'Billions of birds' killed for fashion says designer McCartney

British designer Stella McCartney lamented the "billions of birds" that have been killed to make people look good after her Paris show on Monday in which she appealed for the fashion world to change its ways.

The campaigning creator who has blazed a trail for sustainable style, provocatively called her show "It's about... time" -- a reference to a T-shirt she first wore 25 years ago calling for an end to the use of fur and feathers in fashion.

"I see things from a different perspective," said the designer after her open-air show near the Eiffel Tower showcased top end looks made from everything from lentils to mushroom leather.

"I've just been thinking about the billions of birds killed for the fashion industry," McCartney told reporters, yet "for me they represent freedom, they represent purity and peace".

The designer, the daughter of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and animal rights activist Linda McCartney, is an advisor to the world's most powerful luxury tycoon, Bernard Arnault, on sustainability. Arnault's LVMH giant also owns a stake in her label.

Bird motifs dominated McCartney's spring-summer show, where she married her trademark business suits and jackets -- this season oversized with big shoulders -- with diaphanous and transparent blouses and dresses.

Protest at Hermes

"It's about having a lightness of touch, having that femininity in that flight -- a general kind of weightlessness" to balance with what the designer called "the masculinity" of some of the cuts.

Nothing showed that playing off of soft and hard more than her metallic bras in the shape of birds.

McCartney said a series of deeply glamorous puff evening dresses were made from "the waste of plastic bottle tops. So we just, you know, trying to marry all of that together. Other looks used "apple leather" made from waste in the apple industry.

McCartney -- a lifelong vegetarian -- has long preached that "sustainability is the future of fashion, not just a trend", with her brand lauded for its innovation and transparency as much as its style.

The fashion industry is regularly criticised for its impact on the environment, with some labels accused of greenwashing to disguise any lack of real change.

Animal rights activists briefly disrupted the Hermes Paris Fashion Week show on Saturday. The high-end French house is best known for its leather goods.

Several major luxury brands, particularly in Italy, still use exotic skins and furs.

Several major Hollywood figures were at the McCartney show including "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig, actor Natalie Portman and American singer-songwriter Hayley Williams, who braved the Paris chill in a barely-there ensemble that mostly consisted of her underwear.(AFP)