She’s long been an advocate of animal rights, and is careful to avoid using leather or suede in her all-vegetarian fashion collections.

Now Stella McCartney has gone one step further, debuting a new, imitation-leather fabric that is as close to the real thing as you can get, while still being animal-friendly.

The designer launched the fabric, dubbed the “skin-free skin”, at her Paris Fashion Week show yesterday morning.

While McCartney has used imitation-leather and suede materials in her shows before, yesterday marked the first time she had used such fabrics in her ready-to-wear collection.

Read more: Paris Fashion Week blog

“I avoided using fake [leather] because it never looked luxurious enough,” she told The Guardian. 

“I am so excited that we have finally developed fabrics that look just as good as the real thing, and therefore genuinely pose a question to the industry about why anyone needs to use leather any more.” 

McCartney now hopes the new fabric will challenge the fashion industry’s current use of leather and suede for good.