In case you didn’t get the memo, our planet is basically breaking, and while the words “sustainable fashion” may have a bad reputation for being a snore-fest term that brings visuals of oatmeal-coloured clothing and canvas bags to the forefront of your mind, it’s actually a really important answer to a very real problem.
Dubbed the world’s second most polluting industry after oil, the throwaway nature of fashion has created a business that generates greenhouse emissions of 1.2 billion tonnes a year – that’s larger than that of international flights and shipping combined. Plus, each year half a million tonnes of plastic microfibres are released from washed clothes (16 times more than plastic microbeads from cosmetics, which have now been banned) and contribute to ocean pollution.
The good news? There is an ever-increasing number of designers looking to change that and many brands are now trying to rectify past damage and create a better future, exploring new and pioneering techniques. Here we bring you just a handful of all the sustainable fashion brands that mean you can look stylish and have a clear conscious.