9 Sustainable Wedding Dresses Marrying Style & Ethics
‘Here come the brides, all dressed in’…sustainable wedding dresses!
A bride’s conscious wedding journey starts with an eco-friendly engagement ring and ends with an eco-friendly wedding ring. In between, joining the two in holy matrimony should be a gorgeous gown that’s just as pretty on our planet as on you.
If there’s ever been a day to dress with heart, the ‘big day’ is it.
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Save The Date For The Best Eco-Friendly Wedding Dresses
Reformation makes our eco-hearts flutter across their range of recycled wedding gowns and conscious cocktail dresses, all created with in-depth impact tracking and reporting.
Secondhand wedding dresses are perhaps the most sustainable (and often affordable) option, and for that, Pre-Owned Wedding Dresses is your one-stop shop.
Similarly, Velvet Pin Vintage provides a curated catalog of sustainable antique wedding dresses from the 1920s to the 2000s.
The Full List Of Sustainable Wedding Dress Brands
- Pre-Owned Wedding Dresses | Visit Store
- Velvet Pin Vintage | Visit Store
- Still White | Visit Store
- Reformation | Visit Store
- Rent the Runway | Visit Store
- Apricot Vintage | Visit Store
- Wear Your Love | Visit Store
- Pure Magnolia | Visit Store
- Indiebride | Visit Store
1. Pre-Owned Wedding Dresses
Pre-Owned Wedding Dresses
Price Range: $100–$30,000
Every wedding day needs ‘something old’, so why not make that your whole gown getup in the form of a vintage wedding dress?
Pre-Owned Wedding Dresses offer a huge selection of pre-owned gowns that are easy to sift through and can be narrowed down by designer, size, location, and type.
From sleek, bodice hugging Jenny Yoo designs to princess-worthy Ariamo Bridal pieces, complete with big tulle skirts and beaded sweetheart necklines, they’ve got something to match every wedding Pinterest board aethetic.
And that includes bridesmaid dresses, flower girl dresses, and elegant dresses for Moms.
If you’re looking to pass on your dress to another, this platform makes selling your old wedding dress easy, too.
Materials:
You’ll find almost every material under the sun in their selection, but since everything is second hand, you won’t need to worry about the impact of those materials as much.
Inclusivity:
Filter your shopping by sizes, which range from 00 all the way to 36W.
2. Velvet Pin Vintage
About Velvet Pin Vintage
Price Range: $45–$350
Velvet Pin Vintage is your one-stop shop for vintage, antique, and secondhand wedding dresses.
Maggie Grzybowski curates a selection of antique bridal garments and accessories from the 1920s to the early 2000s. Each piece is one-of-a-kind, like the Jana, featuring an elegant white 3D lace bodice, ‘voluminous’ tulle skirt, and plenty of floral detailing.
Velvet Pin Vintage’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
All of the ethical wedding dresses vary in material, but many feature silk, satin, cotton, acetate, lace, and tulle.
Inclusivity:
Since each piece is unique, Velvet Pin lists the exact measurements of each dress on the product page.
3. Stillwhite
About Stillwhite
Price Range: $25–$60,010
Stillwhite puts the ‘eco’ in sECOnhand, as one of the largest online marketplaces for new, used, and sample gowns. With over 86,000 options—and many of them under $1000—anyone can find the perfect ethical wedding dress in their budget.
They make it easy to shop by designers, silhouettes, and more.
Never dreamed you could score a Justin Alexander design with a fully hand-beaded and 3D floral lace stumpwork bodice for $900?
Here you can, and rest easy knowing every purchase from third-party sellers is fully protected by Stillwhite.
Materials:
Again, materials vary and while most are alone not sustainable, the fact that they’re preventing landfill waste makes us say “I do” to them.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
1% of your purchase goes directly to carbon offsets, and since most of their selection is privately listed by sellers all around the world, you can further reduce emissions by shopping for sellers near you.
Inclusivity:
Sizes run US 0 (XS) through 30 (4XL).
4. Reformation
About Reformation
Price Range: $298–$948
Reformation is one of our favorite fast fashion alternatives for almost everything—eco weddings included.
They have a range of affordable options, including recycled wedding dresses, like the Aliana Dress featuring deadstock woven fabric made from polyester.
Reformation’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
You’ll find dresses made of 100% silk charmeuse (not vegan), 100% recycled polyester, NAIA-renewed acetate, and viscose fabric.
While this wood pulp-based semi-synthetic uses harsh chemicals in the processing, theirs is sourced from sustainably managed forests with the help of the non-profit Canopy.
Plus, most materials come from suppliers with clean chemistry certifications , though they’re aiming for 100% to have Level 2 ZDHC compliance by 2025.
Supply chain & labor practices:
With 28 factories of their own in downtown Los Angeles, Reformation keeps good tabs on their supply chain.
Some manufacturing does take place abroad in India, Turkey, and China, protected by a strict FLA-compliant Code of Conduct and living wage requirements.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Water Neutral, Climate Neutral, and a Circular Fashion System Commitment member are working on more circular, carbon-reducing practices. They currently recycle 75% of their garbage and textile scraps.
The certified Green America sustainable fashion business uses conscious office supplies, renewable energy whenever possible, and compostable and recycled LDPE bags for packaging.
Their sustainability report is incredibly transparent and they have a detailed Climate Positive Roadmap that uses Science-Based Targets to track and reduce their emissions at all scores of the supply chain.
Inclusivity:
Sizes run 0-12 in most styles, but their ethical plus size clothing runs 14-24.
75% of management are women or people from underrepresented populations.
Community & charitable giving:
The Reformation Relief Fund was developed to support team members facing financial hardship.
They also regularly collaborate with local sustainability-focused organizations, provide paid volunteer days for employees, and plant a tree through TreePeople for staff birthdays.
5. Rent The Runway
About Rent The Runway
Price Range: $210–$8,990
If you’re not ready to say “yes” to a dress permanently, Rent the Runway is an excellent option for wedding guest dresses, too, and it supports the sharing, circular fashion economy.
With mostly non-white eco-friendly wedding dresses, they’re especially suited for unconventional weddings, elopements, or anyone who wants to throw a curve to the ol’ “dressed in white” expectation.
Choose between a one-time online dress rental or a subscription for access to top designers’ oncue.
6. Apricot Vintage
About Apricot Vintage
Price Range: $16–$275
Apricot Vintage doesn’t always have a huge bridal selection, but their highly curated vintage collection is worth keeping tabs on if you have wedding dreams for the future. You never know when the perfect gown, skip, or bridal accessory might hit their catalog.
Offerings like the Vintage 1950s Wedding Dress are hard to find, with delicate lace detailing and a tea-length cut.
Apricot Vintage’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Apricot provides various thrift, vintage, and antique garments. Materials vary, with some including cotton, lace, satin, silk, nylon, denim, and polyester.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Owner Rachel Ullrich ships everything from Chicago, IL.
Inclusivity:
You can find exact measurements for all dresses on their product pages, but due to the vintage nature, certain sizes are never guaranteed.
7. Wear Your Love
About Wear Your Love
Price Range: $2,120–$3,460
Choosing an eco wedding dress doesn’t mean you’ll compromise on how stunning you’ll look.
Just ask Wear Your Love and their gorgeous range of organic wedding dresses–like the Ari that radiates timeless elegance with its lace outer and nude underlay that gives it the appearance of being transparent but not revealing.
Most dresses come with customizable features as well, like the train length, sleeve length, and back coverage.
Wear Your Love’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Eco-friendly, organic fabrics are en vogue for this brand, with most environmentally friendly wedding dresses consisting of 30-50% organic cotton.
That’s combined with French lace, English tulle, natural silk, or vegan chiffon.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Dresses are handmade to order from start to finish in the brand’s Northern California studio. Everyone is paid fairly and protected under US labor laws.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Wear Your Love only makes what gets ordered. To prevent waste, you can order swatches to find the fabric you like first, and any production scraps are donated to a textile recycling facility to be turned into furniture cushions and carpet pads.
Dresses are shipped in recycled paper packaging.
Inclusivity:
By taking 18 different measurements, they guarantee the perfect dress fit at no additional cost.
8. Pure Magnolia
About Pure Magnolia
Price Range: $486–$3,320
Choose kindness, style, comfort, and sustainability by becoming a Pure Magnolia bride.
Driven by values like responsible sourcing, natural fabrics, local production, waste reduction, and fair wages, the “big day” can also be sustainable and ethical.
Pure Magnolia offers the perfect options “for the bride who expects more”—including those who want to go unconventional with a two-piece bridal top and skirt set, like the vintage inspired Gracie tank to pair with the soft, layered tulle look of the high-waisted Danielle skirt.
Pure Magnolia’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Pure Magnolia uses a combination of organic cotton, silk, hemp, cupro, and recycled fabric (whenever possible) in place of synthetics.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Starting with responsible sourcing, they research precisely where the fabrics come from and how they’re produced before gowns are handmade in-house in their Canadian studio, where team members receive fair wages.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Scrap fabric is reused when cutting new pieces; anything in excess is responsibly recycled by FABCYCLE.
Inclusivity:
All eco-conscious brides can feel like princesses in the 0-28 size range.
9. Indiebride
About Indiebride
Price Range: Quoted by appointment
London’s Indiebride wants to help you find your dream dress, whatever that may be.
Long dresses, short dresses, and wedding accessories are the extensive offerings here, but there’s no limit to the style variety in each.
Everything is beautifully bohemian—think: elegant bell sleeves like in the Cassidy design, drapey rather than tight-fit bodices, and lots and lots of lace—and will help keep our planet more beautiful, too.
Indiebride’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Indiebride prioritizes natural materials like organic ramie (a linen-like fiber), Ahimsa silk, organic bamboo, and cotton.
Deadstock fabrics, lace, and recycled PET are also used, as well as some virgin polyester and nylon we recommend avoiding.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Indiebride sources its materials from the UK, China, and India, before each handmade eco-wedding gown is created from scratch in a studio in South London over the span of 18-20 weeks.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Between a handmade-to-order wedding dress production process, reuse of off-cuts to embellish accessories, and donation of scraps to students or facilities that repurpose them into things like carpet underlay and insulation, nothing gets thrown away.
Inclusivity:
UK sizes 8-16 (US 4-12) are available. If your dress doesn’t fit just right, the woman-foudned brand offers alteration services.
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Good morning, I know this is probably a long shot but the wedding dress at the top of your website on the right is something that I have been trying to source. Could you please give me some details as to designer etc so I could maybe source something similar. I wait in anticipation for your reply.
Kind regards,
Dee
Hi Dee, I’m sorry I’m not sure of that designer. Perhaps Google Image Search could help? Or try Shady.Club extension to search for similar? We learnt about this in our podcast interview with them here