Fall-ing for Sustainability
With the onset of fall comes the beginning of our shopping hauls for something warmer. However, while scouring the stores, we might not be aware of where the fabric for our shoes and clothes are sourced from, and how they are produced. The current state of the world requires us to be more conscious while making purchases as every single one of our decisions has an impact on the environment. Jejune Magazine has put together a list of sustainable brands to shop from this fall!
Who Are They: BIPOC women owned and led, Thesus, formerly known as Alice + Whittles, is a Canadian Footwear and Accessories brand. Built by a team of passionate individuals who care about the environment and the impact their actions have on it, they decided to create products that are ethically sourced and made with recycled, vegan and cruelty free materials.
Price Range: $$
Fun Fact: By 2022, Thesus intends to have 75% of their external partners sign diversity and inclusion agreements, track their carbon emissions, and subsequently offset their carbon footprint further by 10%.
Who Are They: Culthread is a slow fashion outerwear brand, based in the UK, focused on ethically creating sustainable products that are superior in quality and can last a lifetime. Their motto is Sustainability for People, Animals, and the planet. Basing their atelier in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, each piece of clothing at Culthread is handcrafted using recycled materials such as recycled polyester, and packed and shipped using carbon neutral methods.
Price Range: $$-$$$
Fun Fact: Culthread is a female owned and run brand, with majority of the roles being occupied by women.
Who Are They: A sustainable active wear brand founded in 2006, Threads 4 Thought was built to make a positive impact on the environment. The brand functions with responsible practices such as using environment friendly and recycled materials, trying to eliminate single use poly bags, and so on.
Price Range: $$
Fun Fact: The brand’s Chinese factory has the highest rates of water reuse in the world, at a whopping 80%.
Who Are They: Womsh is a sustainable footwear brand based in Italy. Focusing on a balanced proportion of ethicality and aesthetics, Womsh shoes are produced by making conscious decisions every step of the way. The brand is an acronym for Word of Mouth Shoes, referring to how they spread awareness about environment through word of mouth. The brand recently developed a vegan line of shoes created with all natural plant based materials such as apple skin, suede, and metal free tanned leather. Other processes, such as packaging, also use sustainable materials like corn processed waste, which is used to make cardboard and lining paper.
Price Range: $$$
Fun Fact: Womsh recycles their customers’ shoes that have been subject to wear and tear, wherein the worn out soles of the old shoes become non-slip, anti-fall flooring for children’s playgrounds.
Who Are They: Known for their ethically produced loungewear, Australia-based Vege Threads is a clothing brand certified and accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia, an initiative that ensure transparency in supply chain management and working conditions according a certain standard that has been set. The brand works with local knitting mills and dye houses that use non toxic dyes, and produce garments that are made ethically sourced materials like organic cotton, hemp, and merino.
Price Range: $$-$$$
Fun Fact: The brand’s practices are accredited by organizations such as Ethical Clothing Australia and Responsible Wool Standards.
Who Are They: MATE is a loungewear brand that focuses on sustainable production using natural, non toxic, and organic materials, that are clean from seed to skin. A woman centric company, the brand roots itself in being ethical, organic, clean, plastic free, circular, and keeping a close relationship with the local apparel community. The brand’s factories are centred around Los Angeles, that imports its yarn from India, creating clothes that are free of any carcinogenic agents.
Price Range: $$
Fun Fact: The scraps from the MATE clothing along with customers’ worn out clothing from the brand are recycled into a separate in line called reMATE.
Who Are They: New Zealand-based Kowtow is no newbie in the sustainability community. The brand’s ethical practices are rooted in fair trade where it ensures a fair living wage to the agents in the supply chain. In addition to this, the brand also has conscious production patterns which include the use of eco friendly materials.
Price Range: $$
Fun Fact: The brand works with Kelmana Gardens in studying the impact of urban farming on the environment.
Who Are They: Pact is an American sustainability certified clothing. Partnering with Fair Trade America, Global Organic Textile Standard, and SimpliZero, the brand’s production methods are 100% ethical from sourcing of raw materials to supply chain management, focusing on organic, carbon neutral, and minimal waste production. Pact also aims to reduce single use plastics by using Vela bags, made of carbon neutral, recyclable paper bags, for packaging their products.
Price Range: $$
Fun Fact: Pact has a program known as ‘The Give Back Box’ wherein its customers can donate their old clothes (Pact or others), using the Pact packaging boxes or other cardboard boxes, and ship them to the company headquarters, where they donate them to those in need.
Sustainability is in fashion this fall! Let’s make the right choice and shop consciously!
