Stella McCartney Talks Iconic Fragrances And Lara Stone Being (Very) Naked

The designer talked us through the re-launch of her iconic Stella fragrance.

Stella McCartney has relaunched her iconic Stella fragrance (hurrah, it's one of our absolute favourites) with the help of a very naked Lara Stone.

We met up with the designer for a spot of breakfast at Harrods, which has launched the fragrance exclusively, and a little chat about Stella mark two.

Telling us about her friendship with Lara and why she chose her to front the campaign, Stella said: 'I like to work with models that I genuinely admire as people as well them looking spectacular. Lara has a great energy and I've always wanted to work with her on a campaign and it was a fantastic opportunity to do that.

'She's just had a little baby boy and it was nice to bring that side to a perfume image because in the world of beauty I think there's this idea that you have to be very young. I like to have that tiny bit of maturity that I think having a baby gave Lara.'

The campaign was shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott and features Lara completely naked with strategically placed perfume bottles to protect her modesty.

Talking about the shoot, to which Lara brought along her son, Alfred, Stella revealed that Lara felt understandably vulnerable about stripping off so soon after having a baby.

'It was fun, we've all known each other for years and we have a real connection. When you're working on something like this which is so emotionally charged, you want to get the right girl with the right energy.

'Lara was very fragile because she'd just had a baby and had to get naked but she looked amazing.'

Stella launched this fragrance the first time round in 2003 and she explained that her initial aim was to create a timeless, classic perfume as an antidote to all the cheap, celebrity fragrances that seemed to be taking over at that time.

'At the time things seemed to be stuck on the celebrity side of perfumes. Everything was very in your face and the wearer wasn't wearing the perfume, the perfume was wearing the wearer. I used to get headaches when people would come up to me wearing them,' she said.

The inspiration behind her scent was the English rose (just a few minutes into our conversation with Stella, it's very clear she's obsessed with them), though the experts initially warned her off the idea.

'When I started roses were really unfashionable to work with in fragrance.' she said. 'When I started the process, the perfume guy I was working with said: "I hate to tell you this, but no one in the world of perfume touches rose."'

But, thankfully, she stuck to her guns and the result is the now iconic Stella.

The new-look Stella Eau de Parfum is available in Harrods and online at harrods.com now, priced from £42.