Favourite Ethical Stores

Today with every brand claiming something about sustainability and ethical standards it is so hard to be able to tell which stores are genuine and which use it purely for marketing gain and don’t actually have a new sustainable technique that actually works. Another challenge is finding places which fit your ethical views and are in your budget or are even your style of clothing or accessories. It is a war zone out there. Below I’m gonna be chatting about some stores in a range of budgets that I’ve seen recently and what makes them different.

We are gonna start off with a store most people will have heard of Weekday. For a high street store, this is one to be more considered and although none of them is excellent this brand is making changes and keeping greenwashing to a low unlike its parent brand H&M. The basic pieces here are great and by picking pieces carefully you can get some great pieces, especially for a lower end of the budget. Good On You rated this ‘It’s a start’ on the sustainability front where a fair few brands are. With my new year goals to be more careful where I buy from I love the ‘good on you’ app to check where each brand is at and avoid any that aren’t above ‘it’s a start’. I do recommend this app but you can also use their website - it explains all the positives and negatives about each brand and rates them out of 5 for 3 key areas. With brands like this you really have to think carefully about what you are reading and filter through some of the rubbish they write to conceal some areas they know they lack in sustainable and ethical sectors.

Whilst talking about all of this do have to remember Weekday is still a fast fashion brand so everything is already so vastly limited because of the mass production. Brands like this would be so much more credible if they slowed now and released fewer more considered collections to avoid greenwashing. Weekday has aimed to reduce chain emissions by 56% by 2030 and be climate neutral by 2040. It is to be noted that the data on the Weekday website has changed from when Good on You last did their report and has sadly taken a step back. When Good On You wrote their report it aimed to be climate neutral by 2030 and climate positive by 2040 - their whole process being set back 10 years. The brand also hopes to use all sustainably sourced or 100% recycled materials by 2025 but currently is only using 24% so until this is their reality checking the product description and doing research on what the items of clothing are made from can avoid you buying something you think is positive but is actually no different to other unsustainable brands products.

The next brand is Organic Basics. Goon On You rated them Great and is a staff pick on there. Their website is amazing with it being so transparent. All the CO2 emissions are written on every product and they have clothes for men and women with inclusive sizing. What I really love about this brand is they have a whole section about where they went wrong - owning up for their mistakes and what they are gonna do to change that - I really applaud that. Organic basics explain everything with the technical terms and explain what that really means for customer knowledge and allows them to truly understand what is happening, Organic basics uses a high percentage of eco-friendly materials and uses renewable energy in its supply chain. They really talk about everything, every process and every stage and I love it; the wide transparency this brand has is such an amazing value. Although the brand has no evidence of a code of conduct it does have a formal statement regarding working conditions and their rights - the majority of the supply chain is tracked and able to be traced which is really hard to get in a lot of stores. I really think the prices for their products are really fair and looking at the models the products do look really comfy and versatile. I am looking at getting one of their seamless bodysuits and as and when needed buying some underwear sets from here for comfy basics. I would love more oversized hoodies and t-shirts with a dropped sleeve insertion - that’s just a personal preference of clothing fitting as I like the oversized and slouchy fitting.

The next brand we are going to look into and the last one of the day is Aesthetic London. This brand is on the luxury side of fashion and its products are made in London. Good On You rates this brand great which is fab for people looking for classy and Chanel style clothing with good ethical values. The brand doesn’t talk about a code of conduct or clarify if employees revise a living wage. The brand does reflect its timeless and beauty values and its garments are so classic with a modern mix of materials I find really interesting. The brand really focuses on exceptional craftsmanship and had a strong heritage background that I can imagine works well for its brand target market. The brand states to use all organic/ raw materials and claims to be cruelty-free - focusing on putting key ethics and sustainability first. This brand had a really fresh website and doesn’t look like every other brand that claims to be sustainable, it’s different and new and I really like that designs and creativity haven’t completely gone from brands when they take the more sustainable and considered approach. The prices do reflect the luxury price tag but having the majority of the work don’t for products in England is a big statement and is something positive and holds weight in the industry as it isn’t common as we know its cheaper to go elsewhere and be shadier about the supply chain and working conditions.

I really enjoyed chatting about different brands and expanding my own general knowledge of the fashion industry. I am thinking of doing more of these as there are so many brands you could literally go on forever.