THERE was a time, not so long ago, when wearing organic cotton would have prompted a 999 call to the fashion police.

From next Tuesday, however, Selfridges will embark on an ambitious mission to convince the British public that organic clothing no longer means baggy beige T-shirts made in Third World workers’ co-operatives.

The shop has struck a deal with People Tree, a fair-trade clothing company, to sell a range of skirts, dresses and wraparound tops made from organic fibres.

People Tree has heralded the Selfridges launch as a turning point for fashion, but sceptics remain unconvinced of the British public’s appetite for organic clothing.

Six months ago, Marks & Spencer introduced a yogawear range of 100 per cent organic cotton. Although it appeared to be an exercise in preaching to the converted, the range is no longer on sale. An M&S source said yesterday that the “jury was still out” on whether it would return. It has nevertheless promised that 5 per cent of cotton in its stores will be organic by 2010.

The Selfridges stamp of approval should give a further impetus to what organic campaigners hope will become a trend.

Clothing retailers such as Nike, H&M, Timberland and Patagonia have already moved in this direction. H&M has pledged to source 5 per cent of its cotton from organic farmers by next year and Timberland has a 100 per cent organic cotton T-shirt range. Nike already has a 95 per cent organics range in America.

Mike Barry, sustainable development manager at M&S, admitted that the move towards organic cotton would come at a cost. Organic cotton is 10-30 per cent more expensive than normal cotton. To achieve its 5 per cent target, M&S will need to buy 2,250 tons of organic cotton each year, up from its current level of 100 tons.

“We have got a long way to go,” Mr Barry said. “But we have been successful in these kinds of campaigns before. For example, we achieved our goal of selling only free-range eggs within five years.”

The fashion designer Katharine Hamnett, a campaigner for better trading standards in developing countries, gave warning that the clothing industry would not be quick to change its ways. “It is a lazy industry,” she said. “The only way things will change is if people start to expect certain standards and ask where their clothes come from. More shops might then acknowledge the trend.”

Craig Sams, chairman of the Soil Association, the leading organic movement, admitted that the UK organic clothing market was still in its infancy, compared with countries such as Germany and the US. He pointed out, however, that many Britons had at first been dubious about the potential of organic food, sales of which have trebled here over the past five years to reach £1.2 billion last year.

“People get dragged further and further into organics, once they have broken through that initial psychological barrier of: ‘I don’t eat organic food’,” Mr Sams said. “Organic clothing does not provide any real health benefits to the wearer, but it does make you feel good with your conscience.”

The World Health Organisation estimates that about 20,000 people die each year in developing countries as a result of sprays used on nonorganic cotton. Because the plant is one of the most pest-prone crops, roughly a quarter of the world’s insecticides is poured on cotton fields each year to produce cotton cheaply and in industrial quantities. About 150 grams of pesticide is used to cultivate the cotton for just one T-shirt.

Organic cotton, on the other hand, must be grown according to world guidelines for organic crop production, which prohibit the use of toxic fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. The Soil Association and its counterparts in America and Europe verify that organic cotton producers and processors comply with global guidelines for organic production.

Organic cotton appears to have a strong future. Retailers are recognising the value of being seen to be ethically and socially aware.

BLESS YOUR ORGANIC COTTON SOCKS

Organic cotton is about 10 per cent to 30 per cent more expensive than non-organic cotton

Source: Organic Trade Association and World Health Organisation

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