Our recommendations: Other sustainable brands

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Since you can’t get everything you might want with us (and you probably never will), we’ve taken some time here to offer our recommendation for other sustainable fashion companies.

If you want to make up your own mind or just get a little bit smarter about clothing’s impact on our environment, you can also head over to our article on sustainable fabrics which will help you figure out which fabrics to look for. 

Before we jump into this, we want to make it clear that to make our recommendations we largely follow our own guidelines for Collection One, meaning we focus on:

• No use of polyester and similar fabrics that shed microplastics, unless absolutely necessary for the durability of an item (for instance for active wear and shoes).
• As far as we can ascertain, ethically produced garments and accessories, meaning that workers are paid a living wage and don’t risk their good health as a result of poor working conditions.
• Use of natural, biodegradable materials.
• And as a general rule the least impact on our environment.

It’s also important to mention that the most sustainable items are the ones you already have in your closet, something we underline in our shopping habits article. You should definitely try to wear, repair and generally love the items you already bought!

In this article you’ll find our recommendations for:

• Secondhand shopping
• Sports and activewear
• Swimwear
• Bags and accessories
• Plus-size shopping
• Jewellery
• Leather
• Shoes
• Jeans and denim

Now let’s get on with it!

Secondhand

We have to start with secondhand as it’s by far the most sustainable solution. If we can make sure that each garment is worn and kept in use longer, we’ll have much less waste. On top of this, secondhand or thrifting is also usually a more affordable way to shop and a way to find more unique pieces. Always, always start by at least checking if you can’t find a secondhand option for whatever you’re looking for.

Your local secondhand, vintage shops, thrift stores and flea markets

These are super important and in most cities you can actually find secondhand stores to suit every pocket. If you haven’t tried them yet, please consider checking them out. A quick google search for “secondhand store” and your location will tell you where to start. Some of them might even have a webshop. It’s honestly great fun and a bit of an adventure to browse through old clothes - and who knows, you might even find some unique gems!

Thrift shops are usually the cheapest alternative and you support charities and organizations by buying from them. The most common ones are the Red Cross thrift stores, but it can vary a lot from place to place. You can also buy household items and furniture from some of them.

Episodes and Wasteland are two of the secondhand stores that are very much worth a visit. With lots of 80s items, a thrift store vibe and lower price points, these two are hot spots for cool Gen Z’ers. You can find vintage Levi’s, plaid flannel shirts in every colour and funky sweaters.

Our local vintage mention has to be Times Up Vintage. Part of our team lives in Copenhagen, Denmark, where their physical store is located, and we always find our visits thrilling because of the beautifully curated vintage items. We’ve often run into vintage trenches, silk blouses and sweaters in good condition. They also have a webshop and you can check out some of their items on their IG. Not cheap, but definitely worth a look if you’re looking for vintage pieces to invest in.

The online secondhand options

Online there are two main options: secondhand platforms or single online secondhand stores. There are a myriad of choices for both and you’ll probably want to go for the ones that are available in your area or located as close as possible to your area.

Here are some of the biggest platforms where you can both sell and buy secondhand clothes: Vestiaire Collective (worldwide), Poshmark (US, Canada, India, Australia), Depop (Australia, UK, US, Germany, France and Italy), Etsy (worldwide), ASOS Marketplace (worldwide), threadUP (US, Canada). If you’ve got garments you don’t wear, consider putting them up for sale too.

And here are some of our personal favorites: Untitled, 1991, Havre Studio, Worn Vintage, Audrey Leighton Vintage. 

As you can see, when it comes to online secondhand shops, the options are endless and as mentioned earlier, you’ll want to look for some that are closer to your area or deliver to your location.

Sports and activewear

Sports and activewear typically needs be more wear and tear resistant to make sure each piece lasts. That’s why, in this category specifically, we have to consider the use of polyester as one of the most durable fabrics. For normal wear, we won’t at all recommend polyester, but it makes more sense for clothing that needs to withstand active use. With that in mind, we mostly recommend brands that still do what they can—that is, use recycled polyester, have good traceability of their supply chain and offer repairs.

Patagonia, the OG. A designer of outdoor clothing and gear for the silent sports, Patagonia is also one of the first brands to put an emphasis on sustainability before it was cool. Many of their products are made from recycled materials, they have fix-up schemes, take back and resell schemes and they’re pretty famous for ads like this one and for plenty of other forms of activism. Needless to say, they are an inspiration to us.

Organic Basics has various activewear items made out of organic cotton, recycled polyester, Tencel and recycled wool. They also have a fair amount of traceability in their supply chain and constantly work on improving their practices.

Girlfriend, which you’ll see featured under swimwear and plus size as well, are also quite open about their sustainability and manufacturing practices. They also try to explain exactly how their recycled fabrics are made and what can be done about microplastics.

Swimwear

For swimwear, your best bet is recycled nylon, also called ECONYL, or recycled polyester - at least until the industry manages to find other more sustainable replacements or alternatives. We recommend checking out the swimwear collection of our sports and activewear mentions:  Girlfriend and Organic Basics.

Plus-size

Making our items available for plus sizes is one of our next projects, but until then we can definitely recommend these brands:

Loud Bodies, for their dreamy, fairy-tale worthy dresses that are made out of sustainable fabrics (linen, organic cotton). They do all of the manufacture in-house, which means that they treat their employees well, they have made-to-order for atypical bodies and they are also very transparent regarding everything behind the scenes.

Girlfriend, which we’ve mentioned a couple of times already, for their swimwear and activewear.

ARQ for their inclusive undergarments and the use of organic fabrics.

Lora Gene for everyday workwear and casual clothes and overall sustainable practices.

Leather

Leather is problematic for several reasons (see below) and for now we have just one recommendation, so let’s start with that: Swedish Deadwood makes leather clothing from rescued deadstock skins, repurposed vintage clothing and upcycled post-production waste. Leather in general is not a very sustainable fabric, but if you really must buy a leather jacket or leather pants, Deadwood is definitely the better choice (after second-hand, ofc). It’s not cheap and they make use of more cutlines in the clothes in order to be able to use smaller pieces of leather for their garments which some like and some might not. Either way, give them a look for your leather desires.

An important discussion to have when it comes to leather and leather goods (bags and shoes being the most common) is whether one should go for real leather or faux leather from a sustainability standpoint. The answer? It depends. The issues with real leather relate to ethics (the fact that animals have to die for leather goods) and pollution. Animal farming creates methane emissions and the processes through which leather is made wearable (tanning and dyeing) are energy intensive and use heavy metals that can be harmful to both humans and the environment. On the other hand, faux leather is usually made from plastic, which poses its own environmental problems. Plastic-based materials pose a threat both during their life cycle as well as after. They take many years to degrade and when they end up in the landfill or in water they release chemicals that are harmful to the environment. Plastic-based materials also release microplastics during wear and washing that make their way to our waters and our food chain. 

It’s difficult to say which one is worse because one would have to balance two very problematic things: animal welfare ethics and environmental pollution. Therefore the only real advice we can give is to make sure that what you buy (be it real leather and faux leather) is made to last and that you use it for as long as possible. You want things that have a high environmental cost to not become waste too soon. This recommendation applies for shoes, bags and other leather/faux leather items.

Shoes

Shoes are pretty tricky because most of them are made either out of leather or faux leather and as we mentioned earlier, they both come with environmental and ethical issues. If you live in warmer climates, we recommend that you try to find shoes made out of other fabrics, like cotton or hemp canvas. Here are some of our recommendations:

Veja, because they took a good, hard look at their emissions and have been working for change. Be aware that their leather models are the heavy polluters, so we encourage you to try other materials.

Allbirds because their wool comes from regenerative agriculture, they use innovative materials and they are doing what they can to push themselves towards a more sustainable product overall. 

Cariuma because they also try to use more sustainable materials like recycled polyester, bamboo, organic cotton and rubber. They try to have as much supply chain traceability as possible, fair working hours and wages. They’re also involved in reforestation projects.

Bags and accessories

There are plenty of things to consider when looking for sustainable bags and accessories and because sustainability can mean so many things there isn’t one single brand or company that manages to tick all of the sustainability boxes. You might also have an opinion on what you find most important and what sort of work you want to support. So we did some research and made a small round-up of the things one might be looking for when shopping for bags and accessories sustainably. Keep in mind that this is in no way a full or comprehensive list. Your googling and research will definitely land you even more options.

If you’re on the lookout for veggie “leather” & minimalist design:

• ASK Scandinavia with their cactus leather collection.
• More cactus (and apple and mango) leather over at Allégorie.
• Maravillas Bags and their Pinatex bags are another option.

If you’re on the lookout for upcycled leather & designer flair, we recommend Christina Fischer who sources their leather from charity stores around Europe.

If you’re into recycled leather & minimalist design: 

• walk with me makes minimalist bags, backpacks and travel accessories from recycled leather.
• La Bien Hecha makes bags and some jewelry (earpieces mostly) out of recycled leather and natural latex (not oil-derived).

If you’re into artisanal designs, fair-trade and supporting communities around the world:

• MZ works with artisans from Oaxaca, Mexico to keep indigenous artisanal traditions alive.
• Mykilim works with artisans from Morocco, repurposing both leather and textiles (old carpets called Kilim).
• AAKS is a black-owned company that works with artisans from Ghana making raffia and leather bags.

If what you’re interested in is better leather and better environmental practices overall:

• O my Bag uses leather that has been tanned through processes that minimise the environmental impact, they also seem to have quite a lot of traceability and use independent laboratories to test and verify their claims.
• Ms. Bay uses salmon leather, a waste product from the fishing industry, and works with certified SA8000 standard factories from Kolkata, India.

Jewelry

Sustainability in terms of jewelry is just as complex as with bags. You have to decide what is the most important factor for you and what you would rather support, from ethically made jewelry that supports impoverished communities to locally made or recycled materials. 

Our jewelry recommendations:

We recommend Article22 for cleaning up our environment and for recycling: They gather shrapnel and other war debris from Laos and turn it into beautiful jewelry. 

Ten Thousand Villages focuses on fair trade jewelry and they employ artisans, empower communities and use locally sourced, recycled and renewable materials.

Starfish Project gets our recommendation for their holistic care program that helps women escaping human trafficking and exploitation in Asia.

Last but not least, any of your small local bag and jewellery designers as well as your local secondhand stores are probably going to have less impact on the environment than big brands, so it’s absolutely worth supporting them.

Jeans & denim

Jeans have been a quintessential item in our wardrobes for many decades. They are versatile and durable and this durability is the reason you’ll be able to find really amazing second-hand options. So, once again, make sure you start there.

Besides that, here are our three recommendations:

RE/DONE for their reworked, old Levis jeans. They are a bit pricey, but reusing is definitely better than buying all new.

Levis. Start with their secondhand shop and then go to their Waterless products, but please stay away from polyester, viscose, and elastane. For instance, try out their cotton and hemp jeans.

ArmedAngels deserves a mention for their DetoxDenim which is all organic cotton.

That’s it for our recommendations for now. We hope that regardless of what you need you’ll consider your choices and have found the above at least somewhat helpful. This, as well as our other articles, are living documents, so if you have a favourite or know of a brand that we’ve missed, please write to us and we’ll see about adding it!