the 6 best famous ethical fashion brands you can buy from online
what is ethical fashion?
Fast Fashion not only created a production model where very cheap low-quality garments were made very fast following trends with no regard to the environment and the people, but it also gave more importance to fashion movements that wanted a sustainable fashion industry, one of them is Ethical Fashion, which has actually existed since the 1950s, before Fast Fashion was ever born.
Since then, fashion movements like Ethical, Sustainable and Slow Fashion arose to the surface in one way or another, which is kind of a good thing if we ignore the terrible consequences Fast Fashion has on our world, producing 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and 20% of global wastewaters, which you may already know by now but it still doesn’t lose its importance and never will.
Ethical Fashion refers to a fashion movement that searches for garments made with respect to the workers that make them, the vendors and small businesses that play a role in the production process, fair trade, and the ethical treatment of all the agents related to the fashion industry, including the environment. Strongly opposing Fast Fashion and the terrible conditions fashion factory workers have to deal with.
So in simple terms, Ethical Fashion focuses on the ethical treatment of humans, and animals to achieve a sustainable fashion industry, with support for small businesses and the development of countries that are right now in unfavorable conditions. If you want to know more about this wonderful fashion movement feel free to check out our articles on The Ethical Dilemma of Fashion or Why Is Ethical Fashion Important?
why is ethical fashion important?
Now that you know how bad Fast Fashion really is, it becomes clear why fashion movements that want to achieve sustainability in the fashion industry are so important because they ultimately want to end the big environmental and social footprint the industry has. It is rather a necessity, because if Fast Fashion continues to grow and prosper the world as we know it may end, suffering permanent damages that we will regret as species for the rest of our existence.
Ethical Fashion as you may know focuses a lot more on the humane treatment of workers and agents involved in the production process, but there is a lot more to that. Promoting fair trade and the creation of new small businesses aims to develop those countries that are still, unfortunately, suffering from poverty. This does not only affect the lives of millions of people worldwide but will ultimately affect all of us, even from the richest countries on earth.
That is because the existence of countries that are economically underdeveloped negatively affects the entire world, because of the opportunity costs that we have if those countries were developed and contributing to the development of humanity as a whole, that is why it is harder to become a rich country if you are surrounded by poorer countries and vice versa.
Not only that, poorer countries have fewer resources to care about and resolve things like their environmental footprint and pollution, which affects all of us, and not only that, the entire planet earth and its ecosystem.
So at the end of the day, Ethical Fashion is a crucial part of achieving sustainability in the fashion industry and saving our planet and species from inevitable doom, which is, unfortunately, closer and closer as Fast Fashion grows uncontrollably. That is why Ethical Fashion is so important, for the sake of our planet and humanity, and it should always be complimented by Slow Fashion and Sustainable Fashion.
the 6 best ethical fashion brands
Fortunately, there are a lot of options for you to choose from when it comes to Ethical Fashion and Sustainable Fashion, unfortunately, there are not as many as we would like and they are not as famous as other not-so-ethical counterparts. The good thing is that all of these brands have their products available on the internet, so it doesn’t matter where you are from, you can purchase their products without problems. Having said that, here are the 6 Best Ethical Fashion Brands you can buy from the internet:
- Finisterre, this brand was started in 2003 in a flat above a Surf Shop, with the intent of creating garments with respect for the people, the environment and the planet, and society as a whole. Its name means „End of the land”, showing the brand’s interest in the sea and waters, and its respect for marine life, fighting the terrible water pollution of the Fast Fashion industry. As of today, this brand is a Certified B Corp, and they have a beautiful user-friendly web page that you can check out from here.
- Patagonia, this is one of the most well-known sustainable fashion brands out there, and it was started in 1973 by Yvon Chouinard, an accomplished rock climber when he began to manufacture and sell his own climbing gear. Although the brand has been in some ugly controversies and legal problems that we will not discuss here, it is still considered an „activist company” that is producing garments with respect for its workers and it aims to be a carbon-neutral company by 2025. In 2012 they became a Certified B Corporation and right now they have a website you can visit from this link.
- Pact Clothing, this online Ethical Fashion store is known for producing high-quality garments that are both affordable and low-impact on the environment. This brand really loves cotton, organic cotton to be precise, and it uses it in every product they have, sometimes adding some synthetic materials to make their garments more comfortable. Some of their products, not all, are certified Fair Trade, which is a great start. Overall, they help developing countries actually develop, and they give their workers living wages and humane working conditions that they need. You can check out their wonderful and minimalistic website right here.
- Everlane, a brand that is known for its transparency policy, has its customers know exactly where its garments come from and how they are made, which, because they are on this list, is with respect for the human lives that are working to produce its products. Everlane was founded in 2010 by Michael Preysman and Jesse Farmer as an Ethical Fashion direct-to-customer business where the products are directly sold to customers without any intermediaries, which lets them cut a lot of costs, be much more productive, and much more transparent about their products and their margins. You can check out their website from this link.
- ABLE, this is an Ethical Fashion brand with a lot of history behind it, its founder, Barrett Ward while living in Ethiopia saw first-hand how extreme poverty forced women to resort to prostitution just to feed their families. Since then, ABLE was born as a brand that aims to end generational poverty, really focusing on empowering women and helping them have a living wage that will keep them off the dangerous streets. All of their garments regardless of where they are produced, in Ethiopia, Mexico, Peru, are made by women with humane working conditions and livable wages that can feed their families and end their generational poverty, creating higher added-value products. If you want to check out their website you can do it from here.
- PLEA, this is our own Slow, Sustainable, and Ethical Fashion online store, and it is the one you are reading this article from right now! We have to give this an honorable mention, of course, and present you with our perks and what we aim for. We are a very young brand started by 4 young teenage entrepreneurs who aim to stop Fast Fashion by doing the best we can to spread awareness and make customers conscious about their fashion choices (That is why you are reading this article right now), and also by providing you with very affordable Slow Fashion, Sustainable Fashion, Ethical Fashion clothes sold using the revolutionary on-demand business model that produces the garments at the time of the purchase avoiding overproduction and stocking costs. We also provide customizable t-shirts and other apparel, and beautiful designs that you will surely love. We highly recommend you to check out our About Us page and even our Shop, or if you would like to read more articles about Ethical Fashion and other related subjects, you can check out our blog.
As you have already seen, there are quite a few options to choose from when it comes to Ethical Fashion, and fortunately, this fashion movement that promotes sustainability in the fashion industry is growing, and we could see more and more Ethical Fashion brands as customers become more conscious about the repercussions their choices have on our planet and society.
how to support ethical fashion?
We have seen a lot of things about this fashion movement, but how can you support Ethical fashion? What can you do to be more ethical and support a sustainable fashion industry that cares for the workers, the environment, and also you? Well, you are lucky because there are a lot of options you can do right now from the comfort of your home! Having said this, here is how to support Ethical Fashion:
- Shop from businesses that you know are respecting their workers and agents involved in the production of their garments, preferably small businesses because you will be also supporting small families that also have to eat, and sadly today most big businesses simply do not care about their actions on the world, because of the Diffusion of responsibility phenomenon.
- Do not simply avoid all clothes made from underdeveloped countries, the fact that they are made in a country with less favorable conditions does not mean that the garment has been made with inhumane labor, countries that are rich today like Singapore, Taiwan, or South Korea have been producing garments with cheap labor for years before they finally developed. The problem is that Fast Fashion with its cheap low added value garments exploit the workers and do not even contribute to a fair development of the producing countries, which is very bad. That is why you should look for the ways the clothes are produced, and not where they are produced, because even in developed countries there can be garments made with forced labor.
- Read the business’ morals and how they are dealing with the sustainability of their operations, if they don’t even talk about sustainable practices then do not have trust in them, it is better to find a good business that cares for the people and doesn’t treat them like buy-n-throw tools to make extra money.
Here are some of the key things you can do to become more ethical with your fashion choices and support a sustainable fashion industry that cares for the people and the environment. Now you just need to put this into good practice 🙂
summary
We hope you have learned a lot from this article today because we have also learned a lot. As we always say, you don’t have to go all crazy on Ethical Fashion, the most important thing you can do is to inform yourself as a customer by reading articles and information on the subject, and to spread awareness by talking about it with your friends or social media followers, because only when customers will become aware of the real consequences of their actions on the world will they support and Ethical Fashion model ditching the planet-killing unethical Fast Fashion.
We are thrilled to teach people all around the world 🙂 Also, did you really know what Fast Fashion really is and its terrible consequences for the environment, the planet, the workers, society, and the economy? Do you know exactly what the Slow Fashion or Sustainable Fashion movement is? You should really take a look at these articles about this forgotten and unknown but very urgent and important subject, click here to read „Can Fashion Ever Be Sustainable?”, Sustainable Fashion, Slow Fashion or Fast Fashion 101 | How It’s Destroying Our Planet because knowledge is one of the most powerful strengths you can have, while ignorance is your worst weakness.
We also have a big surprise for you! Because we want to give you the right to know us better, we have prepared a carefully dedicated About Us page where we will tell you who we are, what our mission is, what we do, a closer look at our team, and many more things! Do not miss this opportunity and click here to check it out. Also, we invite you to take a look at our Pinterest, where we will pin everyday sustainable fashion-related content, clothing designs, and other things that you will surely love!
