My Guide To 200+ Sustainable Fashion Brands

It’s time. As my final post for 2020, it’s time for my bumper guide to the best sustainable fashion brands in the UK! After six years of writing, and hundreds of posts, I’ve condensed all my favourite fashion brands into this massive list for you to explore…

This guide is the antidote to my guide to fast fashion, which came out in the middle of this year. I had been getting so frustrated by the lack of transparency, ethical working conditions, and sustainable practices, despite a huge surge in greenwashing campaigns. This list will hopefully help you to steer away from those brands, or at the very list, give you something to compare mainstream brands to.

I’ve always been hesitant to simply list out all of the brands that I consider to be more sustainable than mainstream fashion brands, because as we’ve seen with the likes of Everlane or Reformation, it’s a lot harder to discern if a business truly does put people and planet before profit. However, for every single business listed here, I do trust the transparency and work that they are putting in to create a cleaner, fairer fashion industry.

And, as with all my guides, I’ll be updating this over time. So if there’s any brands missing, or if you have a question over something, please do comment!

What Makes A Fashion Brand Sustainable?

There’s no official definition for ‘sustainable fashion’, but I believe anyone can suss out whether a fashion brand is sustainable or not.

When it comes to finding out which brands are more sustainable than others, I recommend looking for the four following factors:

1. Social sustainability: the brand shows clear information around who makes their clothes, and how they treat their people ethically, with respect and fair pay.
2. Environmental sustainability: the brand uses organic, natural and regenerated materials, and actively works to reduce its impact across energy and water use, as well as avoiding harmful chemicals.
3. Slowing down production: the brand produces a moderate amount of clothing, with a maximum of four seasons or collections each year.
4. Circularity: the brand recognises its duty to take back clothing at the end of its life, and reuse, recycle, and reduce the amount of waste it produces.

How To Approach Fashion More Sustainably

Alongside the four principles that can make fashion brands more sustainable, it’s also worth changing how you approach fashion. According to a Government report, in the UK we buy more clothes than any other nation in Europe, and that rate is simply unsustainable.

To enjoy fashion more sustainably, I recommend:

• Reducing how much clothing you buy
• Accessing fashion in a circular way, such as shopping second-hand
• Taking time to work out which styles suit you, so you’ll be more satisfied with the pieces in your wardrobe
• Caring for your clothes so they last longer

If you’re wondering about “eco-friendly” ranges within larger fashion brands, my response remains: why can’t they be sustainable across all their products? In almost all cases, these collections focus on using materials that are more sustainable than the regular ranges, but that isn’t saying much. In my opinion, that isn’t real sustainability.

Nevertheless, these high-street shops are a great place to start getting fashion conscious, but there’s so many better brands to explore below…

202 Sustainable Fashion Brands in UK

This guide draws upon all of my shopping guides, as well as the knowledge, advice, and recommendations of my favourite ethical fashion blogs, influencers, and the pillars of the sustainable fashion space.

For this guide, I decided to order the brands by price. Sure, sustainability is often more expensive, but there are affordable and mid-range options out there too!

Oh, and just a note – these brands are focused on womenswear predominantly, but may also do menswear, accessories, homewares, and more. If you’re looking for something more specific, check out my shopping guides.

53 Affordable Sustainable Fashion Brands

91 Mid-Range Sustainable Fashion Brands

58 Luxury Sustainable Fashion Brands

Looking For Something More Specific?

Sometimes less is more! If you’re looking for a specific item, why not check my existing sustainable shopping guides →

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