8 Linen Clothing Brands That Aren’t (F)Lax About Saving Our Planet
Get in line(n), because we’re dishing up the best linen clothing brands.
What is linen, you ask?
Said to have magical properties this wonderful fabric has been revered for centuries.
For us, however, it has less to do with the spiritual and more to do with the sustainable. Our love of flax linen clothing is largely due to the fact that linen doesn’t require a lot to grow. Unlike cotton, it doesn’t need a tremendous amount of water, pesticides, herbicides, or time.
Plus, linen’s durable properties mean that a new linen button-up from one of these linen-loving brands will also stand the test of time.
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Our Flaxstastic Favorite Linen Clothing Brands
Despite their name, Linenfox isn’t foxy about their honest and sustainable fabric lineup: 100% linen clothing is all they offer.
Whimsy + Row’s styles are so elegant and modern that you’d never guess they’re made from a centuries-old fiber.
Head directly to the end of the article to see how we chose these flax clothing retailers.
The Best Linen Clothing Brands
- Linenfox | Visit Store
- Whimsy + Row | Visit Store
- Neu Nomads | Visit Store
- Linen Handmade Studio | Visit Store
- Mata Traders | Visit Store
- not PERFECT LINEN | Visit Store
- MagicLinen | Visit Store
- Eileen Fisher | Visit Store
1. Linenfox
About Linenfox
Price Range: $–$$$
If you’re wondering where to find the best linen clothing brands, Etsy is a good place to start.
Namely, with Linenfox clothing, the Lithuanian brand with over 80,000 sales of garments made of “linen for well-lived days”.
As one of the leaders in affordable linen clothing, you can find nearly any garment you desire for your minimalist wardrobe: sustainable linen shorts, coats, jackets, dresses, jumpsuits, shirts, skirts, tops, and trousers.
Or go really minimalist and decorate your top and bottom all at once with the Martin Heavy Linen Jumpsuit.
Linenfox’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
100% natural, toxin-free, OEKO-TEX-certified linen fabric is what you’ll find in all Linenfox clothes.
It’s preshrunk and softened during the manufacturing process to ensure it feels soft and smooth once it arrives on your doorstep.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Being 100% Lithuanian linen clothing means sourcing and manufacturing is kept domestic and low-impact.
All linen garments are made-to-order by a small team of 20 valued professionals working under one roof who are paid according to fair trade principles.
Green business practices:
Made to order and made to last: that’s what you’ll get from Linenfox.
To cut down on the already negligible amount of linen fabric waste, Linenfox uses any scrap material to make new products, like scrunchies.
They use earth-friendly packaging materials (98% plastic-free) when possible, which it usually is.
Inclusivity:
Linenfox mostly offers sizes (XS-XXL)
2. Whimsy + Row
About Whimsy + Row
Price Range: $–$$
Is linen clothing luxury?
With Whimsy + Row and their goal to provide “ease and elegance for the modern, sustainable woman”, it will sure feel like it.
While not exclusively a linen clothing company, their linen lineup offers a fresh and fun (yet still timeless) range.
On their own, most styles (like the Willow Top) are suited for warmer weather but can easily be layered for a year-round low-impact look.
Whimsy + Row’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
While all garments are made with deadstock fabrics or natural fabrics, we’re here to talk about their linen, used in only 100% pure concentration across their natural linen clothing.
Only non-toxic, sustainable dyes are used until the brand finds a way to make natural dyes last as long as their garments.
Supply chain & labor practices:
For women’s linen clothing made in the USA, you can’t get better than linen pieces that are locally-made only a few miles from Whimsy + Row’s LA office.
They regularly visit to ensure that fair wages and working conditions are provided.
Green business practices:
By keeping the entire supply chain small and local, Whimsy + Row is able to significantly reduce its carbon footprint.
A “brand without excess waste or egos”, they produce limited quantities to make their pieces waste-free—down to recycled production water.
They recycle every scrap of material produced during production. If it isn’t enough to make an entire garment, it becomes a scrunchie or bandana instead.
If even that fails, the scraps are sent to Marimole, an NYC-based textile recycling company, to be turned into wipes, new fabrics, or insulation.
Whimsy + Row is also carbon-neutral, thanks to a partnership with carbonfund.org, and ships in 100% recycled and reusable EcoEnclose mailers or other recycled materials (boxes and filler).
Inclusivity:
Committed to anti-racism in their company structure, they designate 15% of their Sustainable Marketplace to Black-owned businesses and amplify POC voices on their platforms.
Sizes XS-XL are available.
Community & Charitable Giving:
Paying it forward is also important to the brand, which is why they’ve supported organizations like Black Vision Collective, Global Fund for Women, Reclaim the Block, and more.
3. Neu Nomads
About Neu Nomads
Price Range: $$–$$$
Neu Nomads wants to bring some much-needed newness (or rather neu-ness) to the world of fashion. They’re an ethics-first brand committed to traceability and sustainability.
Everything is considered in their ethical approach: fabrics to factories, packaging to products.
While not all are linen garments, their flax women’s clothing include shorts, oversized boyfriend button-down shirts, tunics, dresses, kaftans, and luxuriously loose and cozy palazzo pants.
Neu Nomads’ Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Their 100% organic linen clothing is paired with non-toxic, OEKO-certified, and AZO-free dyes.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Everything is responsibly sourced and mostly manufactured in the E.U.
Neu Nomads partners with family factories that provide fair wages (above the living wage) and medical care. Because they prioritize women’s empowerment, many of these factories have mostly female designers.
For dyeing, they partner with a UN-partner artisan group in Rajasthan, India that adheres to strict environmental and social standards.
Green business practices:
The dye house is powered by solar energy, utilizes water captured from monsoons, and recycles 90% of all water used.
You’ll receive your new European linen clothing in biodegradable and recycled materials. The “paper” packaging is actually recycled cotton fabrics from a local garment factory.
Every garment is designed to be an everyday essential. Read as: always “in style” and durable enough to stand the test of time.
Inclusivity:
XS-XXL sizes are available in most styles, though some only go to size L.
Community & Charitable Giving:
Neu Nomads presents Neu Women: a monthly content series that highlights female entrepreneurs and other influential people in the Neu Nomads community who are fighting for a more sustainable world.
4. Linen Handmade Studio
About Linen Handmade Studio
Price Range: $–$$
To this Etsy shop and linen clothing brand, linen is more than an elegant and sustainable fabric:
“Linen is a Lithuanian heritage, and historically, Lithuanians recognized linen not only as a material for the healing value of the plant, but also as having magical properties. It was and still is a symbol of wellbeing and harmony.”
Founder of Linen Handmade Studio Laura lives in a seaside village in Lithuania, where she is inspired to capture its beauty and sustainability in all of her summer-chasing styles.
They celebrate femininity and freedom with natural linen dresses (like the stunning MARLENA wrap dress) tops, skirts, pants, shorts, and jackets.
You can do the same for your home with their smaller collection of curtains and table linens.
Linen Handmade Studio’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
With Linen Handmade Studio, you won’t need to ask yourself, “What clothes are made out of linen?” because they all are.
100% European linen with an OEKO-TEX certification, to be precise.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Another of the best European linen clothing brands, products are handmade by a small team of seamstresses in a studio near founder Laura’s home.
Inclusivity:
They offer some plus-size linen clothing in US sizes 2-18, but some styles are limited to S-L.
They are also willing to customize any of their flax linen clothing to provide the perfect fit.
5. Mata Traders
About Mata Traders
Price Range: $–$$
“Mata” is the Hindi word for mother.
Like any mother would want for her daughter, Mata Traders founder Maureen Dunn Fetscher wants the brand to embody the encouragement for a woman to feel comfortable in her own skin.
The brand is one of the best places to find fun fashion pieces for women inspired by Indian design.
You’ll find a range of classy and versatile handmade linen dresses, jumpsuits, tops, bottoms, and skirts—like the Rupi Midi Dress that can be dressed up or down.
Mata Traders’ Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Mata offers organic cotton and linen clothing, combined in a 50/50 blend.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Mata Traders is a member of the Fair Trade Federation and has been for more than a decade.
Their flax clothing is made at a fair trade women’s cooperative in Nepal while other garments (like their non-linen fair trade dresses) are produced in similar cooperatives in India.
They prioritize working with females in rural and marginalized communities and have provided more than 1,000 artisans with meaningful work.
Green business practices:
As one of the top brands with stylish linen clothing that also makes our planet look good, Mata Traders is Green America-certified.
Many of the pieces are made by human hands instead of machines and they work with their cooperatives to help them switch to renewable energy.
Inclusivity: While Mata does offer a range of sustainable plus-size clothing, their linen fashion is limited to XS-XL sizes.
6. not PERFECT LINEN
About not PERFECT LINEN
Price Range: $–$$
Hailing from Vilnius, Lithuania, not PERFECT LINEN is a family of creative people who love linen as much as they love sustainable practices, transparency, and ethical approaches.
Why are they saying their linen is not perfect?
Because that’s the beauty of the material!
It’s natural, unique, and gets better with age. Its perfections come in its imperfections—just ask the 200,000 people who have purchased from them!
not PERFECT LINEN is one of the most affordable linen clothing brands, selling tops, bottoms, dresses, tunics, jackets, cardigans, aprons, jumpsuits, and maternity organic linen dresses.
not PERFECT LINEN’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
The pure and sustainable linen clothing (and their organic curtains and homewares, for that matter) will come to you washed, soft, and OEKO-TEX certified.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Humans, not machines, are responsible for most of the products, a slow and respectful process that helps talented artisans earn a lucrative living:
“Our making process is slow but we hope that it also motivates our customers to find satisfaction in slow buying and slow living.”
They’re female-owned and family-operated, with husband, wife, sister, and mother working as tailors, customer service experts, marketers, and curators.
All products come from European-grown flax and Lithuanian producers.
Green business practices:
Manufacturing On a pre-order basis helps them reduce waste.
Taking slow fashion to the next level, they view this as a way to enhance a sense of community while protesting against mass-produced goods.
Inclusivity:
XS-XL sizes are available.
7. MagicLinen
About MagicLinen
Price Range: $–$$
By now, you probably realize linen’s pretty magical and MagicLinen wants to help foster this belief even more.
When you order inexpensive linen clothing from this Lithuanian brand—chosen from a vast range of dresses, tops, bottoms, jumpsuits, skirts, and loungewear—you’re getting a product to love made with even more love and respect for the material.
While many other linen brands specialize purely in women’s fashion, MagicLinen caters to men, too, making them one of the best sources for men’s linen clothing.
MagicLinen’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
The linen used in MagicLinen’s ethical linen clothing, linen sheets, curtains, and more is 100% European and OEKO-TEX-certified.
Supply chain & labor practices:
MagicLinen’s love of linen extends to all the people who process it. They make use of linen’s history, folklore, and mythology to process the flax plant in an organic, chemical-free way that is safe and supportive of the people doing so.
Beyond this, MagicLinen partners with third-party agencies to conduct regular ethical audits.
Green business practices:
You’ll receive your order in packaging that uses cornstarch and other plant-based sustainable materials instead of plastic.
Inclusivity:
Men’s sizes S-XXL; women’s XS-XL
8. Eileen Fisher
About Eileen Fisher
Price Range: $$–$$$
Eileen Fisher is all about “A simple wardrobe. A simple life”. That makes two of us.
The Certified B-Corp was started by (you guessed it) Eileen Fisher, a designer who wanted to make getting dressed easier and more ethical.
They offer a range of clothing for women, including tanks, camis, tops, tees, cardigans, sweaters, jackets, coats, vests, pants, denim, dresses, skirts, and sleepwear.
Their range is vast, so we’re taking advantage of their easy search function to narrow down our search to only linen clothes.
Eileen Fisher’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
The linen collection uses either the finest flax from France—making EF one of the best French linen clothing brands—or Chinese certified organic flax grown without petroleum-based fertilizers, herbicides, or fungicides.
You’ll also find some GOTS-certified organic cotton and linen clothes, as well as some bluesign®-approved garments.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Being one of the bigger names in the world of organic linen, their farms are having trouble keeping up with demand! While they still source some linen in Europe, they mostly partner with a 2,000-acre organic linen farm in western China.
Most of the 100% linen clothing is woven and dyed in Spain before being manufactured in Indonesia, while the organic cotton and linen clothing is made in Vietnam.
This is all backed up with unannounced audits, a strict Code of Conduct, and reports that share how they support human rights.
Green business practices:
EF linen is dew retted after cutting, meaning the stalks are laid out in the field to be naturally dried using sunlight instead of chemicals.
The linen is also grown via crop rotation with rapeseed and wheat, making it supportive of a healthy, soil-building, pesticide-free food chain.
They also have a Responsible by Design criteria for the clothes that meet their highest standard in terms of social and environmental impact.
Inclusivity:
As one of our favorite sustainable plus-size clothing brands, Eileen Fisher sizes start at XXS and go through 3X.
Community & Charitable Giving:
Thanks to the Eileen Fisher Foundation, your purchase helps award grants to women around the globe who are empowering themselves and their communities by fighting for a fairer, more sustainable world.
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How We Found The Best Sustainable Linen Clothing Brands
The flax plant is pretty darn amazing. Its seeds are full of nutrients and rare heavy-metal detoxifying abilities.
While we love ourselves a good flax-sprinkled smoothie bowl, we’re primarily interested in the rest of the plant.
To obtain the full benefits of that (and brands using it), we need to tick a few boxes of our sustainable fashion criteria:
Materials:
What is flax clothing made of?
Well, the flax plant, which grows well in Europe, hence the number of European linen clothes brands.
100% linen (AKA linen or flax linen) was the basis of most garments on this list. Sometimes it was certified organic linen but since linen in general doesn’t require chemical inputs to grow, we still feel fine about wearing non-certified organic linen clothes.
If combined with other fabric, we liked seeing natural materials like certified organic cotton.
No natural linen dress is complete without dyes that are non-toxic, AZO-free, and ideally natural.
- Sustainability Certifications: Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), OEKO-TEX, bluesign®
Supply chain and labor practices:
The best linen brands’ clothing doesn’t come at the expense of someone else.
Fortunately, fair trade conditions (compensation above living wages, medical care, and safe work environments, among other abuse protections) were standard with these flax clothing brands.
Certifications are helpful (though not everything, if we’re to learn anything from B Corp greenwashing accusations) for bigger ethical brands but many are small enough to not need them.
- Ethical Certifications: Fair Wear Foundation, SA8000, Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), Fair Trade, Certified B Corp
Green business practices:
We started with manufacturing practices, looking for brands that cut their impact by using traditional handcrafting techniques, dew retting, small-batch production, recycled water, local supply chains, carbon offset programs, and renewable energy.
We took that search for green actions all the way to the end of the supply chain, to the use of recycled fabric or other sustainable materials for packaging.
Inclusivity:
We’re thrilled to see many female-owned companies, strategies to make organic linen clothing more affordable and inclusive, and, for the most part, inclusive sizes.
Community & charitable giving:
Between promoting female entrepreneurs and eco-warriors, to donating to social and environmental organizations, comfy handmade linen clothes should do a lot to make our planet and the people who inhabit it a little more comfy, too.
Final Thoughts On Ethical Linen Clothing
Are linen clothes worth it?
We think MagicLinen is on to something because this sustainable fabric is nothing short of magical.
It’s strong, durable, breathable, low-impact, compostable, AND still looks and feels amazing when you’re wearing it.
Love linen now?
While supporting the best linen clothing brands and their missions is a great way to add some sustainable linen pants to your closet, we’d recommend first trying to find some used or vintage flax clothing via online thrift stores first.
Now plant the (flax) seed in conversations with friends and families, and share this list of linen garments if you can so we can grow the world’s love of linen.
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