The 44 Best Sustainable Fashion Brands in 2023

Taking your first strides towards building a more sustainable wardrobe can feel a little overwhelming. We know that sustainable fashion is the future, but we also know that educating ourselves on the topic of sustainable fashion can be dizzying. You can’t, and likely won't, become an expert in a day, however, there are a few simple steps that can help you navigate the sustainable fashion sector. Asking questions—like how a garment is made, the materials it's made with, and who and what is impacted in the manufacturing process—is a great start.

Sustainability is an ever-evolving topic, but these brands are dedicating themselves to fully green practices, with sustainably sourced materials; ethical labor practices; a minimal carbon footprint; and a plan to minimize their dead stock or unused fabrics. While the most sustainable garments will be those you already own (reduce, reuse, recycle!) —we urge you to slow down and really think about what went into your next purchase. Now, keep scrolling to discover the brands that are helping make fashion a greener place.

Maria McManus

Mara Hoffman

“The aim is to design and manufacture our clothes with greater care, reduce our impact, and generate awareness," says designer Mara Hoffman. Her eponymous brand is renowned for its vibrant color palette and feminine-focused designs. Its commitment to more sustainable and responsible practices goes back to 2015, and the brand now prioritizes natural, organic, and recycled materials and transparent manufacturing, with many of the brand’s ready-to-wear pieces manufactured between New York and Los Angeles.

Baserange

"For true basics, like elevated t-shirts and pieces for layering, I'm a Baserange girl," Allweiss shares.

Veja

Maggie Marilyn

New Zealand-native Maggie Marilyn marries elegantly youthful designs and conscious practices, all the while abiding by its three core values; people, planet, and prosperity. The brand has a transparent value chain (tracking its manufacturers, textile sources, and suppliers), and was certified Carbon Zero in 2020.

Citizen

Lauren Manoogian

Brooklyn-based designer Lauren Manoogian offers modern wardrobe essentials that incorporate natural textural narratives. The designer works with naturally derived materials and ethical handcrafted production practices. The Alpaca knitwear pieces are hand-loomed by artisans in Peru while other pieces are made in New York.

shop Lauren Manoogian

A Roege Hove

Hope for Flowers by Tracy Reese

Hope for Flowers was built on the idea that when one knows better, they do better. Designer Tracy Reese uses organic cotton, linens, Cupro (regenerated cellulose fabric), and Tencel Lyocell. To offset its carbon emissions, the brand donates products to organic waste organization Detroit Dirt. Hope for Flowers offers free Art Enrichment Programs to adults and children to encourage engagement in art and sustainability. Tracy Reese states, “It's about slowing things down, not over-producing, delivering products closer to need and not having to be present in every category of fashion.”

shop Hope for Flowers

Filippa K

Filippa K embodies the minimalist, '90s aesthetic, and is also a brand that's actively working towards more sustainable practices. In 2019, the brand partnered with a Swedish sheep farm to ensure the wool byproduct of the local meat industry was being repurposed. In 2020, the brand began reducing the number of garments they were producing and began focusing on its non-seasonal Core Collection. In 2030, Filipa K aims to have 100 percent of its fabrics organic or recycled and currently offers a pre-owned platform where customers can buy and sell pre-owned garments.

shop Filippa K

EB Denim

Lemlem

All Lemlem pieces are ethically made in artisanal workshops in Ethiopia and small factories in Kenya and Morocco. To preserve traditional African weaving, while creating job opportunities for local artisans, each piece is made from hand. The brand cotton is locally sourced in Africa, with 50 percent of it being organic. Any excess fabric is repurposed into accessories or donated to sewing schools.

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Carolina K

Carolina Kleinman's brand Carolina K supports approximately 300 artisans in remote regions of Latin America. Through their employment, the brand is helping preserve their ancestral techniques that have been passed down for generations. Natural and recycled fibers are prioritized in each collection such as organic cotton, cupro, FSC-certified viscose, linen, recycled polyester, and Econyl. The brand’s handmade styles are created by female artisans in rural areas of Mexico and Peru and take anywhere from 10 to 50 days to finish. Carolina K. has also launched a zero-waste collection.

shop Carolina K

Stella McCartney

Since 2001, Stella McCartney has been committed to sustainable practices and has adapted her brand to an ever-changing landscape of sustainable fashion. In 2008 the brand began using organic cotton; in 2012 the brand joined the Ethical Trading Initiative; and in 2016 it created a 100 percent sustainable viscose. In order to measure the impact of its business, the brand utilizes The Environmental Profit & Loss, a measurement tool for sustainable luxury.

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Soluna Collective

Soluna Collective is a women-led company focused on using natural fabrics, low-impact or natural dyes, and ethical handmade garments in collaboration with Five P Venture, a company that helps local Indian handloom artists find work. Soluna Collective only uses low-impact dyes that are GOTS-certified and OEKO-TEX-certified.

shop Soluna Collective

Christy Dawn

Christy Dawn’s farm-to-closet brand is dedicated to living and working in harmony with nature through regenerative sourcing. Garments are primarily made in Los Angeles using dead stock fabrics and discarded fabrics left by other companies, as well as regenerative cotton from the brand’s farming efforts in India.

shop Christy Dawn

Aliya Wanek

The Aliya Wanek brand represents the physical exploration of the relationship between identity and style. Aliya Wanek's production is a balance of handmade pieces and garments made locally by a family-owned factory in the San Francisco Bay Area. All pieces are made from naturally occurring fabrics, from silk to organic cotton to hemp.

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Bassike

Bassike, an Australian-based brand, has values centered in respect for their community, local industry, and the planet. Over 95 percent of the brand’s garments are made in Australia, which reduces their carbon footprint and boosts local manufacturing efforts. Garments are made with GOTS-certified organic and BCI or Better Cotton. Bassike has also been certified carbon neutral by Climate Active, a partnership between the Australian Government and Australian businesses to drive voluntary climate action.

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CALMO

CALMO is a female-founded brand with a 90 percent female workforce. With pieces handmade in Uruguay, CALMO partners with local artisans who specialize in natural dyeing processes using leaves and flowers, wool felting, hand printing, and carpentry. CALMO has adopted a zero-waste policy and uses each textile in its entirely.

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Bastet Noir

Zero-waste label Bastet Noir tailors each garment from dead stock materials that have been discarded by other fashion companies in their local community. Pieces are produced in North Macedonia by a community of single-parent, female artisans. The brand has recently set up The Women Fund, where seamstresses are provided financial relief due to the impact of the Pandemic.

shop Bastet Noir

Ahluwalia

Ahluwalia, a mosaic of designer Priya Ahluwalia’s Indian-Nigerian heritage and London roots, is dedicated to transforming the surplus of existing clothing and post-consumer fabrics into new garments, diverting them from landfills. Many of the brand’s pieces are one-of-a-kind, made in female-owned factories.

shop Ahluwalia

Envelope 1976

Norway-based brand Envelope 1976 has left the structure of traditional clothing seasons behind. The conscious brand designs classic and timeless pieces out of natural and recycled fibers that are renewable, biodegradable, and long-lasting.

shop Envelope 1976

Cordera

Cordera creates timeless, minimalist designs that are ethically crafted in Galicia, Spain. The garments are produced using natural and recycled synthetic fibers and upcycled yarns. Cordera doesn’t follow traditional fashion seasons either, encouraging the wearing of pieces year-round and for seasons to come.

shop Cordera

Chloé

Recently certified B Corporation Chloé is committed to transforming its operations in order to become more socially and environmentally sustainable, alongside greater transparency and accountability. The brand's 2022 objectives include the use of lower impact materials in ready-to-wear, reducing emissions, and increasing their fair-trade sourcing. In 2019, Chloé initiated a 3-year partnership with UNICEF, GIRLS FORWARD, to provide young girls with education, entrepreneurship, and training programs to help them advance in the workplace.

shop Chloé

Permanent Vacation

Melbourne-based label Permanent Vacation produces all of its garments—from designing to dispatch—within 10 or so miles from its headquarters. Each collection works outside of fashion's traditional timeline, allowing the brand to use a slower approach to the production of their pieces. Permanent Vacation uses Melbourne-made jersey fabrics and dead stock fabrics and offers to repair purchased pieces through local tailors for longer wear.

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Apiece Apart

Apiece Apart creates pieces that can adapt to the versatility of life. For each collection, natural, organic, and biodegradable fabrics and fibers are utilized as much as possible. The brand looks at the origin of fibers used and takes into account the distance to their factories in India, China, Peru, Turkey, and the US in order to reduce carbon emissions. The use of digital printing colors and patterns has reduced the brand's use of synthetic dyes. By the end of 2022, the brand aims to have 75 percent of their fabrics as organic or environmentally responsible. By 2025, Apiece Apart will present a fully transparent supply chain from seed to farm to factory to consumer.

shop Apiece Apart

DaCosta Verde

DaCosta Verde is a Brazilian women-founded and -led business that is determined to eradicate the environmental disruption caused by value chains. The brand collaborates with S.O.S Amazonia to donate trees to the Amazon rainforest. They donated over 264 trees in 2020 alone. DaCosta Verde also partners with sustainable mills in Brazil to ensure the use of internationally certified fibers and fabrics. By 2023, DaCosta Verde is committed to releasing an annual sustainability impact report that demonstrates the impact of each product produced.

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KOTN

Certified B Corporation KOTN holds the fourth-highest B Impact score of all apparel brands in North America. The brand focuses on biodegradable and natural fabrics and only uses OEKO-TEX non-toxic certified dyes to color its garments. The brand works directly with the farming communities in Egypt and partners with a local NGO to reinvest their proceeds into the education systems. Currently, KOTN has had a hand in building7 schools and funding 10 others.

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Esse The Label

Esse The Label aims to inspire consumers to consider the garments' purpose and life cycle. The brand releases season-less styles in small capsule collections, that only include garments made of organic, renewable, and biodegradable fiber including GOTS-certified organic cotton, Tencel Lyocell, and OEKO-TEX-certified linen. When choosing a fabric, the brand's criteria considers water use, land use, eco-toxicity, human toxicity, and greenhouse gas emissions. All garments are produced ethically between three workshops in Vietnam and Indonesia, with each workshop having no more than five employees. The brand upholds a long-term partnership with conservation organization Trees That Count, which plants native trees across New Zealand.

shop Esse The Label

Meet the Fashion Experts

Erin Allweiss

Alyssa Hardy

Marina Testino

Marina Testino is currently the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Earth Partner. She also founded Point Off View, a mission-driven micro agency focused on digital communication and sustainable transformation.