40+ SUSTAINABLE CLOTHING BRANDS: THE ETHICAL FASHION MASTERLIST

The fashion industry is massive. We’re talking utterly mind-boggling in scale. How else could it be one of the dirtiest? So even despite the influx of sustainable and ethical clothing brands hitting the racks over the last decade, there’s still a whole heap of harmful ones to sort through.

We’ve spent a lot of time doing just that while writing our specific fashion guides.

Not to mention pouring our hemp-cloth hearts and style-savvy souls into making this comprehensive guide to sustainable and ethical fashion, from which we developed a set of criteria that we now use to determine the most sustainable clothing brands.

• Materials: This is the most important factor because it’s where the majority of a garment’s impact comes from (from the impact of raw material sourcing all the way to end-of-life outlook). 

Essentially, we look for natural organically-grown fibers (e.g. cotton, hemp and wool), closed-loop plant cellulose fibers (e.g. lyocell and modal), and recycled synthetics (e.g. some fleece and swimwear fabrics), while avoiding unsustainable materials like chemically-tanned leather (or really most leather if we can help it), virgin synthetics, and chemically plasticised bamboo viscose and rayon.

Even once we discount those, there are TONS of possible sustainable materials out there, with new innovative ones popping up on the daily. 

And because this is a comprehensive fashion and footwear brand guide, we couldn’t possibly touch on all these materials here. For that, we again highly recommend you checking our guide on sustainable fabrics. 

Each of our specific brand guides also features a detailed description of sustainable materials for that particular type of garment at the bottom.

• Supply chain & labor practices: Materials largely deal with environmental impact, while this criteria deals with social responsibility and how a brand treats its workers.  This refers to ALL workers involved in the manufacturing of a garment, from raw material farmers to those putting on the final sale tags (in other words, the supply chain).  

We look for brands that can provide traceability for all raw materials as well as transparency about their factories, including areas that may need improvement. We understand not every brand is 100% perfect, but it’s the honesty and willingness to improve that we really value. 

One thing we use to establish whether brands are paying their workers fairly and maintaining safe work environments is by looking for one of a number of third party certifications to prevent greenwashing.  Again, there are tons out there, but here are some of the most common: 

• • • B-Corp: The gold standard and quite hard to achieve, but you’ll notice a good handful of brands on this list have managed.  Using third-party audits conducted yearly on ALL supply chain entities, brands are assessed on 80 “impact areas” and given numerical scores reflecting the results (which are all public record on the B-Corp website)

• • • Fair trade: Another important one and can apply to either a brand as a whole or just individual suppliers/factories used.  It means the material or garment was made fairly (imagine that!).  More specifically, it means the laborers receive fair pay, proper training, reasonable work hours, safe work environments, and protection against discrimination, harassment, abuse, and child/forced labor. 

• • • OEKO-Tex 100: A non-toxic certification that means no harmful chemicals (i.e., colorants, heavy metals, formaldehyde, azo-dyes) were used in manufacturing a garment (which also means the workers weren’t exposed to them!).  REACH is another similar certification under this umbrella used in the EU.

• • • Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS): Means a fiber was grown and processed “seed to shelf” without the use of chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, machine harvesting, bleaches, or chemical plasticizers. .

• • • Global Recycle Standard (GRS): Applied to recycled fabrics, either synthetic or natural, and ensures a certain percentage of the final fiber is actually recycled.  Otherwise, a brand could claim a garment with just 1% recycled material is “partially recycled” without technically lying.

• • • Some other reputable certifications: Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP), Business for Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), Social Accountability International (SA8000), and Fair Wear Foundation.

• Green business practices: A catch-all for any other cool or interesting green initiatives a brand has going, such as garment recycling programs, limiting to reusing textile waste, carbon offsetting, using renewable energy, having Green certified offices, using closed-loop and/or manual manufacturing techniques, and low waste/plastic-free packaging.

• Inclusivity: Fashion as a whole tends to be a little less than body-positive. So it’s super important to us for brands to turn this negativity and body shaming on its head by offering inclusive sizes, marketing to real women (not just airbrushed Barbie Doll models), and ensuring their image is welcoming to all cultures, races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations.

• Community & charitable giving: The most sustainable clothing brands are those that strive for a more sustainable world by giving back. This can mean a lot of things, like donating money or clothes, volunteering, being a member of 1% for the Planet, organizing charitable events, or just using their voice to bring awareness to pressing issues.

We know that sounds like a lot, so until applying these principles becomes second nature to you (as it now is for us), we want to be here to help in whatever way we can. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have.