An Intimate Affair.(Stella McCartney)(Interview)

Byline: MARK HOLGATE editor: Sally Singer

With her new lingerie collection, Stella McCartney marks the beginning of something beautiful.

Ensconced in a secluded spot at the bar of the Hotel Le Bristol in Paris, Stella McCartney delves into her bag and discreetly starts to lay out her lingerie on the banquette. Well, not her lingerie, exactly. Though she couldn't care less about revealing an errant bra strap every now and again, any exhibitionist impulse she feels is strictly limited to showing off her new lingerie collection. Out of the bag it comes: filmy little nothings conjured up from stretch voile strewn with stars or flowers; chiffon slips swirled with rhinestones; and cotton and satin bras and knickers in pale washes of blush and pearl-gray. What she has come up with is completely and utterly Stella McCartney, which is to say that it manages to pull off the tricky balancing act of being sporty and sensuous, playful and practical, antique and modern, all at the same time.

But just what took her so long? After all, more than a decade ago, on the cusp of graduating from school in London, McCartney was dressing the likes of Kate Moss in masculine Savile Row suits with slippery silk-crepe camisoles underneath. (She'd reverse the fabric so it would feel better against the skin.) Ever since then, for both her own label and Chloe, she has often brought what lies beneath to the surface. Take this spring's languid floral frocks, for instance, designed to suggest that they might slip off the shoulder into a charming state of dishabille at any minute. And don't even get McCartney started on her ever-expanding collection of delicate vintage-style Italian and French lace underwear. . . . Yet no fully fledged, fully functional collection of frothy underpinnings from her--until now.

It turns out that McCartney has wanted to do one for ages, yet it was only recently that she found the right ...