8 Ethical and Sustainable Loungewear Brands to Help Get You Through the Second Wave
Still working from home and living in your loungewear? Same here. Nervous reading headlines about the state of the world and the treatment of garment workers, and looking to vote with your dollar? Here’s a launchpad of eight ethical and sustainable loungewear options to freshen up your living from home wardrobe without the moral dread of buying sweatshop-produced, landfill-destined clothing.
Mary Young
First up is Canadian brand Mary Young, which makes super cute sherbet-toned sets, bodysuits, and underwear in soft stretchy fabrics like organic bamboo. Organic bamboo is a fantastic fabric that blends breathability with low-water, low-carbon, no-pesticide production, and it’s high yield and regeneration rates make it super-efficient as a clothing source. Plus it’s wildly soft and comfortable, and Mary Young offers all sorts of colours to choose from.
Their brand philosophy is creating comfortable, long-lasting garments that you reach for often and hold up over time. Central to sustainable fashion is owning less, using more of your existing wardrobe, and having it last you years and years — so Mary Young’s emphasis on comfort and quality combined with sustainable fabric choices make this a winning work from home brand.
Pact
Pact’s 100% organic cotton and Fair Trade production are their signature selling points, covering concerns for both environmental awareness and ethics in the fashion industry. They offer a wide range of t-shirts, leggings, sleepwear, and more to satisfy whatever level of dressed you want to be for the day. A friend of mine swears by the comfort of her Pact gear, and they are currently offering 20% your first order.
From Rachel
From Rachel started out with an emphasis on hosiery but has recently started branching out into ethical and sustainable loungewear with appealing results. Most of From Rachel’s pieces are made in Italy, meaning higher labour standards and a smaller energy footprint. On top of that, they use new eco-friendly fabrics or recycled materials to create their products. Their selection is mostly bike shorts, yoga bras, wrap skirts and t-shirts which should easily take you from Netflix on the couch to a pharmacy run no problem.
Girlfriend Collective
OK, technically Girlfriend Collective is an “activewear” brand, but we all know leggings and track pants are just as much for dog walking and weekday vegetable prep as the gym. Girlfriend makes size-inclusive leggings, t-shirts, bra tops, undies and more out of recycled water bottles and salvaged fishing nets to reduce marine pollution and stop extraction of more resources from the Earth.
If your garments wear out, Girlfriend has a recycling program where they take back old items in exchange for store credit and use them to create new products. That kind of no-waste circular economy is a money-where-your-mouth benchmark for meaningful action on sustainability.
Aesthetic Laundry
Aesthetic Laundry, aptly named, is a size-inclusive British slow fashion brand making the casual-cute clothes of your dreams. All of their clothing is handmade in London in small batches to reduce waste and ensure high labour and environmental standards without exorbitant pricing. Aesthetic Laundry’s lines include boxy shirts and shorts, t-shirt dresses, and a very interesting and cozy proposition called a ‘coatigan’ — coat plus cardigan.
Plus, they use their excess fabrics from their adult line to make zero-waste sweaters for children. This emphasis on making good quality clothing and using every last scrap proves their conscious fashion credentials.
Mate the Label
Picture ‘California cool but lounging around the house’ and you are likely picturing the aesthetic of Mate the Label. They make basics and loungewear in a million colours and 100% organic cotton, so you are likely to find something that fits your style and also your values. All their products are made in Los Angeles and using low impact dyes and processes to cover both ethical and sustainable bases. If you are in the market for staples like henleys or easy dresses for your Zoom meetings or weekly state-sanctioned grocery store trips, Mate the Label is a good place to check.
LA Relaxed
LA Relaxed isn’t exclusively loungewear, but their stuff is so easy-breezy versatile that it easily does double duty as banana bread baking or patio brunch attire. They use a wide and impressive variety of heavy hitter sustainable fabrics, like linen, Tencel, and hemp, and all of their stuff is made in Los Angeles. This translates to lower carbon use in production because of the sources of Los Angeles’ power and higher labour standards for workers. Go forth and peruse their wide selection of sweatpants without guilt.
Organic Basics
If you’re in the market for ethical clothing or ever opened Instagram, you’ve likely already come across Organic Basics. That said, they are worth including on this list because of how good they are at what they do. It’s all in the name — this brand makes super high quality basics out of organic, recycled or otherwise cutting edge sustainable fabrics. This includes silver-infused lounge and active clothing, which apparently cuts down on micro-pollution from washing and extends garment lifetimes.
If you are still staying home for the foreseeable future and looking to expand your wardrobe with versatile, guilt-free clothes, these eight brands are an excellent place to start. These loungewear brands are sustainable, ethical, and available online so you can accommodate your fears of the looming climate crisis while being a good person during the second wind of the current public health one.
