What makes an ethical brand?

Long story short, an ethical brand makes sure it positively impacts on people, the planet, and animals.

An ethical brand ensures its workers are treated fairly across the supply chain. This includes policies and practices on child labour, forced labour, worker safety, the right to join a union, and payment of a living wage. An ethical brand also cares about its use of resources and energy, reducing its carbon emissions, impact on our waterways, as well as using and disposing of chemicals safely.

Finally, an ethical brand uses no or very few animal products, like wool, leather, fur, angora, down feather, shearling, karakul, and exotic animal skin and hair. Ideally, the brand is 100% vegan!

Armedangels

Affordable, ethical and on-trend. Germany’s Armedangels gets a ‘Great’ rating overall from us. The brand covers all the basics for women, men and kids. Armedangels quality and long-lasting pieces are made from eco-friendly and certified materials, like Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified cotton. The brand also adopted the Fair Wear Foundation Code of Conduct to protect its workers abroad.

LANIUS

“Love Fashion, Think Organic, Be Responsible” are the maxims of LANIUS. It uses eco-friendly materials, like GOTS certified cotton. All LANIUS facilities are SA8000 certified and it is a member of the Fair Wear Foundation.

KAYU

Kayu is an American brand that creates gorgeous, handcrafted boho sustainable bags for the modern free spirit. Each bag is crafted by women in the Philippines, who weave and embroider the bags by hand. Most of these women are mothers, and making Kayu bags allows them to earn a living as well as look after their children. Aside from looking out for its people, Kayu is also dedicated to preserving our planet. Its bags and hats are made from natural straw that has been harvested, stripped, and dyed by hand. This kind of straw fades with time, eventually biodegrading and returning to the earth. The brand does use leather in some designs.

Dorsu

Dorsu’s garments—a combination of core all-year classics and limited edition pieces—are designed and ethically made in Cambodia. Due to COVID-19, the company has had to close its in-country stores but is still open for wholesale business and is also offering 30% off online sales.

As a woman in her early twenties who is on an ever-changing path of self-improvement, ethics vs personal style goals is a really big issue. Since breaking from my awkward emo phase almost a decade ago, I have slowly but surely developed my personal style. Or at least, I think I have. The truth is, when most of your clothing comprises of hand-me-downs, you find yourself inheriting the style of the donors. In my case, it would be from my mother and cousin, and a few family friends. Luckily for me, they all have good taste, but getting the styles to work together flawlessly can be a struggle, and not all of them are quite me. While I have never been a shopaholic, before discovering the truth about fast fashion I would default to the cheapest, most accessible option, like dime a dozen department and chain stores.[vc_row row_padding_top=”50″][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1610″ img_size=”large”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_padding_bottom=”50″ row_padding_top=”50″][vc_column][vc_column_text]

“The idea that everything is purposeful really changes the way you live. To think that everything that you do has a ripple effect, that every word that you speak, every action that you make affects other people and the planet”

Victoria Moran

While we have rounded up activewear brands that deserve your support before, we wanted to put together a list of masc options for all the eco-dudes out there who want to sweat it out in style, knowing that their trackies and trainers aren’t supporting the exploitation of people, the planet, or our animals friends.

Ethletic

Ethletic make fair trade casual shoes and sneakers from organic cotton and natural rubber. Their new line of Root II sneakers come with a reinforced toe section, a padded tongue and a padded collar for extra comfort. The all-round sole strip features extra-stable stitching and the removable antibacterial insole is made with coconut fibres for added absorption, making this the perfect sneaker for everything from skating to parkour.

It was all too good to be true. All these stores selling cool, trendy clothing you could buy with your loose change, wear a handful of times, and then throw away. Suddenly everyone could afford to dress like their favourite celebrity, or wear the latest trends fresh from the catwalk.

What is fast fashion?

Fast fashion can be defined as cheap, trendy clothing, that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed to meet consumer demand. The idea is to get the newest styles on the market as fast as possible, so shoppers can snap them up while they are still at the height of their popularity, and then, sadly, discard them after a few wears. It plays into the idea that outfit repeating is a fashion faux pas, and that if you want to stay relevant, you have to sport the latest looks as they happen. It forms a key part of the toxic system of overproduction and consumption that has made fashion one of the largest polluters in the world. Before we can go about changing it, let’s take a look at the history.

How did fast fashion happen?

To understand how fast fashion came to be, we need to rewind a tiny bit. Before the 1800s, fashion was slow. You had to source your own materials like wool or leather, prepare them, weave them, and then make the clothes.

The Industrial Revolution introduced new technology—like the sewing machine. Clothes became easier, quicker, and cheaper to make. Dressmaking shops emerged to cater for the middle classes.

A lot of these dressmaking shops used teams of garment workers or home workers. It was around this time that sweatshops emerged, along with some familiar safety issues. The first major garment factory disaster was when fire broke out in New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911. It claimed the lives of 146 garment workers, many of whom were young, female immigrants.

How to spot a fast fashion brand?

There are some key factors that are common to fast fashion brands:

• Thousands of styles, which touch on all the latest trends.
• Extremely short turnaround time between when a trend or garment is seen on the catwalk, or in celebrity media, and when it hits the shelves.
• Offshore manufacturing where labour is the cheapest, with the use of workers on low wages without adequate rights or safety, as well as complex supply chains with poor visibility beyond the first tier and of subcontracting.
• Cheap, low quality materials, where clothes degrade after just a few wears and get thrown away.

Kubra Sait

The beauty of Fashion Revolution Week is that we all wear clothes, and we can all participate in the campaign. All we have to do is ask our favourite brands key questions that ensure the lives of garment workers are protected. So what are those questions? and why are they important?

Who Made My Clothes?

This is the first question we ask on Fashion Revolution Week. Before Rana Plaza brought the world’s attention to the plight of garment workers, many of us didn’t think about how or where our clothes were made. Asking Who Made My Clothes? is the first step, and it works on two levels. One, we as wearers of fashion make the connection between what we’re wearing and the people who stitch the clothes together. Secondly, we literally demand brands reveal the source of their products. No longer do we accept opaque supply chains, where clothing is sourced according to the lowest cost and fastest turnaround with no knowledge, or even regard for how these things are achieved. If we want an ethical fashion industry, transparency is key. We want to know who made our clothes, in what countries, even down to which factories. Once we know who made our clothes, we can ask the next four important questions.

Are They Safe?

A key change to come out of the Rana Plaza disaster is the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Accord. This agreement saw dozens high street fashion brands sign up to a regime of improved standards, inspections and training. The groundbreaking thing about the Accord is that it is legally binding, meaning brands that fail to improve standards risk being fined.

Are They Empowered?

Most of the worker rights enjoyed in many countries – such as the eight-hour working day – only came about after hard-fought battles by trade unions. Collective power is real power, but the right to join a union and organise in your workplace is not guaranteed for many garment workers. Unions can help enforce safety standards, working hours, pay and conditions. They provide a channel for workers to raise disputes and represent otherwise disempowered employees to management.