The answers of course are well documented, but while high street stores are beginning to take stock of the ethical clothing issue (Marks & Spencer started selling fair trade cotton this March and commissioned a You Gov survey, which suggested that 78 per cent of the 2,300 people questioned wanted more information about their clothes) designers are gradually realising that luxury aesthetic and fair trade garments are no longer an incongruous partnership.

Not to be left out of the movement that is gathering momentum, the British Fashion Council has initiated the “estethica division” at the London Fashion Week tents — a 100 sq m (1,070 sq ft) space devoted to designers with an ethical conscience.

“We are increasingly more involved with ethical trading and it will be interesting to see how this area grows,” said Stuart Rose, chairman of the British Fashion Council and chief executive of Marks & Spencer.

The section will include clothes by the British stalwart, Katherine Hamnett, who shows her first 100 per cent ethical clothing range this week, and the shoe designer Natalie Dean, who created her collection after years of frustration at not being able to buy shoes that suited her vegan ethics.

These days, there really is no reason why organic clothing can’t be fair trade and sexy. Take a label like Noir, which showed first thing yesterday morning and which is one of the “demi-couture” labels synonymous with luxury fabrics and already endorsed by Naomi Watts and Sharleen Spiteri.

The face of new-eco fashion, Noir is not concerned with faddy trends. Neither are its clothes misshapen, frumpy get-ups. Its aesthetic is a mix of rock’n’roll tailoring and the clothes have been stocked successfully on the designer floor at Harvey Nichols for the past three seasons. The line, by all accounts “has been doing extremely well”, says Averyl Oates, the department store’s buying director. “What people go for are the beautiful fabrics which are so feminine and soft. That’s where the detailing is.”

Peter Ingwersen, a Dane, and one half of Noir explains: “I totally respect what everyone is doing for ethical clothing, but at the same time, I don’t want to be lumped as ‘that ethical clothes label’. Our garments look like normal, stylish clothes, made from luxurious fabrics and, unless you knew about us, you’d never guess the organic provenance.” Indeed you wouldn’t.

Latex-coated cotton trench-coats (Noir has created its own cotton fabric brand, Illuminati II, made from raw ingredients sourced in Uganda) with belted waists struck a harder edge, as did the monochromatic elegance of high-waisted trousers, cream biker jackets and ruffled shirts.

Playing to their signature tuxedo detailing were cream skinny trousers and exaggerated lapels on waistcoats. Slightly less convincing were the red latex items, which jarred with the luxurious simplicity of the rest of the collection.

Peter Jensen, another Dane, presented a show with such a lightness of touch that it was hard not to fall for the sweetly sequined sweaters or the mint green summer coats. Again the emphasis was on the waist, with longer-length cardigans worn with skinny patent belts. Slim-fitting trousers sharpened things up and the splashes of hot pink and yellow on a Hawaiian ruched dress injected vibrancy to what was otherwise a moody yet beautiful palette.

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