7 Eco-Friendly & Sustainable Fashion Brands You Need To Know About
Shopping for eco clothing isn’t easy. While lots of clothing brands pay lip service to being eco conscious, very few actually embrace those principles when developing and manufacturing their garments.
Thankfully, there are lots of environmentally-friendly clothing brands out there that go above and beyond in delivering sustainable, ethical garments and accessories to green-minded customers. Here are just a few of the most sustainable fashion brands you need to know about.
Patagonia
Who they are
California-based outdoor clothing brand.
Why we love them
Patagonia is one of the best-known sustainable apparel brands out there today.
Renowned for its eco-friendly commitments, Patagonia is an established ethical clothing brand, operating long before the climate crisis got pushed to the fore in 2018.
Organic cotton and recycled fabric has long been a part of its process, and Patagonia conducts regular audits of its supply chain to ensure workers’ rights are respected throughout.
Patagonia also actively encourages customers to repair and reuse its garments, offering an Ironclad Guarantee for any product that is defective or not up to scratch.
Boden
Who they are
Adult and children’s clothing brand based in London.
Why we love them
Boden might not be the first name that comes to mind when it comes to eco-friendly clothing brands.
But sustainability and ethics is at the heart of this beloved British brand.
Boden has made an active commitment to creating clothing that lasts — no built-in obsolescence here — and they use organic materials as much as possible in their supply chain.
The brand embraces a number of eco-friendly and ethical commitments, including HERproject (an educational initiative focused on women’s health and nutrition), a mandatory Responsible Sourcing Commitment for all suppliers, and various responsible sourcing and packaging promises.
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Thought Clothing
Who they are
Adult fashion brand based in London.
Why we love them
Hemp, bamboo, organic cotton, Tencel™, modal — these are just some of the sustainable materials that UK-based Thought Clothing uses in its clothing.
Sustainability is at the heart of Thought Clothing, with commitments to fair farming and harvesting of crops, minimal factory discharges, and regular reviews of environmental practices.
Thought Clothing garments are also top-quality — they won’t fall apart after a few wears, further minimising its impact on the planet.
Labo Mono
Who they are
UK-based jacket company.
Why we love them
Plastic bottles are a blight on the nation’s landscapes.
How many times have you seen an empty plastic bottle while walking in the woods?
Labo Mono turns these bottles into durable, functional, and sustainable jackets designed specifically for urban environments. Each jacket is made from 30 recycled plastic bottles, made in factories with an emphasis on quality, social responsibility, sustainability, and a fair price for all.
All Labo Mono jackets are PFC-free and made by employees that are paid a fair wage with fair hours. They’re also pretty slick too, coming in a range of colours and patterns, perfect for work, play, and everything in-between.
Two Days Off
Who they are
Women’s fashion brand based in Los Angeles, USA.
Why we love them
Two Days Off was founded by Gina Stovall, a geologist and earth scientist with several years’ experience working on the frontline of climate change research.
Frustrated with the lack of sustainable (and stylish) apparel brands open to women, Stovall started sewing her own clothing.
This project eventually turned into Two Days Off, a women’s fashion brand dedicated to providing eco-friendly garments that are kind to the planet and actually last.
Two Days Off is proudly carbon-neutral, and all items are either made in small batches or to order, all crafted with natural or deadstock fabrics (material leftover from other fashion houses).
To top it off, Two Days Off is entirely woman-owned, fostering ethical practices within the brand and out.
Elvis & Kresse
Who they are
Luxury fashion and accessories brand based in London, UK.
Why we love them
Luxury brands are not traditionally associated with sustainability. Exclusivity and style and its primary focus, and it was only as recently as 2019 that significant luxury brands such as Prada officially ditched fur.
This makes high fashion brand Elvis & Kresse all the more notable.
Rescuing and reclaiming raw materials and turning them into high-quality items with a touch of luxury, Elvis & Kresse are pioneers of sustainability in haute fashion.
The brand began in 2015, using decommissioned hoses from London’s fire brigade and turning them into a range of high fashion apparel and accessories, donating half of its profits to the Fire Fighters Charity. They have continued to use decommissioned hoses for the past 13+ years.
Elvis & Kresse also use offcut leather from haute couture fashion brand Burberry. While leather is obviously not planet-friendly itself, this focus on using otherwise unusable pieces of leather to turn into something practical is still admirable.
Finally, the haute fashion brand is a Certified B Corp, B1G1, and Living Wage Employer
GROUNDTRUTH
Who they are
Recycled travel goods brand based in the UK.
Why we love them
Sister Georgia, Nina, and Sophia Scott are keen travellers. Their work has taken them all over the world, from the freezing tundras of Antarctica to the scorching heat of East Africa.
This exposed the sisters to the extremities caused or exacerbated by global warming, spurring them on to create a travel goods brand that drives positive change around the world: GROUNDTRUTH.
GROUNDTRUTH seeks to reduce plastic pollution by using new technologies to create 100% recycled products.
Its RIKR backpack, for instance, removes 120 plastic bottles from the environment during production, and its GT-RK-001 fabric is made with 100% recycled plastic collected from landfills, oceans, and waterways around the world. It’s also highly durable, so you only need to buy once — top marks.
Other eco-friendly clothing brands to look out for
Rapanui Clothing – affordable stylish everyday wear
Completely changing the manufacturing process to produce on-demand fashion, Rapanui only make what people order.
Rapanui offers a wide range of subtle, yet stylish clothes catering to men and women at reasonable prices. Think H&M meets Finisterre. Speaking of which…
Finisterre – great everyday clothing with a rugged outdoors feel
FInisterre caters to men and women and its products typically range between £30 – £100. They’re particularly know for their recycled waterproof jackets and have been practising sustainability since 2003.
Haglöfs – the go-to brand for outdoor-wear
This Swedish brand excels in extreme weather clothing specialising in walking boots, waterproof clothing and general hiking-wear for adults and kids.
Veja – trainers, sorted
Your first-stop for eco-shoes, these vegan trainers look simple but smart and the ‘V’ logo gives a standout look that catches the eye. Look out for their running shoes too.
The eco clothing brands above are just a few of the amazing companies doing their bit for positive change in the fashion industry.
Whether they’re using organic cotton or recycled materials in their supply chain or offsetting their carbon emissions, these brands are making a small but mighty change in the fight against global warming.
If you want to shop greener when you’re updating your wardrobe, these are the brands to look for.