Every month, the Good On You team scours the internet to give you easy access to the ethical and sustainable fashion news that matters. Here’s everything you need to know this February.
In the know
Fashion Firms Agree to Compensate Garment Workers in Mauritius (The Guardian)
Barbour (“Not Good Enough”) and PVH, owner of Calvin Klein (“It’s a Start”) and Tommy Hilfiger (“It’s a Start”), have announced they will pay £400,000 to garment workers in Mauritius after an investigation from labour rights organisation Transparentem found that migrant workers were forced to pay thousands of pounds in illegal recruitment fees.
Bangladesh Garment Factories Fire Workers After Protests, Unions Say (Reuters)
Garment workers in Bangladesh have been protesting since October for higher wages, only to be fired from their jobs and met with police brutality, arrests, and even death. “The government agreed in November to raise minimum wages by more than 56% to 12,500 taka ($114) a month, which many workers have still called too low,” reports Reuters.
Why Sustainable Label E.L.V. Denim Needs to Be On Your Fashion Radar (Harper’s Bazaar)
“I’m proud to be a thought leader in this space, however, this journey is not just for me and E.L.V. Denim. We want to lead by example and show others that upcycling can be incorporated with great design and luxury tailoring—this can be a successful business model. We all need to be part of this change,” said Anna Foster, founder of “Great” brand E.L.V. denim in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
What 2023 Meant for Sustainable Fashion (DAZED)
Journalist Sophie Benson looks back on everything that happened in sustainable fashion in 2023, including fast-fashion bans, new legislations, and, of course, flagrant greenwashing (remember when Kim Kardashian joked about the climate crisis to sell bras?).
Luxury Brands Aren’t Doing Enough to Eliminate Forced Labour, Report Says (Vogue Business)
According to the fourth edition of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s (BJRRC) KnowTheChain Apparel and Footwear Benchmark, 27.6 million people experience forced labour globally, with garment workers of the 20 largest fashion companies being owed at least $75m in unpaid wages.
Inside the Landfill of Fast Fashion: “These Clothes Don’t Even Come From Here” (CBS News)
Every single second, the equivalent of a rubbish-truckload of clothes is burned or buried in landfill. And it’s only getting worse, as shown in CBS News’ coverage of the mountains of clothing waste dumped in Chile.
Fast Fashion Is Only Going to Get Faster in 2024 (Quartz)
The latest edition of Business of Fashion and McKinsey and Company’s State of Fashion report suggests that the competition between ultra fast fashion brand SHEIN and newcomer Temu will only increase the pace of clothing consumption.
Episode 187: Why New Clothes Are Kinda Garbage (Clotheshorse)
‘Good’ and ‘Great’ news
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‘Good’ Brand MATE Launches Organic Menswear and Mini Collections
After years of focusing on womenswear, “Good” rated brand MATE launched its new menswear and mini collections last week, featuring essential loungewear items designed for the everyday. MATE is a US-based brand that is proudly female-founded and predominately operated by women. Its essentials are made with GOTS certified organic fabrics and lower-impact dyes, and these new collections are no exception.
“Great” Activewear Brand Tripulse Publishes Costing Insights
Transparency is key to creating a more sustainable fashion industry, and to that end, Franziska Mesche, founder of “Great”-rated brand Tripulse, has published a “behind the price tag” explainer to help shoppers understand its product costs, business model, and the true cost of buying fast fashion sportswear. “Sometimes people ask me ‘Why are your clothes more expensive than those of other activewear brands?’… It’s questions like these that made me aware that there is a big lack of knowledge and transparency around pricing in the fashion industry—and that the fashion industry has programmed most of us to believe that clothing must have a low price,” Mesche explains in the article.
ISTO. Creates New Lower Impact Denim Work Jacket
“Good” brand ISTO. has announced its newest work jacket made with lower impact denim, which uses fewer chemicals and a new washing approach in its production at the Candiani denim mill. Aligning with its ongoing approach to transparency, the brand has published details of its suppliers and a costing breakdown to give customers greater clarity on what happens behind the scenes.
