'I wish I were less sensible!' Stella McCartney would rather get an early night than party with the Primrose Hill set

By Deborah Arthurs
Last updated at 8:20 AM on 10th January 2012

She is a globally renowned designer, daughter to one of the world's most famous rock stars, and pals with Kates both Moss and Hudson.
But for all her stellar connections and accomplishments, Stella McCartney remains a down-to-earth working mother who is as likely to be found kicking a ball around with her children as strutting the red carpet.
In an interview with this month's Vogue magazine, the designer talks of her devotion to the four children she has with husband Alasdhair Willis - MIller, Bailey, Beckett and Reiley - all of whom are under the age of seven.
Fashionable couple: Stella with husband Alasdhair Willis, whom she says is 'a very good dresser'
Fashionable couple: Stella with husband Alasdhair Willis, whom she says is 'a very good dresser'

She reveals how she spends every possible weekend with her family of six, plus their dog, Red, at the family's Georgian mansion in Worcestershire.
The 350 acre estate boasts a heart-shaped 'wedding wood' given to Stella and Alasdhair as wedding presents from their guests, who included Tom Ford, Madonna and Liv Tyler.
There, while Alasdhair works on the garden, Stella indulges her passion for riding and cooking for her clan - calling herself 'a three cooked-meals-a-day mum' on weekends.

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So far, so domestic. And given that she counts Kate Moss as one of her closest friends, one would forgive Stella for being partial to the occasional wild night out.
But, she says, she rarely has a late night these days. 'Sometimes, someone will go, come on, let's have another tequila shot, and I'll have one, and then it'll be 11 o'clock, and I'll know I've got to get up for the kids, and I'm not even p***** yet, and I'll think, why bother? Sometimes I wish I were less sensible... Maybe I'll start again when I'm 50.'
Stella with pals, actresses Liv Tyler and Kate Hudson
Stella with pals, actresses Liv Tyler and Kate Hudson
Kate Winslet wearing Stella McCartney polka-dot dres
Stella with Gwyneth Paltrow, whose daughter Apple she takes riding
Stella counts Kate Winslet (in the Stella McCartney Octavia dress, left) as a friend, as well as Gwyneth Paltrow, whose daughter Apple she takes riding because Gwyneth doesn't like horses
She works out with celebrity personal trainer Tracey Anderson sporadically, she says, mainly so that she can stay fit for her children.
'I ride my bike, I work out, I do a bit of, er, dancey things,' she says. 'Last night I went for a run in the park. More than anything I want to be fit so I don't get out of breath when I play football with the kids.'
'I don't know how she does it,' model Laura Bailey tells Vogue of Stella's ability to juggle her home life with her work.
'But I think I love her most for being the loudest, most competitive mum on the sideline of our boys' footie games. She has that rare gift of being present whatever else is spinning round.'
For her range with adidas, Stella designed kit for athletes Allyson Felix, right and Victoria Pendleton for the 2008 Beijing Games. This time round she is to design kit for every competing member of the Olympics and Paralympics
For her range with adidas, Stella designed kit for athletes Allyson Felix, right and Victoria Pendleton for the 2008 Beijing Games. This time round she is to design kit for every competing member of the Olympics and Paralympics
For her part, friend and fellow member of the North London set Sam Taylor-Wood says the reason Stella manages so well is that she is 'very, very boundaried.'
'She won't answer her phone at bath and bedtime, that's very strictly imposed. Although she comes across as very sweet and endearing, she is actually very tough. You really wouldn't want to mess with her.'
Close: Stella with father Paul, whose nickname for Linda she has chosen as the name of her new perfume Lily (Linda I Love You)
Close: Stella with father Paul, whose nickname for Linda she has chosen as the name of her new perfume Lily (Linda I Love You)
Indeed, Stella has to be tough to contend with the level of output she has taken on this year.
As well as producing her ready-to-wear line as usual - which this year she plans to show in London as well as Paris - Stella is releasing a new perfume, called Lily (after her father Paul's nickname for her mother - Linda I Love You).
And in what promises to be a gargantuan task, as part of her ongoing partnership with adidas, Stella is to be responsible for every single item of the Olympic 2012 hosts' kit (that's 650 gymnasts, fencers, runners etc) for every competition across both the Olympic and the Paralympic games.
'I love the opportunity to stretch that side of design,' she told Vogue. 'I love that you can have the language between the two worlds of technology and fashion, because I don't think that many designers get to do that.'
Despite her decades of experience though, Stella reveals the men's fittings quite threw her for a loop.
'Do you know what's quite funny? Doing the fittings for the men,' she said.
'Quite out of my comfort zone.
'I'm like, Oooh, where do I look? What do I do now?'
READ THE INTERVIEW IN FULL IN THE FEBRUARY ISSUE OF VOGUE, ON NEWSSTANDS NOW.