Sustainable fashion is becoming more and more popular as people become more conscious of the impact their clothing has on the environment. Sustainable clothing brands are those that consider the full life cycle of their garments, from the sourcing of materials to the disposal of the final product.
These brands often use sustainable materials like organic cotton or bamboo, and they employ eco-friendly manufacturing processes.
Sustainable clothing brands also typically have a commitment to social responsibility, ensuring that their workers are paid fairly and treated well.
As more consumers seek out sustainable options, sustainable clothing brands are sure to continue to grow in popularity.
The Need for Sustainability in Fashion
The traditional fashion industry has long been associated with excessive waste, pollution, and exploitative labor practices. The quest for fast fashion has led to overproduction and rampant consumerism, resulting in a significant toll on the environment.
From water-intensive fabric production to harmful chemical dyes and unethical labor practices, the fashion industry has left a massive carbon footprint.
This dire situation has paved the way for sustainable clothing brands to emerge as beacons of hope. These brands prioritize environmental and social responsibility, striving to create a harmonious balance between style, ethics, and eco-friendliness.
Key Principles of Sustainable Clothing Brands:
- Ethical Production: Sustainable clothing brands are committed to treating their workers fairly. They often collaborate with factories that provide safe working conditions, fair wages, and workers’ rights, ensuring that the human aspect of production is upheld.
- Eco-Friendly Materials: These brands opt for organic, biodegradable, and recycled materials to reduce the impact of fashion on the environment. Materials like organic cotton, Tencel, and recycled polyester are used to create stylish pieces without compromising on quality.
- Reduced Waste: By embracing minimalism, sustainable clothing brands produce items with longevity in mind. They design versatile, timeless pieces that can be mixed and matched, reducing the need for constant purchases.
- Transparency: Transparency is a hallmark of sustainable brands. They are open about their sourcing, production processes, and the steps they take to minimize their environmental footprint. This empowers consumers to make informed choices.
- Local and Fair Trade: Some sustainable brands emphasize local production and fair trade practices. This reduces the carbon footprint associated with transportation and supports local communities.
Ethical and Sustainable Clothing Brands
MADI Apparel
MADI Apparel is a leader in the sustainable clothing brands industry. They started off creating women’s undergarments with the dedication to Make a Difference domestically and globally.
MADI Apparel is founded upon the principles of American manufacturing, self-sustaining fabrics/packaging and socially conscious global impact through underwear donations.
MADI does an amazing job in all aspects of their eco-system. The most impressive part of this eco-system is taking the time to develop a domestic manufacturing relationship.
American made fashion has long been outsourced by major brands, who actually have the ability to set up domestic production, but choose not to do so due to profit margins and pressure from stock holders.
It is so refreshing and exciting to see MADI’s approach out the gate to take on domestic manufacturing and impact local lives within her own community.
People Tree
People Tree Clothing is an ethical fashion brand that specializes in sustainably sourced materials and sustainable production processes. All of their clothing is made from GOTS certified organic cotton, recycled polyester, Tencel, or other natural fibres.
The company has been making waves in the fashion industry for over 25 years with its commitment to Fair Trade practices and support for artisans and small-scale producers in developing countries.
People Tree ensures that every garment they produce is made with respect for people and the environment, creating stylish, conscious clothing that looks great and does good.
Girlfriend Collective
Girlfriend Collective is a sustainable activewear brand for women who care – care about other women, care about how their clothes are made, and care about making an impact through their purchase power.
The brand believes in ethical manufacturing and recycled materials.
Because old water bottles and fishing nets look better on you than they do clogging landfills and polluting oceans.
They believe health and wellness come in many shapes and sizes, and that representation matters.
Packaging: Packaging is 100% recycled and recyclable, so don’t throw it away!
Clothing: The clothes are made from recycled materials like post-consumer water bottles, fishing nets retrieved from the seas, fabric scraps, and other waste. You can find the breakdown of each product’s makeup on the product page.
Boody
Boody is an ethical fashion label that produces a range of stylish and sustainable clothing for women, men and children.
The brand prides itself on creating quality garments from luxuriously soft bamboo fabric, which helps to reduce its environmental impact in comparison to conventional cotton fabrics.
Every item of clothing is crafted with care and attention, ensuring not just comfort and durability but also competitive pricing across the entire collection.
Boody’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond their textiles; the company runs a carbon-neutral business model and uses only recycled or biodegradable packaging materials.
Symbology Clothing
Symbology is a sustainable fashion label that seamlessly intertwinines the rich heritage of block printed fabrics crafted by artisan women in India.
Renowned for its distinctive array of bohemian and boldly printed dresses and jumpsuits, Symbology has taken a bold step forward by expanding its offerings to include size-inclusive and maternity-friendly designs.
With every elegantly adorned piece, wearers not only captivate attention but also embody their commitment to ethical fashion and empowering artisan communities.
Symbology picks shapes for their clothing that look great on all body types. They also offer sizes for everyone, making customers feel good and often earning them compliments.
In their collections, you’ll find patterns and symbols made using a technique called block printing. These patterns have deep meanings that reflect the rich heritage of each piece.
Interestingly, many different cultures from various parts of the world and different times in history have used very similar patterns in their art. This shows how people all over the world share common feelings and experiences.
The founder of Symbology, Marissa Heyl, got inspired by this idea of shared humanity when she chose the name for the company.
The Good Tee
The Good Tee believe’s in humanizing the apparel industry and celebrating the makers who make the clothing. The brand maintains fair and honest relationships with manufacturing partners and emphasize 100% transparency of a traceable supply chain.
Their Fair Trade certified t-shirts are designed and delivered to you with the environment and humans’ lives in mind. The Good Tee is there right from the farm to creation and right through to delivery.
You can shop with us knowing that they have developed products around the principles of the products’ life cycle, relentless quality, honest value and a positive impact.
The brand is also advocates for the rights of farmers and all others involved in the making of products.
The goal is to raise awareness and help others build sustainable clothing brands that supports farmers and celebrates makers in the fashion industry.
Outland Denim
Outland Denim was created to uplift people and planet. No smoke. No mirrors. No greenwashing. Only genuine impact woven directly into their denim.
Outland Denim has created an approach of zero exploitation, to help prevent young girls being drafted into sex trade, or as slave labor into the garment industry.
This approach is done through a program that Outland created called The Denim Project. This program offers young girls with an interest in sewing to earn fair wages, and to learn and master the crafts of sewing and fashion.
Known Supply
Known Supply is a clothing company that focuses on sustainably and ethically produced clothing. The company was founded by friends, who are passionate about making a difference in the fashion industry.
Known Supply works with small family-run businesses in developing countries to produce their clothing.
This business model allows them to provide sustainable jobs and have a positive impact on the local economy. In addition, Known Supply is committed to using eco-friendly materials and production methods.
Their goal is to create high-quality, stylish clothing that has a minimal environmental impact. Known Supply is proof that it is possible to run a successful business while also making a positive difference in the world.
Tentree
Tentree is an eco-friendly clothing company that was founded with the goal of reducing the fashion industry’s impact on the environment. Tentree plants trees for every item of clothing sold, with the goal of offsetting the carbon footprint of their products.
They use sustainable materials like organic cotton and recycled polyester in their garments, and they partner with Fair Trade certified factories to ensure that their workers are paid fair wages and have safe working conditions.
In addition to their commitment to environmental sustainability, Tentree also gives back to communities in need through their TreeEmpowerment program.
This program provides employment opportunities and training to women in developing countries, helping them to build a better future for themselves and their families.
Tentree is a truly innovative company, and their sustainable business model is something that other sustainable clothing brands should be inspired by.
Encircled
Encircled is a sustainable clothing brand built on the concept of no compromises, and sustainability in their DNA.
They’re passionate about creating beautiful, trendless, comfortable designs and equally as passionate about producing locally, working with sustainable and biodegradable fabrics and having the smallest carbon footprint possible.
Encircled is a certified B Corporation, which means they’re legally required to consider the impact of the business decisions on workers, suppliers, community, the environment, and you, the customer.
The Encircled business model is built on slow fashion, trendless designs and premium, long-lasting quality. Their sewing studios save all scrap fabric and upcycle it into accessories.
The brand also holds quarterly sample sales to find homes for perfectly imperfect garments. They host the Encircled community on Facebook where you can buy, sell or trade your Encircled clothes.
ABLE
ABLE’s objective centers on creating enhanced opportunities for women. It is striking to note that women constitute 80% of the workforce in the fashion industry.
This sector has gained notoriety due to its substandard labor conditions and insufficient compensation.
ABLE has directly observed the depth of commitment within its customer community to advancing superior job prospects, equitable remuneration, and safe working environments for those engaged in crafting their merchandise.
The brand’s initiatives span beyond establishing secure and respectful employment solely within its Nashville-based home office, jewelry studio, and fulfillment center. It extends globally through collaborations with manufacturers who share akin values.
ABLE acknowledges the potential for substantial transformation when both brands and customers prioritize consumer satisfaction and the welfare of workers equivalently.
Through close collaboration with its customers, ABLE remains resolute in propelling constructive change within the fashion industry, vividly portraying the impactful shifts that can transpire when brands and customers place value on both the purchaser and the creator.
Recover
Meet the American manufacturing company Recover Brands. Recover strives to create the best, most environmentally friendly and socially responsible products possible.
Founded by Bill Johnston and John Riddle, Recover produces sustainable apparel, and also developed a 360° process — from design to manufacturing to fulfillment — as environmentally conscious as the products they sell.
Recover minimizes dyes, significantly reduces the use of chemicals, water and energy; and completely eliminates plastic packaging.
Fair Anita
Fair Anita is a social enterprise that creates Fair Trade opportunities for women around the world. Fair Anita works with artisan cooperatives in over ten countries, providing training and support so women can earn a livable wage and improve their standard of living.
Fair Anita’s products are all handmade, ensuring that each piece is unique. The company offers a wide variety of jewelry, including necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings.
Fair Anita also provides opportunities for women to start their own businesses through its micro-loan program.
As a result, Fair Anita is not only empowering women financially, but also helping them to become leaders in their communities.
Triarchy
Since its inception, Triarchy has become known for its sustainable and ethical practices, as well as its trend-setting design.
The brand also uses eco-friendly processes to manufacture its jeans, such as using ozone technology to minimize water waste. In addition to its environmental credentials, Triarchy is also committed to social responsibility.
To Triarchy, sustainability means building a business that can operate sustainably as well as create sustainable products. “If we aren’t paying a living wage and supporting human and animal rights then we aren’t sustainable.”
All of the brands jeans and denim jackets are produced with responsibly made fabrics and washed with the most advanced sustainable laundry technology available.
The brands Code of Conduct illustrates all of the morals and values in practical and executable points that they share with everyone they are about to work with to have them sign off on it before engagement.
The beauty of this level of transparency is that it secures the needs as a sustainable brand and also shines a light into areas where improvement can be made, allowing the brand to be aware of these areas.
Keep Nature Wild
Keep Nature Wild products are crazy cozy, super soft, and exceptionally comfy.
They design outdoor apparel and accessories to bring a smile to your face, to brighten your day, to enable your next adventure, to spark connection, to build community, and to make our planet a better place.
The products are designed in Arizona and made for the wild. But there’s an extra, earth-friendly impact behind the apparel and accessories. For every apparel product sold we pick up one pound of trash.
Groceries Apparel
The companies Upcycled Food-waste Collection gathers discarded food scraps including carrot tops, pomegranate peels, used coffee grounds, avocado pits, onions skins, roots, leaves and flowers to make a collection of 100% non-toxic wardrobe essentials.
Groceries Apparel is are driven to scale our ingredients technology to bring non-toxic clothing to the mainstream.
The brand couldn’t find a dye house that shared their ethics and standards, so they started their own! Groceries Vege Dye Studio uses only non-toxic dyes including dyes made from pomegranate, carrot tops, onion skins, roots, bark, flowers and real indigo.
People are at the center of what drives the brand forward everyday. Groceries Apparel support local USA jobs, fair wages, fair conditions and fair treatment in their own factory and across the entire supply chain.
The quality of products are directly attributed to the talented cutting and sewing artists and the ability to oversee the own products being made, right in Los Angeles.
Taylor Stitch
Taylor Stitch is a sustainable clothing brand that produces high-quality, stylish clothing for men and women. Taylor Stitch is committed to sustainable manufacturing practices and ethical sourcing.
Constructed to perfection and responsibly built for the long haul. They’ve taken 10 years of feedback and are doubling down on their commitment to building the best possible clothing while pledging to limit environmental impact.
From fiber to fabric to factory to end functionality, Taylor Stitch has grown from a need for products without limitations that could handle chopping wood, surf sessions, snagging trout, or simply heading to the office.
The brand is committed to using recycled and regenerative fibers wherever possible. This will help lower water usage, get rid of chemicals and pesticides which harm workers and leach into the rivers and help close the loop to create a cradle to cradle supply chain.
Allbirds
Allbirds, a New Zealand-American footwear company, was founded in 2014 by Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger with a strong emphasis on sustainability and environmentally friendly practices.
Recognized for their innovative, eco-conscious approach, Allbirds uses ethically sourced Merino wool, eucalyptus fibers, and sugar cane-based soles in their manufacturing process, reducing their carbon footprint drastically, and they are also a certified B-Corporation.
With a diverse product range comprised of sneakers, flats, and various accessories, Allbirds showcases a perfect blend of style, comfort, and sustainability, garnering a dedicated following and making a significant impact on the global footwear market.
Doodlage
Doodlage is a sustainable clothing brand based in New Delhi working with post-production and post-consumer textile waste to curate women’s, men’s, and accessory collections.
Doodlage creates pieces from scrap textiles and materials found, therefore hunting for material first, and entering the design process second. This is how Doodlage pieces come to life.
The team inspires everyone to get creative too, including their tailors and labour workers to instill a love and responsibility for ethical design and production.
Now in over 40 stores across India, it’s super exciting to see such an innovative brand spreading so quickly in a country where global production is priority, and western culture and influence has taken over.
Patagonia
Patagonia is a clothing company that is known for its high-quality, durable clothing. The company was founded in 1973 by Yvon Chouinard, and it is headquartered in Ventura, California.
Patagonia’s mission is to “build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”
Patagonia clothing is made from recycled materials whenever possible, and the company has a strict code of ethics regarding the treatment of animals and the environment.
Patagonia also offers a lifetime guarantee on all of its products, ensuring that they will last long enough to be passed down to future generations.
Thanks to its dedication to quality and sustainability, Patagonia has become one of the most respected names in the outdoor clothing industry.
ÉTICA
ÉTICA is a sustainable clothing company that specializes in ethical fashion. ÉTICA’s mission is to create beautiful, sustainable, and ethical fashion.
ÉTICA designs and produces its own line of clothing, as well as working with other brands to help them create more sustainable and ethical collections.
Through industry-leading equipment and advancements in wash technique, they dramatically reduce water usage by 90%, energy consumption by 63% and chemical usage by 70% compared to industry standards.
ÉTICA has been recognized by the United Nations, Fashion Revolution, and Vogue Brazil, among others, for its commitment to ethics and sustainability. ÉTICA is proof that fashion can be beautiful, sustainable, and ethical.
FURB Upcycled
By upcycling products, FURB Upcycled lets its customers make a choice that respects both their values and the environment. Faced with rampant overconsumption, being responsible has now become a necessity.
Acquiring an upcycled garment, accessory, or object made from recycled materials is a bold and modern decision. It is this train of thought that underlies the pieces FURB offers.
Sophisticated, socially rewarding and carefully thought out to go beyond trends, a FURB Upcycled piece is made to be cherished for a lifetime.
Through FURB’s upcycling program, one may now secure a future to a piece of sentimental value by re-purposing it to a modern, functional and considered design item.
unspun
unspun is taking a different approach than other sustainable clothing brands by using robotics and technology to create custom jeans for each consumer, on demand.
The mission is to reduce global carbon emissions by 1% through automated, localized, and intentional manufacturing.
Their technology uses algorithms to digitally design and perfectly fit jeans automatically around your 3D avatar. unspun developed design technology that translates a 30-second body scan into digital jeans.
This completely eliminates the need for inventory and dramatically reduces the waste created by current production methods while creating a customer experience that prioritizes emotional experience over consumption.
When you shop, you choose your jean style, fabric, thread color, rise height, and hem length. Next, you take a quick body scan to get an accurate Sims-like character of you that we can design around.
The software creates a pattern, which is used to make your size-free jeans. When you purchase with unspun, you are also supporting our on-going development that pushes us toward our mission to reduce global human carbon emissions by 1%.
To get there, they have developed tech that is beginning to enable a zero waste and circular fashion industry where nothing becomes trash.
No joke! They are developing on-demand additive manufacturing that automatically builds your perfect jeans from your avatar. The future of sustainable clothing brands is here.
Toad & Co
Toad & Co is a company that makes sustainable clothing for people who love the outdoors. The company was started by a group of friends who shared a passion for adventure and a desire to protect the environment.
Toad & Co’s mission is to create clothing that is both stylish and sustainable.
The company uses eco-friendly materials and production methods, and all of its products are made in the USA, which makes it very unique in in the sustainable clothing brands sector.
Toad & Co’s clothing is designed to be comfortable and functional, whether you’re hiking in the mountains or enjoying a casual day at the beach.
So if you’re looking for clothing that will help you enjoy the outdoors without harming the environment, Toad & Co is the perfect choice.
Mud Jeans
MUD Jeans is the world’s first circular denim brand. The brand uses your worn out jeans to create new ones. Every pair of MUD Jeans is recycled into a new MUD Jeans, leaving no waste and using 92% less water than an average jeans.
A pair of jeans made by happy people – 100% possible. MUD only works with selected manufacturers that ensure the wellbeing of everybody involved.
MUD jeans are made from natural materials; organic and recycled cotton. No pesticides are being used, better for your skin.
ECOALF
ECOALF is a Spanish clothing company that was founded with the goal of producing fashion items using only sustainable materials. ECOALF sources its materials from recycled plastic bottles, used fishing nets, and other post-consumer waste.
The company has also partnered with factories that employ fair trade practices. ECOALF’s garments are designed to be both stylish and environmentally friendly, and the company has been praised for its innovative approach to sustainable fashion.
In addition to its clothing line, ECOALF also sells a range of sustainable accessories, including bags, wallets, and belts. With its commitment to sustainability, ECOALF is helping to lead the way in the fashion industry’s transition to a more sustainable future.
Outerknown
Outerknown sets out to change the apparel industry by building clothing in harmony with this planet and taking care of the people they work with.
“We created Outerknown to smash the formula. To lift the lid on the traditional supply chain and prove you can actually produce great looking clothes in a sustainable way.” – Kelly Slater
Co-founded by pro-surfer and 11x world champion, Kelly Slater, and acclaimed designer, John Moore, Outerknown is a sustainable men’s and women’s clothing brand that makes desirable, high quality clothes of premium materials that make you look great and can stand the test of time.
Over 90% of the fibers they source are organic, recycled or regenerated, they participate in Fair Trade programs and use FLA accredited facilities wherever possible. They’re not perfect, but the goal is constant progress. Sustainability is the destination.
Sustainable clothing brands are becoming more and more popular, as people become more conscientious of the impact their buying habits have on both the environment and the workers who produce their clothes.
If you’re looking for a new wardrobe that won’t damage the planet, check out some of these amazing sustainable clothing brands. They offer stylish and fashionable clothes made from sustainable materials using ethical production methods, so you can feel good about your purchase from start to finish.
