Ethical Fashion Australia for Beginners

We believe that everyone deserves to live in a world where we all have access to clean water, nutritious food, shelter, education, healthcare, and economic opportunity. To achieve this goal, we must change how we produce and consume goods and services. This requires us to rethink the way we design products, source materials, manufacture goods, distribute goods, and dispose of waste.

Why You Should Care About Sustainability

Sustainable fashion means creating clothing that does not harm the environment. It also means using less energy, water, and other natural resources than traditional methods. In addition, sustainable fashion creates jobs and helps communities thrive by providing income opportunities for local artisans.

For every shirt you buy from a fast fashion retailer, you could be supporting forced labor overseas or contributing to the pollution of waterways with dangerous chemicals from textile factories. With these issues at stake, it's important to educate yourself on how to make better choices when you shop for clothing if you want to contribute to a sustainable future for our planet and its inhabitants. In this beginner's guide, we'll show you the basics of making more environmentally conscious and humane choices when purchasing garments both at home in Australia or while traveling abroad.

What is ethical fashion?

Ethical fashion is clothing that is made in a way that is good for people and the planet. It's about making ethical choices about what you buy, how you buy it and how you wear it.

For example:

Ethical fashion consumers are conscious of their purchases and make an effort to only purchase items that have been made in safe conditions with sustainable materials by skilled workers who are paid a fair wage.

Ethical fashion doesn't involve animal products or fur; it uses alternatives like faux leather instead of real leather and hemp instead of silk.

Sustainability might not be the only factor to consider when buying ethical clothing––but it is a very important one.

In fact, there are many brands that claim to be sustainable, but then they would not pay their workers a fair wage, have poor working conditions, or even include animal based ingredients in their fashion clothing and accessories. This is not an example of ethical fashion!

On the opposite, brands that are ethical take into consideration not only the environment but also their workers, the animals and human health‌.

Ethical Clothing Australia: How to Shop

In order to become a more conscious consumer, you mainly have 2 options:

Do a lot of research and find brands individually that align with your values so you can buy from them;

Shop at ethical online stores like Velvety. We exclusively work with brands that are 100% ethical, cruelty-free and sustainable––so you don’t have to do all the research work––you can just browse our website and buy what you fancy most!

What are the most ethical clothing brands in Australia?

At Velvety, we work with the most ethical and sustainable brands in Australia. We investigate everything about them to make sure that you’re buying from trustable brands that do what they preach.

Some of our favourite Australian-made brands include Love Linen, Nya Clothing, Tasi Travels and Wilga Clothing. If you want to check out more, you can read our blog post about 5 sustainable fashion brands you can shop in Australia, or just browse our website!

What are the most sustainable fabrics?

The most sustainable clothing fabrics include organic cotton, hemp, linen, tencel, and of course, anything that’s recycled or upcycled!

It’s even better when you can find brands that source the fabrics locally, or at least that produce in your country. At Velvety you can find, for example, australian linen clothing, and you can always use the filters in our shop to include Australian-made brands.

Becoming an ethical consumer it’s easier than you think. Make use of websites like Velvety to make sure that you’re buying ethically, and be proud that you’re helping to create a change in the world!