Sustainable Fashion Brands UK

There is an increasing number of up and coming UK fashion brands working hard to promote sustainability and break the toxic fast fashion cycle. This really is important if the UK stands any chance of decreasing its contribution to global warming by 2025.

Here are a few brands to be aware of in the ongoing fight to create a more sustainable future:

RAPANUI

This fashion brand is sending ripples through the UK fashion industry. Starting in 2008, Rapanui began its own journey with just £200 from a garden shed. Their mission? To redesign the clothing industry and become more sustainable. More than ten years later, the brand has come on in leaps and bounds and its mission remains the same. They produce gorgeous soft organic cotton tees with the assistance of wind farms. Their cotton is sourced from fields based in northern India which utilise water from their monsoon season. Rapanui’s UK factory is powered entirely by renewable energy. They firmly believe the UK future will incorporate a circular economy. So for example, when customers are done with their clothing, they can send their old products back and cash in the material for store credit. This is something that fast fashion brand H&M has also started to incorporate into their own business model. It will be exciting to see what next steps this young brand takes in their mission to solve the fast fashion crisis.

STELLA MCCARTNEY

The queen and advocate of sustainable fashion, Stella McCartney, has been a keen promoter of ethical and sustainable collections for some time. In 2018 McCartney participated in creating the Fashion Industry Charter For Climate Action as part of the UN’s initiative to better understand and reduce climate change, which contains the vision to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Long may her reign (and trend setting fashion collections) continue.

SUNSPEL

Innovative and chic British brand Sunspel, has recently joined in the fashion industry’s sustainability efforts. The brand has launched a cool collection of swim shorts made from the very stuff that is destroying our ocean wildlife… ocean plastic. The brand uses materials such as Seaqual, which is an upcycled marine plastic recovered from the oceans. Seaqual is one of the most certified, earth-friendly fibres in the world. Its high-quality recycled polyester yarn is made from recycled post-consumer plastic bottles and plastic captured from the sea, preserving natural resources and reducing the waste in the planet’s water.

THE LEVEL COLLECTIVE

Handmade in the UK, each collection produced by cool brand, The Level Collective, is done in small batches and in collaboration with artists and makers, that is respectful and fair to the skilled person who made it. The brand prides itself on partnering with collaborators rather than suppliers. It uses cotton from a Global Organic Textile Standard-approved cotton farm in India where there is no use of harmful chemicals or pesticides. T-shirts such as this one are ethically made in Bangladesh in a factory which has been approved by the FairWear Foundation, a nonprofit organisation which assesses fair and proper working conditions and wages for employees. 

AHLUWALIA

Priya Ahluwalia is one of British fashion’s youngest and innovative stars. Well known for incorporating Indian-Nigerian heritage into her fashion pieces, the designer is also heavily focused on sustainability. She produces gorgeous funky shirts out of scrap and deadstock material and she also makes face masks like this out of similar scraps.

If there are any more up and coming UK fashion brands that you think are doing their bit for climate change, please do not hesitate to get in contact at yamesandco@gmail.com

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