PARIS (AP) — Stella McCartney declared war on the fishing industry at Paris Fashion Week on Wednesday, 25 years into a label that has never used leather, fur or feathers — on a rain-soaked runway in the British ambassador's gardens, with Jennifer Lopez under an umbrella in the front row.
Her case began with vocabulary: the same animals are “sea life” when people marvel at them and “seafood” when they order.
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A model wears a creation as part of the Stella McCartney Womenswear Spring Summer 2027 collection presented in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Karlie Kloss wears a creation as part of the Stella McCartney Womenswear Spring Summer 2027 collection presented in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
A model wears a creation as part of the Stella McCartney Womenswear Spring Summer 2027 collection presented in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
A model wears a creation as part of the Stella McCartney Womenswear Spring Summer 2027 collection presented in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Jennifer Lopez arrives for the Stella McCartney Womenswear Spring Summer 2027 collection presented in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
“Who makes that decision?” she said backstage.
Of the industry that stocks the menu, she was blunter: “It’s war. We’re at war with the oceans.”
For one piece of fish on a plate, she said, the nets bring up dolphins and octopuses, and most of the catch goes back over the side dead.
Through the greenery, models walked to PJ Harvey’s “Down by the Water,” a murder ballad that keeps its promise.
Juliette Binoche sat near Lopez. On the runway, Karlie Kloss and Miranda Kerr came dressed in waves.
The clothes made the case more gently.
The palette ran seafoam, sage, coral, blush and chocolate, and the tailoring — schooled under Savile Row’s Edward Sexton — loosened until it moved like water.
Drawstrings threaded through oversized blazers, a rain-jacket trick smuggled into office clothes.
The back-on-trend peplums were everywhere — and rounded softly at the hip.
Sheer layers left bandeaus and brief-cut shorts in the open, on the season’s underwear-as-outerwear tide.
Sport, her other signature, answered back: second-skin leggings under boxy technical jackets and airbrushed dolphins mid-leap across T-shirts.
Kloss’ minidress had small waves curling over one shoulder; Kerr’s seafoam gown was cinched in a knot at the waist.
For evening, gowns wound around the torso and dropped in unbroken columns, after Madame Grès, with ruffles breaking like surf at the hems.
“It’s really, really important to want to wear the clothes,” McCartney said. “For me, that’s the main thing.”
The house called the ready-to-wear 100% responsible: recycled cotton denim, organic cotton and silk, and a black pigment grown from algae rather than refined from oil.
Older fronts are better supplied: the certified wool she uses is traced back to the farm, and since 2026 she has knitted with Brewed Protein, a wool alternative fermented by Japanese biotech firm Spiber.
A week before the show, McCartney co-founded The Climate Pledge Fashion Coalition with Amazon and the forest nonprofit Canopy, pooling the orders of more than 60 companies so such materials can reach factory scale.
She bought back LVMH’s minority stake in her label last year, but still advises its chief, Bernard Arnault.
“I’m advising him on so many things in sustainability,” she said.
McCartney took her bow in jeans, a white T-shirt and a roomy blazer, thumbs up, and was gone.
Backstage, when the questions finally drifted from oceans to hemlines, she asked one of her own: “You mean you want to talk about the clothes?”
After 25 years, they are still her best argument.
A model wears a creation as part of the Stella McCartney Womenswear Spring Summer 2027 collection presented in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Karlie Kloss wears a creation as part of the Stella McCartney Womenswear Spring Summer 2027 collection presented in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
A model wears a creation as part of the Stella McCartney Womenswear Spring Summer 2027 collection presented in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
A model wears a creation as part of the Stella McCartney Womenswear Spring Summer 2027 collection presented in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
Jennifer Lopez arrives for the Stella McCartney Womenswear Spring Summer 2027 collection presented in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said South Korea plans to invest about $54 billion in a natural gas project in Alaska, an announcement he made in the Oval Office on Wednesday flanked by a Republican senator who has found himself in a tough reelection race in the state.
It was the second time in three days that the president elevated Senate candidates in states where Trump won comfortably each time he has run for president — but where Republicans are now in surprisingly competitive races just weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections. On Monday, Trump made a similar-styled announcement about a massive steel plant in Iowa.
On Wednesday, Trump repeatedly praised Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, a two-term senator and long-time advocate for the Alaska natural gas project who is facing a competitive challenge from Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman.
“He’s got my ear, and he’s had my ear for a long time on Alaska," Trump said of Sullivan, adding that "all these energy projects are all mine, and I got ’em done working with Dan Sullivan.”
It was not immediately clear how quickly South Korea's government would advance funding for the project, which comes from pledges made as part of a 2025 trade deal with South Korea, which included promises of $350 billion in U.S. investments in exchange for lower U.S. tariffs on South Korean cars, auto parts and other products.
The project consists of an 807-mile (1,300-kilometer) natural gas pipeline connecting Alaska’s North Slope to a liquefied natural gas export terminal in southern Alaska and the White House said it would eventually reduce energy costs for the state’s residents.
“Mr. President, this one is huge for Alaska,” Sullivan said, adding that he’d been working on it “relentlessly.”
Peltola, Sullivan's Democratic challenger, also praised the project and Trump's advocacy for it, saying she had been part of the bipartisan push to make it happen. “I look forward to continuing this bipartisan work with the President as Alaska’s next United States Senator,” she said in a statement.
The push to deliver big projects in areas where GOP candidates could use a boost comes as Trump's approval ratings have sunk ahead of the midterm elections.
Even Trump himself has begun acknowledging that Republicans could face an uphill climb in their push to retain control of both chambers of Congress after November. “We have to turn this around,” he said on Wednesday, suggesting his administration hasn't done enough to promote its accomplishments.
“I’ve done a very bad job of explaining," the president said during an earlier event in the White House East Room. He's promised to try to rectify that by spending much of the next month on the road campaigning. He begins that swing on Thursday with trips to Texas and Alabama, followed by Ohio on Saturday and Nebraska on Monday. All four are normally solidly red states.
On Monday, Trump announced plans for a $15 billion steel plant to be built by a Minnesota company owned by an Indian industrial conglomerate in Iowa, where Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson is in a close U.S. Senate contest with Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek for the seat being vacated by retiring two-term Republican Joni Ernst. Hinson spoke in the Oval Office during the announcement.
Democrats need to gain a net of four seats in the 100-member Senate to overtake Republicans and gain a majority, and the seats in Iowa and Alaska are among those they're targeting.
Trump's announcements come as voters express concern about near-record fuel prices related to the unresolved war with Iran and as majority Republicans in Congress are facing voters dissatisfied with Trump's handling of the economy.
In a late-July poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, only about one-third of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, and about 7 in 10 described the economy as poor.
Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. AP writer Meg Kinnard contributed from Columbia, S.C.
President Donald Trump speaks during a Hispanic Heritage Month event in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
NextEra Energy, Inc., president and CEO John Ketchum speaks in the Oval Office of the White House during an event with President Donald Trump, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Washington, as President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright listen. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump winks as the members of the media depart the Oval Office of the White House as Essar Capital Director Prashant Ruia, from left, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, John Jovanovic, chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa., and Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, look on, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
FILE - U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, speaks at a get out the vote event held at farm in Palmer, Alaska, on Aug. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, Tuesday Sept. 29, 2026, after meeting with top executives of AI firms. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
