At Attitude Organic we were notified by some of our readers to look into the lack of sustainable and ethical fashion in the plus size category. Therefore today we are trying to answer this crucial question: Is ethical fashion available and accessible for everyone who wants to engage with it ?
We deeply believe that whatever your size, there should be no influence over your ability to make more sustainable choices for your wardrobe. And we strongly maintain that it is vital that fair fashion should be accessible to everyone!
For many women, the path to switch to a more ethical and eco-conscious shopping is blocked by brands who fail to offer inclusive sizes. Moreover, sadly there are some brands that define plus size as size 16, meaning they give a limit to something that should not be given. Thus it is harder for women to find ethical plus size fashion brands above this limit.
Why is there a lack of ethical plus size clothing?
People Tree, a big name in sustainable fashion, when asked why they do not sell sizes above 16; they responded by saying “If our turnover was 10 times larger, then we could afford to put 4-5% of our trade into larger sizes but while our business is still quite small, it is not viable.”
So as you might have guessed, it all comes down to money, the budget is simply not available. Indeed, it is really hard for niche, independent and small brands to manufacture in a wide range of sizes as each size needs to be sampled separately. Clothing that are ethically made and fair trade costs a lot more, which means adding one size bigger makes the process even more expensive. As a result when plus-size clothing is ethically made, the price is unusually high when compared to that of readily available sizes.
Where to find fair trade and organic plus size clothing in uk ?
These are some selected brands, some of them unfortunately are offering only up to size 18 ..
Kitty Ferreira is an award winning UK label with clothes up to UK size 26. Their goal is to combine sustainability and sophistication. All their clothes are made in London; they source up cycled materials across the UK and herbal dye their fabrics, using eco dye with for example pomegranate and onion skin.
Muss & Water is an organic clothing brand, based in the UK. They produce clothes which are ethical, organic and sustainable up to UK size 18.
Nomads is an organic fashion label committed to ethical trade. All their clothes are made to last and they source only natural fibres. They are members of GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards) and BAFTS (The British Association for Fair Trade Shops). They are really committed and take care to build strong and beautiful relationship with their factories. Their clothes go up to UK size 18.
Last but not least is secondhand shopping. Second hand is the answer to sustainable fashion says Oxfam. Indeed they have been reusing and reselling clothing since 1948; and they have become the first national charity to develop their own facility for recycling and reusing clothes. Meaning that the clothes are never sent to landfill. They propose plus size clothing up to UK size 28 !
So, what do you think about these brands ?
Have we missed any of the ethical plus size fashion brands ? Share it with us !
For more information on ethical clothing, click here.
