King Charles III honored British designer Stella McCartney yesterday with the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for her work in fashion and sustainability.
The head of the British Empire has awarded McCartney with the CBE. She received the OBE, the Order of the British Empire award, from Queen Elizabeth in 2013.
“Humbled to be honoured by His Majesty King Charles III today and also to have been included in Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s final Birthday Honours. Proud for this recognition of my work in fashion, sustainability and beyond,” the designer wrote in an Instagram post.
“This is such a proud and emotional day for me — not only to receive this incredible accolade from King Charles III, but also to have been included in Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s final Birthday Honors,” McCartney said.
McCartney and King Charles III have long been allies in their environmental work. Both have played instrumental roles in supporting Britain’s sustainability efforts. McCartney is known for leveraging her platform to bring about industry-wide change.
In 2021, McCartney represented the fashion industry at the G7 summit in Cornwall, England. She and then-Prince Charles, worked with influential business leaders and world leaders to push for coordinated efforts to tackle climate change. That group, dubbed Coalition of the Willing, and which King Charles spent two years creating, is tied to $60 trillion in managed assets.
The Coalition is tasked with protecting nature, people and, planet. When the then-Prince announced it in 2020, he called for a new “Marshall Plan” for a “blue-green recovery” rooted in a new circular economy, that has nature at its center. Some of the goals include implementing carbon pricing; accelerating carbon capture technology, including nature-based solutions; and ending “perverse” subsidies for fossil fuels.
The two also spent time together during COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. She hosted him on a tour of her sustainable fashion installation at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
Last August, McCartney partnered with the $200 million Collaborative Fund in a move to support entrepreneurs working on sustainable fashion.
In an Instagram post, McCarthey said the fund invests in “cleaner businesses, founders, and sustainable solutions — creating a brighter, more hopeful future for us all. I couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come,” she wrote.
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