxury group, to go solo. It ends a 17-year relationship with Kering, not to mention being an anomaly in a business where smaller labels are increasingly sought after by hungry big corporations.