Stella McCartney

Fashion Designer

Stella McCartney, the daughter of Linda McCartney and pop music icon -- and former member of The Beatles -- Paul McCartney, is famous in her own right as a high-profile fashion designer. She graduated from London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 1995 and launched her first collection in 1997. She was hired as creative director for Chloé's of Paris the same year, and had great success during a four-year term. McCartney's first solo show in Paris in 2002 was met with mixed reviews, but she bounced back later that year and has since solidified her position as a major player in the fashion industry. She has opened retail outlets in New York, London and Los Angeles, and in 2004 won the Glamour Award for Best Designer of the Year. She has also designed costumes for the concert tours of Madonna and Annie Lennox, and wardrobe for the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004, starring Stella's friend, Gwyneth Paltrow).

Extra credit: McCartney follows in her mother's footsteps as an outspoken advocate for animal rights... Although several sources list McCartney's birth year as 1972, her official site says she was born in 1971.

Other fashion designers include Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Gianni Versace.

Stella joins her dad and mom in our loop on protectors of animals' rights, Critter Defenders.