Sebastian Boettcher/Courtesy of Stella McCartney
Stella McCartney brought her star power, her most recent designs — and a message of solidarity and sustainability — to help close out Riyadh Fashion Week Tuesday night on a high note.
Guests were ferried in high-speed elevators to the vacant 49th floor of a new office tower in the city’s futuristic King Abdullah Financial District to take in vast cityscapes, and highlights of the British designer’s fall 2025 and spring 2026 collections.
“I feel proud to come here and represent women in business, women in fashion, and I’m especially excited being invited as the most sustainable brand on Earth,” she told WWD after the show. “These are two conversations that I’m excited to have here.
“As you know, I’m a big fan of infiltrating from within,” she added with a knowing grin. “I’m here to meet the people, and to understand how we can work together.”
McCartney‘s show came at the end of a six-day fashion week during which editors who flew in from Europe, Asia and the U.S. struggled to get even a few scraps of information about the 45 designers and collections showcased.
While show notes and press kits are not yet de rigueur here, McCartney left on each seat a 12-page booklet titled “Eco Fact Sheet 2025,” spelling out the fashion industry’s impact on the environment and animal kingdom, and her progress in using animal-free, low-impact materials across her collections.
Among those featured on the runway was Yatay B, a leather-like fabric made from fungi mycelium, Sequinova plant-based sequins, forest-friendly viscose, biodegradable mesh and regenerated silks.
“I’d love for this part of the world to bring some more innovation,” McCartney said, floating as an example seaweed, a material she experimented with for some exclusive, one-off knitwear styles a few years ago, which could be explored as the Red Sea hugs Saudi Arabia’s western coast.
“I’m really excited to try and encourage businesses to delve into the supply chain, to figure out how to really bring the industry some more sustainability and innovation,” she said. “I think that’s a great conversation to start having here, and I’m having it.
“The main thing is really encouraging the next generation — anyone who wants to go into fashion, whether it be design, whether it be styling, whether it be manufacturing, materials, CEOs, CFOs — to come at it and want to work in a business that’s kind and loving and not killing billions of animals every year,” she said.
McCartney landed in Riyadh only a few hours before her evening show, but was planning to do a photo shoot the next day and “meet with some really important people while I’m here.”
Mishari Al-Qureshi, the designer behind the Saudi streetwear label Cargo, and Shahd Al-Shehail, founder and designer of Saudi womenswear brand Abadia, were among local fashion figures who came out to cheer on a prominent industry hero.
“I’m such a fan because of the focus on sustainability,” Al-Shehail said after the fast-paced show. “That resonates with a lot of young Saudi designers. We’re a young industry, but I think we’re starting off on the right foot when it comes to sustainability and ethics. You see it so ingrained in the ethos of a lot of brands here.”
McCartney said she was thrilled to learn that roughly 85 percent of Saudi fashion houses are led by women.
“While I’m here, I hope I’m a little bit of an inspiration for the future generations of women to go into the business of fashion, as long as they go into it with some moral code of conduct and they try to shift our industry to become more contemporary. We’re very old-fashioned,” she said.
To be sure, McCartney gave the audience a gust of her signature style, showing a range of looks, from boss-lady pantsuits to sultry dresses in matte or sparkly jersey, some with cutout backs and bare shoulders.
“Our collections really complement each other, so we felt that it was lovely to bring some of the new pieces and mix them with our autumn collection,” she said.
Al-Qureshi said he owns several of McCartney’s slouchy, vegan Falabella bags, prized for their braided chain detail and her bestselling item across the Middle East.
“Our Rider [bag] is becoming more and more successful, too. They were both on the runway this evening,” she said. “The accessories business is strong for us here, but also tailoring, and day-to-evening dresses.…I think we’re quite known for that more feminine side, but also with empowerment.”
The British designer has a long history in the Middle East, stretching back to the opening of the Villa Moda luxury emporium in Kuwait in 2002, which she attended.
Today, she counts two franchise boutiques in Riyadh, two in Kuwait and one in Doha, Qatar, with additional locations slated to open next year and in 2027.
Key wholesale accounts in the region include Harvey Nichols and Bloomingdale’s in Dubai, Aishti in Beirut, Galeries Lafayette in Mumbai, Harvey Nichols in Doha, Bloomingdale’s in Kuwait and online retailer Ounass.
McCartney even produces a Ramadan capsule collection for her boutiques in the Middle East, and she included a look in the Riyadh showcase, which opened to thumping Grace Jones on the soundtrack.
Burak Cakmak, chief executive officer of the Saudi Fashion Commission, organizer of Riyadh Fashion Week, said McCartney’s participation marked “a defining moment for Saudi fashion. Her presence in Riyadh underscored how far we have come in building a platform that unites global leaders in sustainability and design with a new generation of Saudi talent shaping the future of fashion.”
As the country opens up in myriad ways, McCartney said she was excited to be part of it.
“My way of looking at things is that we’re all inhabiting one beautiful Mother Earth, and so I’m traveling around it, trying to figure out how I can really bring my brand to people and make them think differently, and make them try to not kill the planet as the second most harmful industry,” she said. “So I’m here to spread a message of sustainability.”