Just as orange is being touted as the new black, the shiny scales of cuir de mer (sea leather) is the latest alternative to crocodile and mink.

According to designers, it is tougher than cow hide and has a natural elasticity that returns clothes to their intended shape each time they are worn. Equally important, its smell, once processed, moves from Grimsby docks to Paris catwalk.

The idea of making a textile of fish skin was conceived by Claudia Escobar, a Chilean fashion designer, and her boyfriend Greg Morgan, a London lawyer. So popular has their concept become that John Galliano, the British designer at Christian Dior, is selling salmon-skin shoes for women in the firm’s London outlets.

The trend may save some fish farms from closure. Many consumers are dropping farmed fish from their diet because of health and environmental fears.

Escobar, whose parents are both champion anglers, met Morgan while walking the Inca trail in Peru. She enthused about the strength of fish skin and about how coastal fishermen in Chile made their boots from the skins of conger eel. Morgan saw a way to help the Scottish salmon industry which is under threat from European imports, and the idea was born.

The pair have since set up Skini, a company based in Chingford, east London, which uses processed salmon skins from Chile to create designer clothes. The company has caught the imagination of fashion and fishing industries alike. Fishermen in Brittany have started tanning fish skins for use in the Parisian luxury goods market and have mastered the knack of curing fashionable orange salmon skins. Unesco, the United Nations educational organisation, hopes to develop a similar programme with Senegalese fishermen.

To dress like the fishes does not come cheap. A pair of knee-length boots by Skini requires the skins of 22 salmon and costs £750. The firm’s fish-skin bikini would set you back a further £200.

Escobar said: “Salmon has never been used for clothing before but it is ideal. It is lightweight and very durable. As a girl I used to go trout fishing with my father, so I was aware of the qualities of fish skin.”

Skini, which is in talks to set up a Scottish supplier, has been invited to take part in London fashion week and wants to open a boutique in Covent Garden. Coats in its winter collection will cost more than £1,000, but watch straps go for £20.

When the skins are being processed, they are put in cold water to stop them decomposing, then workers take off the fat with spoons. The skins are tanned, which takes out more fat, and tumble-dried. A skin which sold for 5p when removed from the fish costs about £3 once the process is finished.

Katie Grand, a stylist and editor of Pop magazine, said: “Fish skin is new. It is not something the luxury goods houses in Milan reel out every so often and say, ‘Oh, shall we do salmon this season?’ But exotic skins are in and it is easy to see why fish is catching on.”

The fashion industry hopes that salmon skin clothes, as a by-product of the food industry,will not upset the animal rights lobby. Sean Gifford of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was unconvinced. “It is a misnomer to say the skin is a by-product because its sale is still supporting the cruel treatment of an animal that wanted to live,” he said.

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