We will talk a lot about sustainable and ethical fashion here in this article, and we know that one of the biggest obstacles to quitting fast fashion and shopping more sustainably is the cost.
Ethical and sustainable brands are often more expensive, and for good reason too. They pay fair wages to their employees, so their pieces aren’t made in sweatshops. They use sustainably sourced materials and eco-friendly packaging. They utilize other sustainability practices to minimize their carbon footprints.
They’re often small businesses too, so they’re producing limited quantities and in unique designs, so that often translates to a higher price point. Basically, the fast fashion industry has convinced us that a plain T-shirt should cost about $5. Which is pretty much impossible without modern day slavery and extremely harmful manufacturing processes.
And a big turnoff for a lot of people in shopping more sustainably is that they’re used to paying $5 or $10 for a t-shirt, and now they have to budget about $50 for essentially the same item. So, contrary to what a lot of people say, it’s really not that simple to just make the switch. There’s a lot of other things you can do apart from just changing where you shop to make a smooth and long-lasting transition to sustainable fashion.
So when we were in the process of quitting fast fashion and it was a process, it did not happen overnight. We would often go to buy something and realize that the handful of sustainable brands that we were familiar with either didn’t have what we were looking for, or it was way out of our price range. And that really came down to just not knowing that many sustainable brands yet.
Now a couple of years in and many, many hours on Instagram, We feel like we finally have a good arsenal of sustainable brands that we are familiar with. So we know where to go when we are looking for something in particular. So now we want to share with you some of our favorite and actually affordable, sustainable fashion brands.
We are going to characterize an affordable brand as one where most of the pieces that they sell are under $100. And we try to include a range of different styles too. So there’s something for everyone in this article, you know, brands that focus more on loungewear or workwear or premium quality materials.
We think these will be a pretty good starting point for most people. And then of course, there’s tons and tons of other sustainable brands out there that do more unique designs too. And we’ve personally only tried about half of the brands on this list, so we can’t really speak to the quality of all of them.
So we encourage you to check out other reviews of these brands online and see what people have to say about the quality, fit and sizing. But we will say one of the perks of shopping more sustainably is that quality is usually not as much of an issue as it is with fast fashion brands. So without further ado, here is the list of 10 affordable and sustainable brands to know.
#1. Uniqlo
This is the brand that actually inspired this article video for us. We think it’s one of the most affordable, sustainable brands that we’ve found. This is a great brand to shop for ethical wardrobe, staples, like T-shirts, tank tops, loungewear and underwear. Their designs are really minimal and they usually only release like a handful of new pieces each season.
They remind us a lot of what we love about Uniqlo. They’re sort of no frills wardrobe basics. They have a lot of unisex designs, so it’s easy to shop the men’s wear and women’s wear section, which is another thing we really liked about Uniqlo. And their clothing prices range from$30 to $130. They used to do a lot of great denim styles too, so fingers crossed they bring that back soon.
We haven’t purchased from this brand yet, but they are at the top of my wishlist when we have to finally replace some of the wardrobe basics.
#2. Abel
This is one of the favorite sustainable brands, and we love suggesting it to people when they’re looking for a good, everyday brand.
Abel is a great place to shop for basic t-shirts, blouses, jeans, and outerwear. Their clothing line is in the $35 to $150 price range. They also have an awesome shoe collection in the $45 to $145 price range. They also have some really beautiful leather handbags that are a bit pricier. But comparable to Madewell in their design and price point.
In fact, we would go out on a limb and say that if you like Madewell, you’re probably really going to like Abel too. We’ve personally tried out Abel’s denim, their leather boots and basic white T-shirt and they’re all amazing quality.
#3. Quinn’s
Quinns is another sustainable brand that we really wanted to include on this list because they have a slightly dressier collection and lots of great work wear pieces, and they use more premium quality materials such as silk and cashmere. A couple of the favorite pieces from Quinn’s are the Cashmere Crew neck sweater, which retails for $50 and the silk short sleeved button up shirt, which is $55.
If you’re a fan of Everland, this is definitely a great brand for you to check out. They make really simple wardrobe staples that are affordable and high quality. And their clothing price ranges from $15 to $100.
#4. Amore Bear
This is a brand that we stumbled upon while looking for a sustainable alternative to the favorite striped Uniqlo shirts.
Their designs are a fusion of French and Californian style, which we are a big fan of. And what we like about Amore Bear is that they do a lot more colorful designs and prints each season. A lot of sustainable brands tend to fall into that neutral and minimalist style, which we are personally a big fan of, but we know it’s not for everyone.
They also do dressier pieces too, like work wear and some occasion wear, but it’s all really comfortable and versatile and wearable. They use a lot of a sustainable material called tensile, along with more natural materials like silk and cotton. And just as a simple reference, we would describe the overall feel of this brand as similar to anthropology in terms of their design and the types of clothing offered on this particular list.
I would say this brand falls more into the mid-range price point. So their clothing ranges from about $38 to just under $300. But for a sustainable brand, I do think it’s still one of the most affordable ones out there.
#5. Tentree
Tentree is a great brand if you classify your personal style as being a bit more outdoorsy.
So it has a lot of great fleecy, loungewear, active wear and more casual knitwear and based on the name, you may have guessed, they actually do plant 10 trees for every item purchased. All of their clothing is, of course, ethically and sustainably made, and their price ranges from about $25 to $120, excluding a couple of heavy duty outerwear pieces.
#6. Pact
Pact is one of the brands that we are less familiar with on this list, but we really wanted to include it because it has one of the lowest price points for loungewear and casual wardrobe basics and underwear. They use a lot of organic cotton in their clothing, and they also have a baby kids and maternity line for you.
So if you’re looking for affordable and sustainable t-shirts and leggings and underwear, this is a great option. Their clothing price ranges from 20 to $110.
#7. Vetta Capsule
Vetta Capsule creates small batch capsule wardrobe collections designed to be versatile and interchangeable.
Basically, all of their pieces work together really seamlessly. All of the pieces we’ve tried from them have been really high quality and fit really well. They also have much dressier clothing compared to some of the other brands on this list that focus more on like Loungewear. We found that there’s a lot of sustainable brands making loungewear, which is wonderful of course, but it can be a bit trickier.
If you’re shopping for dressier pieces for work wear, etc., unless you know where to look, many of the Vetta capsule pieces are somewhat customizable too. So like a blouse that buttons into a skirt to create a dress or a romper that you can wear a few different ways. We just think that their designs are pretty ingenious and really stylish too.
Their clothing prices range from $50 to $160, which puts them more at the mid-range price point, but I think for the quality and design, they’re still very reasonably priced and much more affordable than comparable sustainable brands.
#8. Richer-Poorer
This brand is pretty new to us, so we’ve seen a lot of it on Instagram, but we’ve never really looked into it before.
From what we can tell, they seem to do really high quality wardrobe essentials, like T-shirts, tank tops, loungewear and underwear. They’re very similar in style to Everlane or Cotton, which I mentioned earlier. They use a lot of soft cotton and fleece materials. Their coding ranges from $34 to $150.
And while we don’t usually gravitate towards brands that do a lot of things like matching sets and lounge wear, we do like to know where to shop when it comes to replacing those wardrobe essentials, like basic T-shirts, which we wear quite often. So this brand seems like a really great option for those types of items.
#9. For Days
This is a similar brand that we’ve seen a lot about online, but we haven’t actually looked into it much. They seem really similar in design to Cotton and Richer-Poorer, and we wouldn’t be surprised that they were all Sister Brands. For Days focuses on zero waste. So they use a lot of cotton and recycled materials for their wardrobe basics.
They also sell a lot of unisex designs, like basic t-shirts and lingerie sets. And they have some really cool minimal graphic design elements too. They definitely have a subtle street style influence mixed with a more like scan minimalist vibe. So if you’re a fan of Urban Outfitters, you might really like this brand.
They also have a swap program where you can send in your old used pieces and they recycle them to make new products, and then you earn a shopping credit. Their clothing price ranges from $14 to $158.
#10. Armed Angels
They carry very minimal wardrobe staples, and it’s a good mixture of slightly dressier and more casual pieces.
They also do some subtle prints and colorful pieces too. They also have one of the most complete clothing ranges of all the brands on this list. So they have denim, knitwear, outerwear, in addition to their basic tops and bottoms. Their denim selection looks really nice. They have quite a few different styles, and it’s really affordable, in our opinion, especially considering that sustainable denim is usually a bit pricier.
One of the downsides of this brand is that if you’re based in the US, you do have to pay an additional shipping fee, but it is free for many parts of Europe. Their prices range from 25 to 135 euros, which is roughly 30 to 160 USD, which is relatively affordable for a sustainable brand. So that is our list of the 10 most affordable and sustainable brands out there.
