“Music is a massive part of my life. It’s been there since day one,” Stella McCartney once said. It’s an obvious line. Born to The Beatles’ principal songwriter, Paul McCartney, and the photographer and musician Linda McCartney, their daughter was always going to be a music fan. But as she launched her own fashion career, Stella has forged her own path while holding music close. “It’s continued to be there in a different way,” she added, sharing a collection of her favourite songs.
Since its origins, Stella McCartney, the brand, has always been informed by music. “I would always refer to musical moments,” she told the BBC’s Desert Island Discs. In bold and obvious ways, as she collaborated with Taylor Swift on merch and even released a line of Beatles attire, but on a more subtle scale, her collections are deeply inspired by decades past and countercultural movements.
A big one for the designer ties into one of her essential tracks. “For me, the punk rock movement was such a massive part of fashion, and out of that came so many great designers,” she said. Picking out Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, she added, “It’s a powerful song and a powerful moment in music and fashion.”
Another musical moment tied to her fashion career comes as a homage to George Michael. As she picked his track ‘Faith’ as one she couldn’t live without, she reflected on a recent fashion show that it soundtracked. Claiming that fashion doesn’t have enough “light and love”, she opted for the track to brighten the atmosphere. “I grew up a lot with George Michael’s music,” she added, “so I wanted to celebrate him.”
Almost all of McCartney’s picks find their roots in her childhood. Her choice of Talking Heads’ ‘Road To Nowhere’ reminds her of a silly competition on a crisp packet from when she was a kid, letting you win records. “I ate as many packets as I could to get as many records as I could, and this was the first single I got,” she recalled.
Naturally, her childhood was littered with legends, as she remembered meeting Bob Dylan, hanging out with Neil Young, and being close to John Lennon. David Bowie was another fixture in her life as she remembered sitting on his knee. As she picked on ‘Ziggy Stardust’, she told the BBC that despite the normalcy of these interactions, they were still godlike to her. “They were an incredible influence on me,” she said. “They were people, but they were great people.”
George Harrison was obviously a close one, standing as a kind of uncle to the Beatles kid. She picked out his track ‘Something’ as she called it “One of the most beautiful songs, it makes me want to cry”. However, she opted for a reggae version sung by Phyllis Dillon as a left-field take.
Her final choices are the most sentimental. Louis Armstrong’s ‘A Kiss to Build a Dream On’ is picked out as an essential, reminding her of her husband as they picked it to be the soundtrack for their “first dance moment”. The Beach Boys’ ‘God Only Knows’ is an emotional choice too. “I remember my mum getting really emotional during this song,” she said. “And then I lost my mum, and the words meant a lot more.”
Obviously, Stella McCartney’s essential tracks playlist couldn’t be without her father. She’s acutely aware that she was raised by a legend as she said, “I’m really proud of Dad that he wrote it at such a young age. He had this sort of incredible vision to understand politics, to understand poetry.” Out of all of his songs, both solo and in The Beatles, she selected ‘Blackbird’ as her top.
Stella McCartney’s favourite songs:
Nirvana – ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
George Michael – ‘Faith’
Talking Heads – ‘Road To Nowhere’
David Bowie – ‘Ziggy Stardust’
Phyllis Dillon – ‘Something’
Louis Armstrong – ‘A Kiss To Build A Dream On’
The Beach Boys – ‘God Only Knows’
The Beatles – ‘Blackbird’
