Veteran celebrity stylist Elizabeth Stewart has been championing slow fashion for decades, so it’s only natural that she’s collaborated with Vestiaire Collective, the world’s leading platform for pre-loved luxury fashion. For this charity closet sale, Stewart has joined hands with her longtime client and Academy Award Winner Jessica Chastain in donating a collection of red carpet and street-style looks. 

“Since my clients have a platform, it’s nice to reinforce the idea of cherishing what is in your closet, to value existing clothing by shopping on pre-loved sites like Vestiaire Collective,” Stewart says of this collaboration. 

Highlights include a custom Carolina Herrera dress Chastain worn to the premiere of The Good Nurse, a Dries van Noten velvet burgundy dress with embellished sleeves she rocked on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and a menswear-inspired Ralph Lauren dress she flaunted at The Tribeca Film Festival. 

“I’ve worn these pieces during significant moments in my life and I appreciate the craftsmanship that went into making them,” Chastain shares, “I hope others will enjoy these pieces as much as I have.”

All net proceeds from the charity sale have been donated to Women for Women International, an organisation which supports women survivors of war and conflict by providing them with social and economic skills to transform their own lives.

These days, it’s impossible to discuss fashion without thinking about its environmental impact. In particular, Copenhagen Fashion Week has set 18 minimum sustainability requirements for participating brands since 2023. Online, that eco-consciousness has manifested into trends like “thrift flips” in which people share how they have upcycled and styled secondhand clothing. 

At the same time, the fashion trend cycle has sped up, whereby fashion trends get replaced every four to six months. According to Vestiaire Collective, 41 per cent of women between the ages of 18 and 25 felt pressured not to wear the same outfit twice when going out. Is it possible to be in fashion and partake in slow fashion at the same time? On this dichotomy, Stewart advocates for seeking balance and doing so while being aware of how much is consumed. Acknowledging that everyone who loves fashion feels the need to keep up with trends, Stewart says she just prefers it “when that new thing is actually something old that I’m saving from a landfill”. She continues, “The lucky thing is fashion is so cyclical and always based on reinterpreting the past, so it’s easy to find current trends in the vintage arena.”

Stewart’s eco-conscious dressing ethos is not lost on the red carpet either, where she often works with clients to rework past looks for new occasions. Cate Blanchett is one of those clients who is simply a “master” at the craft. To attend Louis Vuitton’s Women’s Autumn-Winter 2024 Show, Blanchett wore the same electric blue LV top she wore to the Vanity Fair Party the year before.