Stella McCartney Partnered (and Partied) With Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni in the Name of Responsible Fashion
Phia, a soon-to-launch fashion platform, partnered with Stella McCartney to design a new bag collection that honors the Women’s Tennis Association and 50 years of women being paid equally in tennis.
Sophia Kianni and Phoebe Gates, two Stanford undergraduate students and activists, see room for improvement in the fashion industry. As leaders in advocacy for environmental awareness and women’s rights—Kianni is a United Nations advisor and the founder of Climate Cardinals, a youth-led nonprofit focused on making the climate movement more accessible, and Gates is a reproductive rights activist—the pair was surprised to find that after being randomly matched as roommates, they had a lot in common. “It felt like such a star-aligning moment; we barely knew each other the year before,” Kianni says. Now, they’re combining their respective backgrounds to launch their first business, Phia.
It comes as no suprise, given their shared passion for making a difference, that Kianni and Gates are embarking upon a venture with a cause. Phia, a digital fashion platform, is set to launch this fall. While the product itself is still baking, the co-founders set themselves up for success by tapping a mentor and conscious fashion pioneer: Stella McCartney. “We’re trying to build something that we think will change the future of fashion,” Kianni says. Gates adds, “Stella has been able to build this empire while still holding onto her values. We reached out many times, and eventually, she really took us under her wing and has since been an advisor to us as we build out this platform.”
In anticipation of Phia’s launch, Stella McCartney and Phia came together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the US Open, becoming the first Grand Slam tournament to offer equal prize money for women. Gates and Kianni collaborated with McCartney to design a limited-edition capsule collection of bags that honors this advancement for the Women’s Tennis Association. McCartney’s past partnerships with female tennis players, such as Maria Kirilenko and Caroline Wozniacki, and, of course, Adidas, have tied her closely to the WTA and its mission of empowering girls and women worldwide.
The bag, which is available in two slightly different iterations, is designed with chain handles and crystal-embellished ribbons as a nod to a powerful feminist accessory in sports history, the tennis bracelet. “Chris Evert, 50 years ago, dropped her diamond tennis bracelet on the court. And it was this whole thing where she stopped the game to pick up her bracelet,” Gates says. “So the bag we designed, which is made from deadstock materials and inspired by that story, is designed to support women in tennis and honor these 50 years.”