Where Do You Find the Best Affordable Ethical Clothing
The fight against global climate change is a daily commitment, but it’s not always easy to know which brands you can trust to do the right thing. Terms like “ethical” and “environmentally-friendly” are thrown around by corporations to greenwash instead of making real commitments to industry change. At Vestiaire Collective, part of our mission is to educate our community to spot greenwashing campaigns so that you can be an informed consumer and an agent of change. Our unique fashion shop isn’t just a place to buy and sell amazing pre-loved clothing. It’s a global network of people challenging the status quo of fashion.
If you want to reduce your carbon footprint while shopping, check out this guide for some great tips. We’ll help you source the best ethical clothing so you can build your wardrobe in a meaningful way.
First, what is ethical clothing?
Since fashion is one of the world’s most polluting industries, knowledge about ethical clothing is absolutely crucial if you want to be a Fashion Activist. So what is ethical clothing? The Good Trade defines ethical fashion as ‘garment design, production, and distribution that focuses on reducing harm to people and the planet’. This means that ethical brands consider everything from fabric choice to the supply chain, how waste is managed, and how each piece impacts the environment through its lifecycle from raw material to finished product to its eventual discard.
The term ‘ethical’ on brand labels can be vague. Since there isn’t a governing body in fashion in charge of labels like sustainability and eco-friendly, Fashion Activists need to do their own research and be wary of greenwashing- which is when companies use marketing tactics to make themselves appear environmentally friendly when they are not.
An easy way to avoid the trap of greenwashing is to shop for clothes secondhand. Pre-loved clothes are guaranteed to be more sustainable than new items because no additional resources are used in producing it. Second-hand shopping, vintage shopping, upcycling, and repurposing clothing are all ways to participate in ethical fashion and feel good about what you are wearing.
Finding the best vintage clothing online is as easy as downloading the Vestiaire Collective app. We have 3 millions pieces of clothing, and more every week, ready for a second (or third!) life. When you shop second-hand, you don’t have to wonder if your clothes have a large carbon footprint. By choosing second-hand, you are participating in a circular fashion model that limits the extraction of raw resources and minimises waste.
Search for second-hand sustainable brands
So what about the brands that say they are ‘ethical’? We say: do your research and decide for yourself if a brand aligns with your values. And then, if it does, buy that brand pre-loved on Vestiaire Collective. Sustainable brands exist: think Telfar and Ecoalf. But the very business of producing clothing is never going to be 100% environmentally friendly. That’s why pre-loved is always going to be the best option for building a wardrobe sustainably. If your pre-loved clothing comes from a brand that is actively committed to making the fashion industry a cleaner, fairer place, then you’ve just made a great choice for the environment.
Each fashion consumer has their own individual values, so your version of ethical fashion might be different than another’s. Maybe you only want to wear vegan leathers, or maybe ensuring safe working conditions is your priority. These are personal choices that only you can decide, so choosing brands that are transparent about their supply chain and production methods will help you find fashion you can feel good about wearing. What you choose to spend your money on is a kind of vote for the world you want in the future. Choosing sustainable brands will encourage more players in the fashion industry to follow suit in reforming harmful production practices. Together, we can change fashion into a sustainable industry that reduces its negative impacts and is kind to people and the planet in every phase of a garment’s life cycle.
Choosing local fashion brands is ethical shopping
It’s possible that your average T-shirt has travelled more miles in its life cycle than you ever have. After the raw materials are grown, it’s shipped to a textile factory to make yarn, then shipped to a mill for further processing and dyeing, then shipped to a factory for sewing. Finally it is shipped, yet again, to a shop. Since these stops could all be in different countries, they require a tremendous expenditure of carbon into the atmosphere. So what are we supposed to do?
Shopping local fashion brands is one way to minimise the carbon effect of your clothing.
Clothes might seem more expensive when bought locally but there is always a hidden cost in cheaply made, fast fashion items. Most of the time the bill from these seemingly cheaper items is paid for by the planet. Choosing local lets you form a relationship with the brand and you can ask questions about the supply chain to ensure that it aligns with your values. Of course, buying a pre-loved item from a local brand is going to be an even better choice for the environment and, likely, your wallet is going to thank you as well.
On the Vestiaire app, we have provided a little green leaf next to pieces which are locally sourced, so you can choose a piece that is a little less travelled. We also offer direct shipping so your garment takes the shortest and least impactful route to you. It’s our way of trying to make it easier for you to do the right thing when it comes to buying pre-loved clothing.
Wearing heritage clothing is sustainable
A clothing treasure chest can sometimes be no further away than looking in your grandma’s closet. Nothing is more affordable or more sustainable than wearing something already in the family. Raiding your mum’s, dad’s, gran’s closet to see what you can find can be an incredibly fun activity. That’s why we all did it as kids as play, but now we can for real.
Oftentimes, these pieces that have lasted for decades come with a story, so be sure to ask the owner of the piece about any special memories they have from wearing the item. Heritage clothes encourage us to slow down, to consider the time period that the clothes were made in, to think of the special occasions that they were worn for. Authentic, original garments with history and a link to the past are also the most ethical around. While today’s gender bending clothing brands are amazing, upcycling a pair of your dad’s Levi 501 jeans is a way to create a unique, personal style from a piece of vintage clothing.
Heritage clothes show you that well-made, quality products are just as good, if not better, than newly produced clothes. There is a reason they’ve been kept for so many years. So brush them off and give them a new life in the modern times. It’s a completely free and utterly sustainable way to refresh your closet.
Encourage your entourage to become Fashion Activist
Fashion brands from the traditionally ethical Stella McCartney to forward-thinking Gucci are becoming more conscious of the negative impacts of the fashion industry thanks to consumer demand for change. Brands are trying to improve their sustainable footprint but there is still much to do, and little time to do it.
As fashion lovers, we hold a tremendous amount of power in persuading the labels we adore to respect the planet we live on. The more voices that join in to make the fashion industry sustainable, the more successful we will be. Encouraging your entourage to join the ranks of Fashion Activists will make this movement larger. Sometimes it’s as easy as wearing a great pre-loved outfit and telling the person who compliments you on it that it was bought pre-loved through Vestiaire Collective. That person will realise that it is possible to dress in amazing styles while being a champion for the environment at the same time.
You can become a sustainable fashion icon by encouraging your friends and family to buy pre-loved and resell on Vestiaire, have upcycling parties, and choose transparent, ethical clothing brands. So far, we have over 11 million Fashion Activist followers and our ethical fashion community is growing everyday. More members means more closets with amazing pieces to discover. So bring your friends. We don’t need to wait around the fashion labels to catch up with us. We have all the pre-loved clothes and accessories we could need on Vestiaire Collective, thanks to our fabulous, forward-thinking community.
We know that ethical fashion is important to you and we hope that now you feel empowered to go out and find the fashions that align with your values. When each person takes responsibility for choosing ethical garments over fast fashion, the sustainable fashion movement will grow and a new era of thoughtful fashion will take hold. It’s a shift we must all make together as individuals.
At Vestiaire Collective, we make it easy to find ethical fashions, sustainable brands and vintage or retro clothing that are good to your wallet and good to the planet.
As the leading app for desirable pre-loved fashion we help connect you to a global network of thoughtful and stylish Fashion Activists. By sharing our passion for sustainable fashion, we can make a positive impact on the planet that will have reverberations for generations.
Vintage and pre-loved pieces are generally well-made, unique looks so you never have to sacrifice your sense of style for your values. We bet you’ll feel even more confident in your pre-loved Vestiaire finds because you’ll know they were purchased in a sustainable way. Fast fashion and over-consumption are in rapid decline. Join the new, planet-friendly way of shopping for clothes by becoming a Fashion Activist. While unfortunately not every garment is made ethically yet, by shopping at Vestiaire, the way you buy it can be. It’s the small actions that will make a big difference for the future of fashion, and the planet.