Potatoes, pineapples to dress environmentally-minded fashionistas

But industry consultants attending the show said they were mindful of another trend concerning not the materials used, but the manufacturing and marketing of the clothes.

They questioned whether the bulk of manufacturing will continue to be done by small companies, or by clothing giants increasingly jumping into the fair trade game.

"Think of food," said Eric Olsen, the head of Business and Social Responsibility, a San Francisco-based consultancy group for clothing majors.

"Twenty years ago, organic food was made by small alternative companies. Today, health food in America is mainstream. Everyone is reading labels. More health food is made by agro giants than by niche market producers.

"This is the question for the ethical fashion business: who will be able to reach the mass public?"

Olsen pointed out that the majors had the capacity to invest in materials and labour.

"In the West, the financial figures may be small, but for example, for the town in Ghana making the clothing, it is a major investment and major income."

Global Mamas, a women's collective based in Ghana, showed off their batik print dresses during the runway show in a video produced by Tabeisa, a London-based investment group for artisans in developing countries with the slogan 'Exchange Designs, Change Lives'.

"We want to take ethical fashion out of its position as a niche market and make it accessible to the public," said Elisabeth Cazorla, director of apparel merchandising at La Redoute.

Cazorla said the company had done a customer survey.

"Three years ago, the interest in ethical fashion was minimal," she said. "Now 50 percent of our clients say they want to buy fair trade products. That is remarkable."

Last year, La Redoute sold more than 200,000 organic cotton T-shirts for between nine and 25 euros each.

And in one case, a plant and flower-based cosmetics and skin care company, Aveda, based in Blaine, Minnesota in the United States, began small and has become a multinational with 7,000 sales outlets in 24 countries, as well as being one of the sponsors of the Ethical Fashion Show.

One example of its fair trade practices is a pact between Aveda, owned by US cosmetics giant Estee Lauder, with aborigines in central Australia to guarantee them a good price on their sandalwood, used in health and beauty products.

Nicole Kaldes, Aveda's representative at the Paris show, said: "It is great to have an environmental story behind the materials but if the product doesn't look and feel great, it wont sell. And small companies may need investment by large groups to continue making products that look and feel great."