Stella McCartney has returned to Central Saint Martins, as the first-ever Industry Ambassador for M School. The appointment marks a new chapter in the College’s mission to shape more responsible, regenerative futures.
The appointment builds on McCartney’s long-standing relationship with CSM and is rooted in her personal history and professional purpose. “Central Saint Martins is where I found my voice as a designer and business founder”, she told WWD In an interview marking the appointment. Since launching her label in 2001, she has built a reputation as one of fashion’s leading voices in sustainable luxury, known for consistently challenging the fashion industry to rethink its approach to materials, ethics and environmental impact.
As Industry Ambassador, McCartney’s will work closely with students and staff across M School, CSM’s interdisciplinary global community of staff, students and alumni dedicated to exploring materials in all their forms, from traditional craft to emerging biotechnologies, living systems to digital interfaces. Speaking to WWD she emphasised that her approach is deliberately future facing: “I’m here to champion sustainable materials, encourage innovators to engage with education and push for meaningful support so the next generation has the tools to lead.”
The partnership reflects McCartney and CSM’s shared belief that material choices shape cultural and environmental futures, and that education plays a key role in driving change. Speaking at an event to launch the partnership in CSM’s LVMH Lecture Theatre on 29 January, McCartney stressed that “Creativity begins long before the sketch. It starts with the decisions of how and what we make. If fashion is going to change, education has to be at the centre of that.”
Her appointment also launches Pioneers Season, a curated programme of talks and events bringing together leading designers, researchers and changemakers working towards more responsible futures.
The season opened on 29 January with the in-conversation between McCartney and Sarah Mower, Chief Critic of Vogue. McCartney reflected candidly on the early years of her brand, when her commitment to animal-free and environmentally conscious materials drew scepticism. “I was pretty ridiculed,” she said. “The snobbery and elitism around the fashion industry and luxury sector has never come comfortably to me anyway.”
She also challenged long-standing assumptions around material hierarchies, remarking that leather - often seen as the height of luxury - “is the most un-luxurious and un-glamorous material on Earth.” Instead, she highlighted her collaborations with innovators developing mycelium-based leather, seaweed sequins and other plant-derived alternatives. While “98 percent of her 2026 pre-fall collection was made from responsible materials,” she stressed the continued need for investment and systemic change across the wider industry.
Pioneers Season forms part of CSM’s newly established Schools of Thought, a framework designed to strengthen the College’s interdisciplinary, critically engaged approach to teaching and research that ensures its work continues to respond to urgent social, cultural and planetary challenges.
Hywel Davies, Dean of M School, describes McCartney’s appointment as “a powerful statement of intent”, one that underscores the College’s ambition to be a place where creative education, industry innovation and cultural leadership converge to imagine and build what comes next.