Minimalist Vegan | 13 Oct 2019

OVER 45 OF THE BEST ETHICAL & SUSTAINABLE CLOTHING BRANDS IN 2020

BY MAŠA OFEI

Have you been looking for ethical and sustainable clothing brands but have struggled because you know you’d have to spend hours upon hours doing the research yourself? We feel your pain. This is how this post came about.

A few years ago we shared an insightful Q & A with Joshua Katcher from The Discerning Brute. He shared his views and research on human rights and animal cruelty as it relates to the fashion industry. Since that post, TMV readers were keen to take action and find ethical fashion stores that they could support.

Having awareness of what’s really going on behind the scenes is always a good first step. However, we know when we first discovered the truth, we felt overwhelmed with what to do next.

Note: this list was last updated on Thursday the 5th of March 2020.

Here are some of the questions we’ve asked

Where do we shop? How can we trust the brands? Do the clothes perform and match our style? What does a sustainable textile look like? 

When you start asking these questions, you quickly realize just how hard it is to find stores and brands that you can trust. You might find a great fair-trade fashion store that sells gorgeous garments, but all of their items are leather.

Conversely, you may come across an amazing vegan store but their products aren’t fair-trade or just plain daggy.

So are you ready for a highly-curated list of ethical and sustainable clothing brands you can trust?

Well, we can say with 100% confidence that you’re in the right place!

Why are we so confident?

1. This is the 8th iteration of this post over the last three years. Each time we update it, we find better brands. This version is a complete revamp.
2. In a past life, we ran an online store where it was our job to source products that ticked all our ethical boxes, including sustainability, cruelty-free/vegan, fair-trade, and organic where possible.
3. Historically, we desperately wanted to find brands that met our criteria, regardless of style. Even though fashion is subjective, we’ve done our best to focus more on performance and quality. For example, we’d want you to be happy with the vegan leather boots you just bought. Not only accepting something that is comparatively less quality than the alternatives because you’re trying to be a mindful consumer. We know this feeling of disappointment all too well.

Although we’re vegan, not every brand listed is 100% vegan

As we’re prioritizing performance at the same level as the sustainability and ethics, it means some brands we recommend may not have a product line that is 100% vegan.

For example, we found some AMAZING brands that tick all of the boxes for organic sweaters. However, they also have sweaters made of wool.

If we were shopping for ourselves, we would still buy their vegan-friendly products despite them not ticking all of the boxes across their whole product line. So it’s only fair that we create the same experience for you.

An easy-to-use list of ethical and sustainable clothing brands

What you’ll find for each brand is a list of three different categories. They will fall either under clothing, shoes or accessories. Some will overlap with a combination of all three depending on what they sell. 

Our vision for this post is to help you find go-to brands you can trust. And maybe we can start pushing conventional retailers to consider reaching out to these brands to stock their products, bringing them to the masses.

The global fashion market is valued at over 3 trillion dollars. How we choose to spend money on fashion can have an incredibly massive impact on this market.

Without further ado, here’s our updated list of ethical and sustainable fashion brands to help you live more consciously.

Merry People

Founded by Danielle Holloway in 2013, Merry People believe that wet weather shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying life. Whether that’s spending time in the garden, going for a hike or walking your dog, Merry People’s products are designed to help you overcome the obstacles of weather.

See more.