Jackie KennedyThe wife of President Kennedy. After his death, she married the shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis and became known in the fashion world as Jackie O. felt a glow of delight as she looked in the mirror. Her new coat, designed by Oleg CassiniThe son of a Russian diplomat, he first made his name designing for Hollywood films., was as elegant as a First LadyThe official title of a US president's wife. could ask for. Reaching the knee, with three-quarter-length sleeves, it had a wonderful pattern - which was hardly surprising. It was made from the skins of real leopards.

For Cassini, it was a triumph. But for leopards, it was a disaster. An estimated 250,000 of them were killed to make coats like Jackie Kennedy's. Ten years later, the US government made importing their skins illegal.

Cassini came to feel deep regret for his design. He swore never to use fur in his clothes again and encouraged others to use fake fur.

Now, conservation experts are going further still. They argue that designers should compensate big cats just for reproducing the patterns on their skin.

The idea came from Caroline Good Markides, an art historian who worked at Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. Her job was to explore how endangered species were represented in art.

The unit wanted to encourage support for lion conservation. But in a country like Britain, with no wild lions, that was a difficult challenge.

Good Markides noticed that lions were nevertheless a big part of British life. They appeared on everything from eggsThe lion stamp was introduced as a mark of quality for British eggs in the 1990s. to Premier League football shirts. Thinking about this, she and two colleagues wrote an article called A Cultural Conscience for Conservation.

"When a model, a design or a piece of music is used for the promotion of something other than itself, a fee is charged for that privilege," they observed. "What if each time the symbol of an endangered animal was used, the species - or the effort to conserve it - was paid a royalty?"

They calculated that a 0.1p royalty from every lion-stamped egg would bring in £10.5m a year. A £1 royalty from every Premier League shirt would raise £8.5m - enough to pay for 4,000 game wardens to protect lions in East Africa.

In a follow-up article, they focused on leopard print, noting that it "saturates both high-street and high-fashion." They suggested that 1% of the price of a leopard-print design should go towards conservation.

A charity called Panthera has been thinking along similar lines. It encourages people to add a #leopardspotted hashtag to their photos of relevant clothes and donate money to conservation efforts.

But some argue that if you start with leopards, it will be hard to know where to stop. As the designer, Diane von FurstenbergA Belgian fashion designer. The daughter of a Holocaust survivor, she married a German prince. says, "Every element of nature has been used as a source of inspiration in fashion - flowers, bark, roses."

Leopard prints date back at least 4,500 years: a stelaA decorated slab of wood or stone. shows the Egyptian princess Nefertiabet wearing a leopard-inspired dress. In the West, they have been fashionable since the late 18th Century. 

Hollywood stars such as Joan CrawfordHer best-known films include Mildred Pierce and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? adored them. More recently they have been embraced by rebellious and establishment figures alike, from Debbie HarryThe lead singer of the punk band Blondie. to the Duchess of Cambridge.

Yes: Leopards have been killed in huge numbers for the sake of fashion. It is only fair that the species should be compensated. A small percentage from sales would boost their conservation enormously.

No: Designers, like artists, must be free to take their inspiration from anywhere - it would be ridiculous if they had to pay for it. And collecting the money would be an incredibly complicated process.

Or... People buying leopard-print clothes should just be invited to make a small contribution to conservation. Even rounding the price up to the nearest pound would make a considerable difference.