Top Sustainable Fashion Brands - Greenhouse. Let’s admit it, most of us are slaves to fast fashion.
We buy clothes to look good and feel good, but how often can we say we shop with a clear conscious? We know what you’re thinking – ethical fashion is boring, drab and frankly a bit behind the times. But oh how those times are changing. Five designers revolutionising sustainable fashion. The boundless information made available by the internet has resulted in a new generation of inquisitive consumers, no longer content to buy into brands without first doing their research.
As discussions surrounding sustainability continue, the fashion industry has begun to consider its own eco footprint and source sustainable alternatives to man-made fabrics. Designers such as Vivienne Westwood have been vocal activists in the past – in the last two months alone Westwood released a fashion film detailing corporate exploitation of natural resources as well as attending and speaking at the recent Parley for the Oceans summit.
As our friends at AnOthermag.com have pointed out – green is the new black. However, Westwood is no longer alone in her consideration of the world we live in – even large brands such as Prada have pledged complete transparency with regards to environmental policy. AURIA are the London-based swimwear brand creating futuristic styles from recycled fabric. Forget about cotton, we could be making textiles from banana and pineapple. Cotton makes up a third of fibre consumption in the textile industry, according to a global apparel fibre consumption report (pdf) published in 2013.
The cotton production industry is labour intensive and involves a lot of sweat, chemicals and fresh water. Could a number of innovations from natural sources and raw materials compete with the unsustainable product of the cotton plant? Banana stems Around a billion tonnes of banana plant stems are wasted each year, despite research indicating that it would only take 37kg of stems to produce a kilogram of fibre. In 2012, the Philippine Textile Research Institute concluded that banana plantations in the Philippines alone can generate over 300,000 tonnes of fibre.
Eco-textile company Offset Warehouse recognises the banana’s potential and currently partners with an NGO in Nepal to ensure banana fabric production supports the artisan sector by relying on local skills, and that workers are paid fairly and operate in safe conditions. Pineapple leaves. Can a hashtag change the fashion industry? Now in its second year, Fashion Revolution Day (FRD) is a hashtag campaign designed to keep the most vulnerable in the fashion supply chain in the public eye.
Held on the anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, participants are encouraged to take a selfie showing the label on their clothes and ask the designer or brand #whomademyclothes. It’s an important cause, but can a hashtag campaign really bring meaningful change to the fashion industry? Ruth Stokes, author of The Armchair Activist’s Handbook, says if a campaign is able to raise awareness and reach people otherwise not engaged, then it has provided something of value. The challenge is translating that increased awareness into real-world practical actions, whether that means changing individual behaviors or the laws made by politicians.
The Websites Making It Easier To Shop For Sustainable Fashion. Shopping for sustainable fashion may seem like it's easier said than done - after all there's only so much you can divine about a garment's origins from looking at the label.
However, if you're after sustainably-made womenswear, menswear and beauty products, you don't need to invest in an environmental sociology degree to find them, as thankfully an increasing number of projects are springing up to make sustainable shopping that bit easier. Here are four sustainable fashion websites you need to bookmark before your next spending spree... Gather&See "Showcasing designers that pride themselves on aesthetics as much as their ethics.
" Stevie Organic Cotton Shirt Dress by Seek Collective, £180 Mini brand bios on the website explain which of the principals each stockist adheres to. "We both grew up in the generation that came of age as the fast fashion model was established and we all bought into it," Taylor explains to HuffPost UK Style.
Alicia Taylor and Steph Hogg co-founded Gather&See Zady Close. Alexa Chung 'Gives A Damn' About Ethical Fashion Brand 'The Deep End Club' Alexa Chung has the fashion Midas touch - and she’s decided to use her charm to support an ethical fashion brand by putting out a rallying cry for us to all “give a damn”.
Of course, it helps that the fashion collection in question, ‘The Deep End Club’, was designed by Chung’s mate Tennessee Thomas, who shares Chung’s love for a Peter Pan collar. Chung posted Instagram snaps from a recent fashion shoot for the freshly launched collection and captioned the post below: “Let’s all Give A Damn”. Thomas is the founder of The Deep End Club a shop/clubhouse in Manhattan’s East Village, where “a community of like-minded artists and activists who care about our planet” gather. In the shop she curates a collection of creations made by local, independent designers and artists, but this is the first time she has produced her own range. The capsule collection has a strong seventies vibe and so far includes two Peter Pan collar dresses, slogan Tees and a ruffle-sleeved silk blouse.
H&M Team Up With M.I.A. To Launch World Recycle Week. Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. Fashion Revolution. Celebrities Champion Sustainable Fashion At The 2016 Met Gala.