20 Natural Fiber Clothing Brands For Women & Men To Be Stylish In
If you’re unfamiliar with organic and natural clothing brands, you’re not alone. Natural clothing has become more popular in recent years as people seek to live a more sustainable life.
If that interests you, there are a number of organic brands to choose from. Before getting into that, here’s a little background about the industry.
What is clothing that’s organic?
Clothing that’s organic refers to clothes made from materials produced in compliance with agricultural standards.
What makes organic fashion different from non-organic fashion is that it’s made without pesticides, genetically modified seeds, or other chemical products.
As a result, there’s less damage done to the environment. Some of the different materials that these clothes can be made of include cotton, silk, jute, ramie, and wool.
Organic and Natural Brands You Need to Know
There are a number of brands that specialize in creating natural clothes. We’ll go over a few of the best ones out there.
Organic Cotton Brands
1. Bhumi
In Sanskrit, Bhumi means earth or soil. This sustainable clothes company chose this name because of their desire to make a positive impact on the planet.
Bhumi commits themselves to providing organic and chemical free products. They also believe in their products being ethically made by providing the farmers with financial support that fairly pays for their work.
Sustainable practices: Bhumi makes their cotton with no toxic dyes, no genetically modified seeds, and no hazardous synthetic pesticides. They also use crop rotation to conserve soil. As a result of how they grow their cotton, less energy is used, and the healthy organic soils store a higher amount of carbon
2. Conscious Step
Conscious Step believes in producing their products in a way that gives to the planet rather than take from it. Their company strives to highlight issues in the world and the organizations that are working to fix them.
The purchases of their products support emerging markets, fair wages, and environmental sustainability.
Sustainable practices: Conscious Step’s supply chain has a GOTS and Vegan certification. That means their crops are no treated with insecticides, pesticides, herbicides, and have no genetic modification.
Additionally, their workforce involves no child labor, provides fair minimum wage, and compensation for overtime work.
3. Birdsong
This eco-friendly clothing brand believes in female empowerment. The profits Birdsongs earns are given to the women who make the clothes or donated to charities that support them. All the women do their work in a women’s group with counselors, mentors, and friends to offer encouragement.
Sustainable practices: All of the products are made from secondhand fabrics. These are materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. Birdsong also uses natural, sustainable, and organic fabric options, as well as manufacture most products locally to cut down on airplane pollution.
4. Vege Threads
Located in Australia, Vege Threads believes in bringing together a community interested in both sustainability and good designs. They work to create clothing that can be both long lasting and beautifully designed.
Sustainable practices: Vege Threads’ products are all manufactured locally in Australia. They work with local knitting mills and dye houses that create their clothing using organic and eco-friendly materials.
They’re also committed to having an ethical supply chain, having received accreditation from Ethical Clothing Australia.
Hemp
5. Thought
Thought is a natural brand that not only makes their clothing out of hemp, but also organic cotton and bamboo. They’re goal is to inspire their community in Australia to make small changes that can positively impact the world
Sustainable practices: Thought ensures that all of their suppliers and supply chains follow their strict environmental policy. On the top of their list of requirements, all materials they use have to be sourced from renewable, natural, organic, and recycled sources.
Collections are transported in the most environmentally friendly way, and efforts are taken to make sure water and energy is conserved anyway possible. Thought is also a member of the ethical trading initiative, which advocates for the respect of workers’ rights around the world.
6. Rawganique
This sustainable and vegan clothes brand has been around for over 20 years. Founded by off-grid island homesteaders, Rawganique handcrafts all of their products with hemp, cotton, and linen.
Sustainable practices: Rawganique is transparent about where they make and process their products, avoiding countries that typically use chemicals and acids that harm the environment. All of their clothes are chemical free and do not come from any animals, making them a vegan clothes brand
Their ethical practices include not using sweatshops or slave labor.
7. Outerknown
Outerknown is a relatively new organic brand that worked hard to find partners who supported their vision of selling sustainable clothing. Their mission is to create great clothes while being radically committed to sustainability.
Sustainable practices: 90% of the fibers they source are recycled, regenerated, and organic. They don’t plan to stop until its 100%.
Outerknown is also an FLA accredited company. FLA stands for Fair Labor Association, which is a group that advocates for ethical and humane working standards.
8. Groceries Apparel
Groceries Apparel is a natural clothes brand that operates it’s own factory in Los Angeles, California. They do this to ensure they’re following the standard of sustainability they want to live up to.
Sustainable practices: The ingredients they use to create their clothing include organic cotton, recycled, plastic, hemp, eucalyptus, and recycled cotton.
9. WAMA Underwear
This brand is on a mission to sell the best hemp underwear in the world. In addition to that, WAMA Underwear hopes to promote hemp as a source for clothing material in general.
Sustainable practices: All of their clothing is made of hemp that originates from organic farms. Wama underwear also believes in doing business ethically.
They have a team member based in China to ensure that all factories they partner with give their employees a quality work environment and fair wages.
Linen
10. Eileenfisher.com
Eileen Fisher is an American designer who founded her own clothing brand, Eileen Fisher Inc. In addition to being committed to sustainability, the company donates money to business grants and leadership programs for women.
Sustainable practices: In addition to organic linen, Eileen Fisher also sells clothing made from organic cotton. They have employees keep up to date on the farm, the factory, and the worker that the materials came from to ensure everything is organic.
Eileen Fisher also requires all of their factories not supply them cotton from forced labor. They’re company currently is in an organization to pressure Uzbekistan to end the practice of children being forced to harvest cotton.
11. Lifegivinglinen.com
The mission of Life Giving Linen is to provide high quality organic linen products at an affordable price. In addition to clothing, they also make bed linens and pillowcases, and they’re all handmade.
Sustainable practices: This organic clothes company has GOTS certification that ensures their clothes are made from organic fibers and does not have chemicals used on it.
Life Giving Linen also strives to comply with working conditions and labor standards of the International Labor Organization.
Wood (Lyocell)
12. Mara Hoffman
Mara Hoffman initially founded her namesake company in 2000 after graduating from a New York design school. While this company didn’t start out producing sustainable products, it now prioritizes making clothing with natural, recycled, and organic fibers.
They don’t make any clothing out of fur, mulesed, sheep wool, or feathers.
Sustainabile practices: Many of their products are made with fabrics that are made from sustainably sourced wood pulp. In addition, they only partner with factories that don’t use harmful chemicals and their packaging is made with recycled materials.
13. Tentree
Tentree is a company that considers themselves environmentalists. They partner with charitable organizations committed to planting trees and nurturing the ecosystem.
Sustainable practices: In partnering with the environmental group, GreenStep, they track all of the environmental impact of producing their products and find ways to continually reduce the impact. In addition, for every purchase of their product they plant 10 new trees.
Their products are made of wood pulp fiber, recycled polyester, hemp, and organic cotton. Tentree also strives to create a safe and respectful work environment for their workers as a part of their commitment to ethical manufacturing.
14. Patagonia
Patagonia was started by a group of climbers and surfers who wanted to operate a business in a way that helped protect the environment.
Sustainable practices: They create products that last a long time and can be recycled so the materials are continually used. They use a number of organic materials including Tencel, recycled cashmere, and nylon.
15. Espirit
This clothing brand was started in the 60’s by a couple that believed in love, peace, and harmony. Espirit more recently began implementing sustainability in how their products are produced.
Sustainable practices: Espirit has committed to following the UN Sustainable Development Goals. They plan to use 100% sustainable cotton by July of 2021. They also make their products with wood fiber and recycled materials.
16. Armed Angels
Armed Angels is clothing brand based out of Germany. Their focus is in creating contemporary collections out of sustainable material for both men and women.
Sustainability practices: All of their products they curate are made of either Tencel, Lenzing Modal, organic linen, organic wool, or recycled polyester. They also strive to be a vegan clothing brand, as their clothing products are 90% vegan.
Armed Angels is GOT certified and partners with the Fairtrade and Fair Wear Foundation which promotes fair working conditions.
17. Ted Baker
This global lifestyle brand is a British based company that was started by Ted Baker. His fashion is known for its quirky style while still looking commercial
Sustainable practices: The company reports their actions to the Carbon Disclosure Project, which is a not-for-profit organization that helps companies manage their environmental impact. They’re also working to use more recyclable packaging as well as creating their products with organic materials.
18. Tamga Designs
The tragic collapse of a factory in Bangladesh which took over a 1,000 lives inspired a couple to make a difference. Tamga Designs works to create sustainable clothing while providing safe work conditions for all of their workers.
Sustainable practices: Tamga Designs make their clothing with Tencel, which takes less water, energy and emissions than non-organic materials. Their Lenzing certified Modal fabric comes from FSC certified plots, which avoids cutting down endangered forests or harming endangered animals.
19. Mavi
Mavi is a Turkish brand that focuses on jeans for young men and women. The company has been selling their brand of luxury denim since 1991.
Sustainable practices: In recent years, they’ve partnered with different companies to help reduce their environmental impact. Up to 38% of their denim products are now made with sustainable materials. They also use recycled cotton for some of their products.
One cause Mavi is currently working on is the protection of endangered turtles. Indigo Turtle t-shirts are created with the proceeds being donated to help the cause.
20. Monsoon
After a road trip around Asia, Peter Simon started the company Monsoon, which has become known for it’s bohemian look made with hand-loomed cotton fabrics and organic vegetable dyes. The company has since expanded with two sister brands that have over 1,000 stores around the world.
Sustainable practices: Monsoon has installed rainwater harvesting at their facilities and worked to eliminate all unnecessary packaging from their products. They choose to use biodegradable plastic and FSC-certified paper when possible.
They’re working to convert their Indian cotton farmers to organic farming methods and helping Indian fashion students develop and use more sustainable fabrics.
Which fabric is most sustainable?
There are a few different fabrics that are very sustainable. One example is recycled or upcycled cotton.
This material is made with post-consumer and industrial cotton waste. What makes it good for the environment is it lowers energy and water consumption, and the cotton is kept out of landfills
It’s light and breathable, making it very comfortable to wear. One disadvantage in choosing recycled cotton is it tends to be more expensive because it requires more work to make. It also takes longer to dry and can be at times prone to shrinking and stretching.
Nonetheless, when taken care of properly, it can last for many years.
Organic hemp is another very sustainable fabric. It requires no pesticides, little water, and naturally fertilizes the soil it’s growing in. Hemp is the one of the strongest natural materials that sustainable clothing can be made with.
It’s naturally resistant to ultraviolent light and mold, more water absorbent, and retains its color better than most organic materials. Nonetheless, hemp can also be just as costly as recycled cotton. It’s also more prone to wrinkling.
Organic linen can be a great option as well. Linen comes from the flax plant, which can grow in poor-quality soil and doesn’t need much water or pesticides. All parts of the plant are used, which avoids waste, and is completely biodegradable.
Organic linen clothing is able to withstand high temperatures, making it great for hot summer days. It also can absorb moisture without holding any bacteria. Best of all, the more you wash it, the softer it gets.
The disadvantage with linen is it tends to be more expensive than cotton. It can also be very prone to wrinkling.
One other option for organic-based clothing is lyocell. It’s a material made from bleached wood pulp through a process of dry jet-wet spinning.
This material has a higher liquid absorption rate than cotton, making it a good option for athletic wear. It’s also soft and breathable as well.
The downside is it’s more expensive and requires more chemicals to make into clothing, which may irritate your skin if it’s sensitive to that.
Choosing to make our wardrobe more eco-friendly can make a big difference for our environment. These organic brands are all trying to do their part to cause as little environmental impact as possible.
Buying from them will not only do your part in helping the planet, but also support these companies in doing their part as well.
Good articles to read:
- 19 Sustainable Kids Clothing and Baby Clothing Brands
- Sustainable Christmas Cards For The Holidays
- Sustainable Christmas Tree Ideas For an Eco-friendly Holiday
- 70 Best Online Thrift Stores of 2023
- A List of The Worst Fast Fashion Brands To Avoid (2024)
