Sustainable Clothing Brands

What is sustainable clothing?

The clothing sector has huge environmental impacts worldwide. Accounting for around 8% of all global emissions, it is also responsible for widespread pollution and waste. 

Sustainable clothing aims to tackle these issues by using fabrics and processes that are lower-carbon, less polluting and address other environmental harms.

In recent decades, fast fashion brands like Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing have boomed. They have mainstreamed a model of clothing that is low-cost, poor-quality and has a short shelf life. 

Sustainable clothing offers an antidote to this – slowing the cycle down and providing items that are designed to last.

Truly sustainable fashion brands will also take a holistic approach, addressing workers’ rights in the clothing industry and animal rights issues, as well as environmental concerns. 

How to spot fashion brands that are sustainable

Clothing brands that are really sustainable should provide plenty of information about steps that they are taking to cut their emissions, tackle their environmental impacts, and ensure workers’ rights in their supply chains. 

These are likely to include:

Using more sustainable fabrics 

The most sustainable fabrics are recycled, reusing fibres that are already in the clothing loop, rather than needing a constant new supply. Recycling substantially cuts emissions and waste. Also look out for certified options like organic and Fairtrade. 

Selling secondhand

Preloved clothing is without doubt the most ethical and sustainable option. Look out for dedicated secondhand brands, and ethical clothing shops with a secondhand range. 

Our ethical clothing guide rates eight secondhand retailers.

Publishing lists of suppliers

Brands generally do not own the factories where their clothes are made. It is vital that consumers, environmental advocacy groups, and workers’ rights organisations know where clothes are made, so they can alert companies to problems and hold brands to account. 

The best companies will be publishing all the factories in their supply chains. 

Cutting emissions throughout their supply chains

The majority of emissions for clothing companies arise during manufacturing. 

While lots of companies will advertise the fact they are adding solar panels to their office roof or using less paper, meaningful changes need to take place in the factories they use. 

Look for companies saying they are working with suppliers to cut emissions. 

Outlining ways that they are ensuring workers’ rights 

The fashion industry is notorious for workers’ rights abuses. 

Truly sustainable brands will be taking clear steps to respect those in their supply chains – and publishing plenty of information about them. For example, they might select a small number of manufacturers, with whom they build a long-term relationship. They might use certifications that include workers’ right requirements, such as Fairtrade.

Offering repairs and ‘take back’ schemes

Clothing is often thrown away because we’re unsure how to repair it when it's torn or needs altering.

Some companies are now offering special repair services, meaning that you can keep your items for longer – and substantially cut your wardrobe’s carbon footprint in the process. 

Other brands will take your unwanted clothes in order to recycle the fibres into new.   

In general, look for a brand that is built around ethics and sustainability – rather than a mainstream fashion brand that is making a small number of sustainability claims. 

 

How to tell when clothing brands are greenwashing

Mainstream clothing brands are increasingly making sustainability claims or marketing special ‘eco-friendly’ ranges. However, many of these claims do little to change the company’s footprint overall, especially if they are a fast fashion brand. 

Here, we outline a few quick ways to spot greenwashing in the fashion sector:

1. Fashion brands make vague or unsubstantiated claims

Some fashion brands will claim to be ‘eco’, ‘environmentally-friendly’ or ‘carbon-neutral’, without actually explaining what these terms mean in practice. 

If there's little or no explanation to a claim, it may not be as good as it sounds.

2. Only one tiny part of the business model is ‘sustainable’

Some brands will make a big deal out of sustainability measures that make very little difference to their model overall.

For example, fast fashion brand Pretty Little Thing advertises its charitable giving, while selling thousands of disposable products a year. Boohoo markets its secondhand and resale platform, while facing multiple accusations over workers’ rights abuses in its Leicester factories in recent years. 

3. The label tells a different story

High street brands increasingly offer ‘sustainable’ fashion lines, which include clothing made of ‘better’ fabrics. However, some of these bands have a low threshold for labelling their items as more eco. 

For example, Amazon markets clothing under its ‘Amazon Aware’ sustainability mark that only contain around 50% certified sustainable fabrics, while the rest is made up of uncertified content. 

It’s always worth checking the item’s label to check how sustainable it actually is. 

Which clothing brands are sustainable?

Luckily, there are a growing number of brands that are disrupting the high street model. 

Ethical Consumer’s guide to ethical clothing brands rates and ranks 29 fashion companies on their environmental, human rights and workers’ rights record. 

Of these, 19 are Best Buys, and several more are recommended. 

Great examples include THTC, a brand that has been making its organic certified hemp clothing in the same factories for nearly 25 years, and Brothers We Stand, which uses more sustainable fabrics like organic and recycled cotton, and recycled polyester for its products. 

Check out our ethical clothing guide for the full range of Best Buy and Recommended brands. 

Is sustainable clothing expensive?

Sustainable clothing is generally more expensive than fast fashion, because its price reflects a fair wage paid to workers and the true cost of making lower-carbon products. 

However, sustainable clothes are also usually designed to last much longer than fast fashion clothing. They are less likely to tear, lose their shape, or otherwise quickly become worn. This means that buying sustainable clothing may not end up so expensive overall, if you can wear it for a much longer time. 

The most sustainable option for clothing is buying secondhand, which is almost always much cheaper than buying the same quality new. 

Our article on buying secondhand clothes, repairing and upcycling goes into detail about secondhand clothing, with top tips of what to look for, as well as different options for buying pre-loved items and other tips about repairing and recycling clothes.

In our article on affordable ethical clothing, we look at other ways you can keep costs down while buying sustainable.