8 sustainable fashion brands you need to know

What’s in a name? The all-encompassing term ‘slow fashion’ spans everything from fair trade to carbon offsetting, circular design to cruelty-free approaches. Fashion consumers are growing ever more conscious about the environmental and ethical credentials of their purchases and brands are responding. Retail giants have begun offering ‘aftercare’ – mending services – as part of their sustainability drives. Others are championing the use of biodegradable or vegan fabrics and cleaning up their packaging act. In honour of Earth Day, we celebrate some of the UK’s slow fashion labels that are advocating provenance above profit, and transparency above trends.

Bethany Williams

London-based designer Bethany Williams is a staunch advocate of fashion with a conscience – in more ways than one. She’s devoted herself to new social justice causes and charities each season, whether it be working with prison inmates to create recycled garments or addressing issues as far-reaching as agriculture and homelessness. ‘Success isn’t judged in terms of profit any more, but in terms of social responsibility,’ Williams told Crafts earlier this year. Even as the fashion industry slammed to a halt, Williams rallied: during lockdown she formed a collective of designers and makers to keep hospitals supplied with scrubs at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Benjamin Fox

Handmade to order in Norfolk, Benjamin Fox’s dreamy collection of dresses and blouses is also one of the most inclusive, catering to UK sizes 6-22. The label’s founder and sole maker Ciara Booyens learned the art of pattern design and dressmaking from her mother and grandmother, whom she describes as ‘incredibly talented seamstresses’. A law graduate, she found herself at sea after completing her degree and gravitated towards dressmaking – a pastime she’d previously pursued to aid with her mental health. She makes a conscious effort to work with a range of sustainable fabrics – think deadstock, ex-designer or biodegradable materials – which she hand-dyes using eco-reactive dyes or has handprinted in Jaipur using all-natural inks and paints.

TOAST

Lifestyle brand TOAST creates and curates simple, functional clothing and homeware with a sustainable bent. At the heart of its mission is a commitment to supporting traditional textile techniques and craftsmanship through collaborations with artisans and independent makers. The label has set out a roadmap to minimise waste, which includes producing leaner collections as well as the launch of its free repair service. TOAST Circle is another forward-thinking initiative to extend garments’ lives beyond its first wearer: customers can exchange an item they’ve worn and loved for another cherished piece in four of its stores across the UK.

Ssōne

Industry veteran Caroline Smithson founded London-based contemporary womenswear and lifestyle label Ssōne (pronounced ‘sewn’) after two decades spent working at luxury brands where waste was rife. Ssōne describes itself as ‘rooted in craft and committed to conscious progress’. To wit, garments are crafted from organic, recycled and natural materials using low-water washing and botanical dyeing processes, while textile cut-offs and unsold garments are repurposed in keeping with the label’s zero-waste mantra. We stan.

Sigrid Maria

Hailing from Stockholm, fashion consultant and buyer Nikie Lundquist launched Sigrid Maria in 2019. What began as a curated collection of handpicked vintage pieces organically developed into a sustainable, slow fashion brand. Now, each item is made-to-order or produced in small quantities in East London using vintage, deadstock and locally sourced fabrics. Lundquist personally sends off each garment to its new home with a handwritten note – it’s all about the little things.

Hayley Scanlan

Dundee-born designer Hayley Scanlan credits her ‘supergran’ Ella Donar with teaching her the craft of a dressmaking as a young girl. The in-demand designer – who you might recognise from Netflix’s Next in Fashion – set up her namesake label H.S in 2012 and adheres to a zero-waste policy. Each garment (barring t-shirts) is produced in limited runs by locally employed seamstresses in Scotland. What’s more, all of the packaging is biodegradable and compostable – lovely stuff.

RÆBURN

‘For us, the relationship with our customer starts with purchase – we use this opportunity to invite emotional attachment with our garments,’ explained Christopher Raeburn to Crafts recently. His ethos is a simple but compelling one: ‘remade, reduced, recycled’. Since 2001, he’s been reworking surplus materials and found artefacts (think decommissioned military stock or 1950s silk maps) into completely new designs. The designer works with a multidisciplinary team at his ‘lab’ in Hackney – serendipitously located in the former Burberry textiles factory – where the brand’s atelier, archive, retail store and events space are also housed.

The Amateur Weather Observers

Central Saint Martin graduates Laura and Rosie launched their made-to-order knitwear brand just last month. ‘Every aspect of production happens here in our little flat in south London,’ say the pair of their designs, which take around four weeks to make. ‘Just us two – no machines, no warehouses, no underpaid workers.’ We’ve got our eye on their limited-edition intarsia vest – only five will be made – which depicts a quintessentially British landscape and is made using a soft alpaca and wool blend with silk mohair.