Stellar Success

When Stella McCartney quit Chloé in the spring of 2001, the fashion world wondered how the label would cope with the loss of her celebrity. A good deal of her personal fame — she's Beatle Paul's daughter, hangs out with people like Madonna and is a high-profile antifur campaigner — had rubbed off on the French fashion house. Her successor and friend, Phoebe Philo, was regarded as a talented designer, but she was not exactly a household name. The fashion world loves nothing better than a catfight; speculation immediately began about a competition between the two women, and intensified when McCartney's...