The Best Sustainable Fashion Brands to Bookmark ASAP

I’ve talked about the harmful ways – both environmentally and ethically —  of fast fashion plenty a times on this site, and the terrible, awful, not good impact brands like H&M, Zara and Shein have on the environment and labor ethics. I’ve also talked about sustainable fashion brands before and inasmuch as there’s no such thing as “eco-friendly clothing” because all garments have at least some negative impact on the environment — there are brands working to help make a difference. Here are the best of them.

Best Accessories

Cuyana

Enter Cuyana, the West Coast-based brand designing essential pieces for the modern woman. The brand’s mantra is “fewer, better things” – meaning if you buy good, quality clothes that’ll last, you won’t need to buy as much. Cuyana means “to love” in Quechua — the language of the Inca empire — and this is exactly what you’ll find in each piece designed by co-founders Karla Gallardo and Shilpa Shah. Mostly known for its accessories, like its the very versatile tote bags made out of vegan leather, the brand also offers clothing manufactured in a mindful way. The factories the brand use are near the raw materials so there’s less shipping involved.

Rothy’s

Launched in 2016 as a direct-to-consumer brand, Rothy’s is a San Francisco-based fashion company founded by Stephen Hawthornthwaite and Roth Martin. It began as a shoe company in San Francisco, and they branched out into making handbags in 2020. Rothy’s offers versatile, lightweight, moisture wicking, seamless and machine washable shoes by transforming millions of single-use plastic water bottles into their signature threat. They have kept 100 tons of ocean-bound marine plastic out o water ways by using it to knit their bags and accessories. In addition, the brand has committed to better recycling of their products and essentially keeping all Rothy’s shoes and bags out of landfills. Their recycling program takes damaged Rothy’s and re-purposes them into new products.

Best Overall Clothing

Everalane

Everlane offers classic styles without being super-trendy. This  means you can wear their clothes year after year and not create waste. In 2018, Everlane made their first environmental commitment: Eliminate all virgin plastic from their supply chain by 2021, which includes their products, packaging, poly bags, offices, and stores. By Spring 2021, 97% of the brand’s apparel materials containing polyester and nylon were made from certified recycled fibers; 45% of Everlane’s plastic footwear components were made from recycled materials; and 100% of their virgin plastic shipping bags were made from either 100% recycled plastic or FSC-certified paper. The brand’s focus is also on ethics and transparency (read their 2021 impact report here)  It shows its markup process for each garment and shares the factories producing their clothes to give an idea of where it sources from. The brand claims to spend months finding the best factories around the world. They visit them often and build strong personal relationships with the owners. Each factory is given a compliance audit to evaluate factors like fair wages, reasonable hours, and environment.

ABLE

ABLE is an ethical, body inclusive and sustainable fashion brand that prioritizes quality and longevity, while at the same time working to find the most Eco-conscious materials that stand the test of time and wear. Ethical fashion is the driving force behind ABLE, which focuses on fighting poverty by offering fair wages and creating jobs for women. It even publishes its wages on its website. It also has an internal system to evaluate its manufacturing partners in areas like safety, quality and wages so they can see the impact of its supply chain. The brand’s fashion portfolio includes apparel, shoes, bags and jewelry.

Epoque Evolution

Offering upscale athleisure, outerwear, knits, and accessories Epoque Evolution was founded in 2018. It chooses sustainable, organic, up-cycled, deadstock and post-consumer waste recycled fibers when available. It also only uses fabrics that don’t need to be dry-cleaned or other toxic care. They also work with mills that are committed to best practices and reducing the collective carbon footprint.

Best ReCommerce

But first, what is ReCommerce? ReCommerce is the unique retail concept where pre-owned items are resold. It’s a business model built around the idea of product reuse. It refers to the selling of previously used or owned items through online marketplaces.

Poshmark

Headquartered in California, Poshmark is a social commerce marketplace where users in the US, Canada, and Australia can buy and sell new or used clothing, shoes, and accessories. The company does not have a concrete environmental and sustainability moto, but, it promotes the resale and reuse of clothing, which is  the most environmentally conscious thing a consumer can do. Buying something used is more sustainable than anything new, so it’s automatically going to cost you less. So go ahead and download that Poshmark app and not only start making money off your old clothes, but help the environment as well.

ThredUp

ThredUp is one of the largest online thrift stores, where you can buy and sell second hand clothing. To use the brand’s own words: “Thrifting is about more than just finding amazing deals on your favorite brands. It’s about shopping with intention, rejecting throwaway fashion culture, and standing for sustainability. The clothes we wear have the power to create change.”