Sustainable Luxury in Practice: A Lifecycle Analysis of Stella McCartney's Coexistence Strategies

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to take Stella McCartney as a representative luxury brand as examples to examines how can luxury brands coexist with sustainability from the perspective of three parts of the product life cycle (prophase, middle, end) combined with the conception of "eco-sustainable fashion" and "socially responsible fashion". In the prophase of the product life cycle, this essay expounds the selection and application of McCartney's innovative sustainable fabric from the perspective of the circular economy. The materials are divided into two categories: technical materials and biological materials. Then from the perspective of ethical procurement, this essay discusses animal welfare and social responsibility. In the middle stage of the product life cycle, this essay describes the measures taken by McCartney in the consumer use stage and product reuse. At the end of the product life cycle, this paper discusses some cases of the remake. The difficulty of luxury brands is the transparency of its supply chain and production, while few luxury brands like Stella McCartney release almost all their own supply chain information and conduct long-term self-examination. In addition, luxury brands need to balance product sustainability and aesthetic appeal, because sustainability is not the priority for luxury customers. Although many luxury brands have made significant progress in sustainability, their ethical actions are negligible compared with the total environmental footprint. Fortunately, luxury brands have good conditions to adapt to the needs of sustainability. With the improvement of customers' eco-consciousness and the response of factories to brand demands, the luxury industry is changing, sadly, change comes slowly.