Ethical Shopping, How To Do It & Where To Start

We all love a buzzing highstreet, the shops calling to us with new styles and colours. But increasingly there is an awareness that the glitz and glam hides a darker story. We can all remember being horrified by the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013 where 1,134 died after the building collapsed in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka. Yet sadly since then not a lot has changed and garment workers are still loosing their lives whilst making our clothes. Modern day slavery, abject poverty and environmental destruction are common place within the fashion industry that brings huge profits to a few and social injustice to many.

Why Do We Need To Start Shopping Ethically?

The Fast Fashion Industry Is Injust

So, why do we all need to start shopping ethically? Well firstly because there is a problem.

“In supply chains worldwide 21 million people are victims or forced labour and 168 million children are in child labour.”

Slave To Fashion, by Safia Minney, 2017

These are scary statistics. But, even where everything in a supply chain is “legal” there are still huge injustices at play. As an ex fashion buyer for the UK highstreet, I can tell you that payment terms nearly always favour the retailer. Suppliers/factories have to wait months after delivering goods before being paid. Aside from this being a cash flow issue, it also becomes a big problem when a retailer cancels all or part of an order due to poor sales, late delivery or quality issues. This was common place when I worked, but became a real issue during the Covid pandemic, hence the need for the #PayUp campaign. When western stores refused to pay for goods that were in production factories were left out of pocket and unable to pay garment workers, leaving many unable to pay for food. To this day $16 million worth of goods still haven’t been paid for.

A Few of My Favourite Ethical Fashion Stores

We Can Have a Positive Impact Through Ethical Shopping

I have often felt overwhelmed by the scale of injustice that is going on today. And there is definitely a valid argument that we need systemic change on a government level to see real progress. But don’t forget, as a consumer you have P O W E R. Because, every time you shop you are voting with your wallet. Buyers look at sales figures on a daily basis and their entire plans will be based on what is and isn’t selling (I should know, I spent 10 years as one.) So if you choose to buy products that have a positive impact on people, animals and our world, then collectively those sales will make a difference. So I say, where possible, please choose to shop ethically.

Do Garments Need To Be Sustainable To Be Ethical?

This is a really key question. To me, sustainability and ethics go hand in hand. You see the fast fashion model is built on the exploitation of labour and natural resources and the costs go far beyond a garment’s price tag. The fashion industry contributes 8-10% of global carbon emissions. Plus, there are a whole host of other environmental issues that result because of making clothes; from chemical waste, microplastics and landfill from overconsumption. Just take a look at the drying up of the Aral Sea Basin due to Uzbek cotton production Local fisherman lost their jobs, crops were poisoned and there have been a whole host of health issues reported, from cancers through to respiratory illnesses to the tens of thousands of people who live in the region.

Thankfully sustainable fashion is becoming a trend, although please beware of greenwashing. So many companies are trying to convince us that they are eco friendly, but unless they are paying their garment workers a living wage then the system isn’t sustainable. Also, I just want to point out that we cannot buy our way into sustainability. Excessive consumerism is the reason we are in this situation to start with. The only way we can truly give worth to the garment makers and for the system to be sustainable, is for us to pay them a fair wage and then value the garments we already own. Longevity of use, buying secondhand clothes, renting and mending garments, are all important parts to building a sustainable wardrobe.

A Few of My Favourite Second hand Children’s Online Stores

Questions To Ask To Determine If A Brand Is Ethical/Sustainable

So, you want to shop ethically and sustainably but how do you do it? I recently wrote a blog on this very topic, so please click here to read. But in short, here are a few questions I ask before buying something.

• What does it say in the ‘About Us’ section? Any brand who cares about transparency, the environment and their workers will have it on their website. Though check they have evidence to back this up. I have read so many statements that say they care about the environment and then have nothing about ‘how’ they are doing this.
• Do the clothes have any official certifications? Organic cotton, Fairtrade and Living Wage certifications are gold stamps of approval from official bodies, so you can be confident that you are shopping ethically.
• What do independent opinions say? It’s time consuming to do all the research yourself, so use what other’s have already done. So, check out Fashion Revolution’s Fashion Transparency Index which reviews and rates 100s of the world’s biggest fashion retailers. Other places you could look include, Good On You or the Ethical Consumer though you need to be a member to access their full ratings.

Ethical Shopping Labels To Look Out For

There are certifications which give assurance that products/garments are made to a certain standard. These are the ones I always look out for:

• Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) (soil association)
• Fairtrade, there are two common certifications the Fairtrade Foundation and the World Fairtrade Organisation.
• Better Cotton Initiative (BCI)
• Living Wage Employer
• B Corporation

Ethical Shopping Directories

• Where To Buy Great Second Hand Children’s Clothes
• Ethical Brand Directory
• Ethical Fashion Guide
• Good On You
• Ethical Consumer (though this is a small yearly subscription)

Recommended Books To Read About Ethical Shopping

• Slave To Fashion by Safia Minney
• Stitched Up: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion by Tansy E. Hoskins it’s also available on Amazon, but I cannot bring myself to link to them. My husband & I have been boycotting Amazon for years now.
• To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World?* by Lucy Siegle
• Loved Clothes Last* by Orsola de Castro
• The Conscious Closet* by Elizabeth L. Cline

Or If Your More a Film Kind of Person

Grab a glass of wine and pick one of these to watch, they’ll definitely help you to think through some of the issues.

• The True Cost

• River Blue

• Unravel

The Ugly Truth of Fast Fashion

So, that in short is my guide to ethical shopping and how to start doing it. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line or comment below. The one thing I would stress is that this blog post is not designed to make you feel guilty in any way shape or form. We can only ever do what we can with resources given to us. But we should feel empowered that we can make a difference. Go on, next time you need to buy something see if you can find an ethically made alternative 🙂