Great looks at even greater prices: you'd have to be off your trolley not to go fashion shopping at the supermarket. MAXINE GORDON heads down the aisle.

BY George, we've got a lot to thank that Mr Davies for. After he set up Next, George Davies turned his fashion fingers to Asda and single-handedly launched the great British retail revolution.

With the help of his George clothing label, founded in 1990, Asda has overtaken Marks & Spencer as the UK's largest clothing retailer.

Aided by the famous 'Asda Price' - which sees jeans selling for £4 - it's easy to see the appeal of the supermarket's fashion lines. But it's not only low prices that are luring shoppers away from high street chains. It's the fashions too.

Asda's clothes are affordable and desirable. Fashions straight off the catwalk and on a par with the high street are there for the buying, along with the weekly groceries.

Asda is not alone in making a name for itself in the fashion world. Supermarkets have long been engaged in store wars as they fight for an increased market share. Where once this battle was over the price of bread and milk, now the cut of jeans or the colours of lingerie collections comes into play too.

Once it would have been style suicide to admit to buying clothes from a supermarket, now it's positively cool. Even the glossies are getting in on the act and featuring supermarket chic in their fashion pages.

Still not convinced? Well, let the clothes speak for themselves.

Our fashion spread today features looks from the newest collections from Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury, but you could be forgiven for assuming they were from M&S, Next, Dorothy Perkins or Top Shop, such is the up-to-minuteness of the appeal.

And look at the prices - wedge sandals at £15; skirts at £16; denim blazers at £18; a designer-looking top for 30 quid.

Get your calculator out and do the sums: it's hard to beat Asda's denim combo of blazer (£18) and jeans (£16) or Sainsbury's pink jacket (£25) and denim skirt (£18).

Yes, supermarket fashion has grown up. You can still get your basic jeans and T-shirts, but now you can also snap-up clothes that scream style.

For this season, fashion is gloriously feminine. Fabrics are cotton, chiffon, silk and jersey in romantic pale greys, blues or yellows. Team long, layered skirts, kaftans and tunics, with fitted blazers, add a scarf, some chunky jewellery and strappy wedged sandals for an eclectic mix befitting the style queens of the moment, Sienna Miller and Kate Moss. It's called the boho look and it's there for the picking - first right at the wines and spirits and left at the deli counter.

Asda may be the leader in the supermarket style wars, but there is no sign of the Yorkshire-based company resting on its laurels. Next month, it will launch a national ad campaign with Sharon Osbourne.

And you can understand why. Tesco, the heavyweight of the supermarket sector, is snapping at its heels. Did you know that for every eight quid spent in a shop, £1 of that is in Tesco?

But as the big three fight it out for the spoils of the stores war, the ultimate winner is the shopper.

Not only do we get great clothes at unbeatable prices, suddenly going to the supermarket is a lot more fun. Beside tins of baked beans, we can add a bit of boho chic to the shopping list.

Updated: 08:51 Saturday, January 22, 2005