Stella McCartney fires barb at paid celeb fashion appearances

British designer Stella McCartney thanked Jennifer Lopez for attending her latest catwalk show for free on Wednesday -- and fired a barb at rival labels who pay celebrities to turn up.

"She's been such a pleasure. She is not the diva that you all thought she was," McCartney told reporters about her A-list guest J-Lo. "She came to support me."

The "Jenny from the Block" star sat front row at the catwalk show for McCartney's Spring-Summer 2027 collection at the British ambassador's residence in Paris.

"At the end of the day, which none of you (journalists) talk about, everyone's paid to go to shows, and it's kind of a false economy," she added.

"At Stella, we just have beautiful people supporting our brand, and Jen did that this season, and I'm just so thrilled," McCartney added.

Some major brands such as Dior or Chanel have a stable of declared brand ambassadors, celebrity faces who represent them at shows and in advertisements.

Others agree private one-off arrangements to have celebrities attend a catwalk show and pose for photographers -- producing shareable content that helps promote the label online.

McCartney's collection was inspired by sealife and the ocean and featured her trademark use of innovative environmentally-friendly materials from recycled cotton, grape skin waste, as well as lab-grown wool.

She again criticised the major fashion conglomerates such as LVMH and Kering for failing to invest enough in sustainable fabrics and materials to replace mainstays such as oil-based polyester, water-intensive cotton, or animal products such as wool and leather.

"We need the big players to help scale it up and help the price points come into what they're used to, because their margins are massive. My margins are tiny," she said.

"So we just need them to help."

adp/rlp

Christian Dior

LVMH

Kering