How To Buy Ethical Fashion On A Budget
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Looking to embrace the world of ethical and sustainable fashion, but worried about the cost? Here are my tried and tested tips to help you buy ethical fashion on a budget, without breaking the bank.
If you’ve learned all about what’s wrong with fast fashion, then taking steps to make your wardrobe more sustainable is a fantastic starting point. There are so many ethical ways to dress, that don’t involve fast fashion chains that couldn’t care less about human rights or the environment.
However, if you’ve heard that ethical fashion is expensive, prepare to have your eyes opened. I’ve been looking for better ways to dress for years, often on a tight budget, so here are my top tips for shopping ethically without breaking the bank.
Guide To Buying Ethical Fashion on A Budget
- Shop Your Own Wardrobe
- Embrace The Joy Of Shopping Secondhand
- Try Clothes Swapping
- Try Affordable Ethical & Sustainable Fashion Retailers
- Try Renting Clothes For Special Occasions
Shop Your Own Wardrobe
Firstly, before you shop, ask yourself if you actually need to buy anything new. I always say that the most sustainable (and most affordable) clothes are the ones we already own.
Have a sort through your wardrobe, pulling out things you don’t wear very often, or at all. As you take each unworn item out, ask yourself what’s stopping you from wearing them.
Could it be you need to repair your clothes? Could you have them altered to fit you better? Are there items you just need to find new ways of wearing – whether that’s pairing it with a different item or upcycling your clothes? Or are there items that you once loved, and just need to fall in love with again?
If there are things in there you are never going to wear, take them out. The goal is to have a versatile wardrobe you love. Swap them with friends, sell your clothes online, or donate any good quality items of clothing to charity. The extra space in your wardrobe will make the items you are keeping shine.
Embrace The Joy Of Shopping Secondhand
Another sustainable and budget-friendly way to shop for the items of clothing you really need is to shop secondhand. There are quite a few ways that you can do so, many from the comfort of your own home:
- eBay is a second-hand clothing goldmine (some of the time!). I mostly love shopping on eBay. I’ve found so much good stuff on there (and at the same time a load of rubbish).
- Asos Marketplace is another good resource for buying pre-loved items. Although, with so many options, it can be a bit overwhelming. I find browsing by category and setting my maximum price on the slider makes it a bit easier to deal with. You can also check out my other places to shop for secondhand clothes online – including Depop and Vinted.
- Charity shops are always an excellent place to look. If you don’t have the time or inclination to visit your local charity shops in the hope of striking gold then Oxfam sells secondhand clothes, shoes, and accessories online. I’ve also put together a guide on charity shop tips to help keep you right.
- Vintage Shops – Living in Edinburgh I’m quite spoiled for choice when it comes to vintage shops. We have some amazing reasonably priced ones. If you don’t happen to have any vintage shops near you or your nearest ones are astronomically priced (like some of the London ones I’ve visited) then try my favourite vintage shops online.
Try Clothes Swapping
Another option for ethical fashion on a budget is wardrobe swapping. These are fun and sociable community events, where you can take along the good quality clothes you no longer wear and find preloved treasures. Check the internet to see if there are any wardrobe-swapping events near you.
Alternatively, you could try setting one up between you and your friends. Besma at Curiously Conscious has a handy guide on how to organise your own clothes swap.
Try Affordable Ethical & Sustainable Fashion Retailers
Ethical doesn’t have to mean expensive. Many ethical fashion brands are on par, price-wise, with high-street fashion brands – particularly brands like Zara, &OtherStories, and Oliver Bonas. Try my guide to more affordable sustainable clothing brands for some handy suggestions for men and women.
It’s also worth checking out the other men’s and women’s ethical retailers out there. I’ve put together a list of over 50 ethical clothing brands for women and over 20 sustainable clothing brands for men, all categorised by budget and size range.
Some brands have mailing lists, and when you sign up for them you can get money off your first purchase. I’ve listed in the brand guides the retailers that offer a discount. For many, it’s 10% but some offer as much as 25% off your first order. Linger about on their site for a few seconds and often good introductory deals do pop up.
Many of these retailers also run sales periodically throughout the year – such as Black Friday sales. You can sign up for their mailing lists and be notified of when their sales are. Bear in mind that it is easy to get carried away in the sales. Keep a list of the items of clothing you really need. This way when the sales swing around you know exactly what you’re looking for.
Try Renting Clothes For Special Occasions
Renting clothes is another budget-friendly way to embrace ethical fashion – especially for weddings, parties and events. Sites like By Rotation make it easy and affordable to borrow clothes for events where you might normally buy an expensive outfit and then never wear it again.
Choose between renting for between 3 and 28 days, and then return it. In most cases the owner is responsible for cleaning the item, so you don’t even need to worry about that.
More Ideas
Looking for more ideas on a budget? Try my guide on how to support the ethical fashion movement when you’re flat-broke. Whether it’s supporting ethical brands that align with your values, by showing them love on social media or by supporting campaigns that seek to improve the lives of garment workers, there are heaps of things you can do to help bring about change without spending a penny.
Got any more top tips? Do share in the comments below!
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I haven’t any sewing skills due to a disability so that isn’t an option, on account of disability I haven’t a social circle either, it is very difficult on disability benefits and I have to look out for second hand items .
Absolutely Ali, you can only do what you can do – so don’t ever feel guilty. And shopping secondhand is probably the very best way to dress sustainably!
Let’s talk about this ethical problem…
I think that it’s necessary to change the way we support enterprises. But i’m not talking about vintage or neighborhood shops, I’m talking about brands such as Zara, Pull’n Bear etc that earn money and grow fastly at the expense of children and women exploitation. The world is becoming very selfish. I mean, we only think about our lifes and problems, but we aren’t able to see that in other parts of the planet people are dying and getting hurt because of this capitalism. A capitalism that doesn’t understand about health, about rights, about people… A capitalism that only understand about numbers and money, and we have to change like specie or we will all die. And the problem is not only about exploitation, it’s also about the climate change. We only have one planet, and we act like if we don’t care. What’s wrong with us?… I don’t know, I’m only an adolescent and this is a short reflection.
Thanks for the conseils to fight the unethical problems that this topic has.
I agree with the article because it´s not necessary to spend a lot of money in clothes. But we live in a consumer society.
Several years ago, I noticed I had a whopping amount of clothes which I bought and now I don’t wear them. I stored them in my wardrobe.
It´s a pity throw them to rubbish, they´re “as-new”. In my opinion the best option is donate them to other people or donate to charity both options will be a new opportunity to use them.
I haven’t any time to sell them in secondhand stores or in the Internet websites.
I have never bought a secondhand clothes, because I don’t visit second hand stores or maybe because there are a lot of “pret a porter” stores, which there are fashion cheap clothes.
It´s obviously in that stores you only find fashion clothes and after several washing the clothes lose their colours or they wear away quickly.
Please consider this sentence: Give our clothes another chance!
I’ve read your article thinking about the meaning of “necessity”. In fact, I think that when we have a wardrobe plenty of clothes it’s because society imposes this way of life. When I was young, I inherited my older cousins’ clothes. After, the clothes came back to my younger cousin and, again, returned to my younger sister… so, this is a real way to be ethical with clothes.
Hi!
I like so much the post. Nowadays is very common to buy in a vintage store because these kinds of shops promotes the ethical consume. Some people sell their clothes and other people buy them at a better price. But, in Spain, in my opinion, this type of trade is being exploited too much and the businessmen take advantage of it, because the price of the clothes is increasing and you spend more in a vintage shop than other shops like Zara or some other. This is my opinion. I like these kind of shops but they are too exploited already.
Yolanda Aguirre
Octubre 14, 2019 at 12:17 a.m.
Hi, I think that a great part of de Spanish women have more clothes that we need and wear. We would have to follow your advice and check our wardrobe. Give what we don´t use to charity and buy only the clothes that we really need. It´s a good idea to seat a budget and meet it. Thanks for your tips!
Totally agree.
Nowadays it’s popular to buy clothes in stores of seconhand and try to fuond clothes fashion or vintage for good prices. You can also search on websites and that gives you a chance to found more places for all kind of clothes or other things on good price. In the other hand it could be another option to recicle the clothes that you don’t use it any more, so this way it’s good oportinity for everyone.
Thanks for this. I find it hard to shop ethically when the only suggestions are expensive brands that are only available online. It’s really frustrating, and they never seem to have varied lengths for their trousers. Well done for suggesting brands that are affordable and more inclusive as well as ethical.
Hi, I always find it hard to 1. Find men’s clothes that I am happy to wear in charity shops (it’s usually old men’s clothes) and 2. Men usually wear clothes until they’re broken which is again unhelpful..
I am disabled, so I would prefer online suppliers. I do see lots of lovely clothes, at very reasonable prices. However, the garments come from the Far East, and I’ve read that, historically the factories employ child labour and pollute the local land and rivers.
Hi Rosalind, this has been the case historically but thankfully things are changing for the better. This is a good read of the current situation: https://www.fastcompany.com/40419020/when-made-in-china-means-artful-ethical-and-expert
I completely agree with you! I always care about the clothes I’m using so if there are some I don’t use I give them to a charity. But sometimes buy secondhand can be hard. Where I live there aren’t many secondhand shops, and sometimes I really need to see the clothes on me, so buying them on internet isn’t an option. But spending more time and making a bigger effort it can be done! And it’s much better.
Great points, Nuria!
I couldn´t agree more with all this useful tips. Since I visited Camden Market I´ve been convinced that shopping at second-hand shops is the best way to get high quality clothes for a reasonable price. Can you imagine yourself finding a haute couture dress for less tan 20 €? I love the feeling of satisfaccion when I hunt a really good bargain.
By the way…don´t you think that everybody wears the same clothes from the same brands and the same accesories? It´s so boring….I think it´s like wearing school uniform!!!
On the contrary, if you buy in vintage stores, your manner of dressing will be admired by your friends, believe me.
Hey!, thank you for your suggestion about Wardrobe Swapping. I can´t stand to waste a fortune in a dress only for a special occasion.
Totally agree with all of these.
Buying second hand/used fashion is no-doubt the way forward, that said Im a volunteer at a nonprofit online marketplace, that allows any ethical / cruelty free business to create stores for free, this is great for anyone that will only purchase ethical clothing.
Hello Alison. How can we access this online marketplace?
My hierarchy looks a lot like yours. I’ve worked over the past year to cut out high street brands altogether, but I do still purchase jeans from non-fair trade sources. I work at a thrift shop, though, so I can go wild shopping secondhand.
Shopping second hand has always been a great option for me. It’s certainly more sustainable. With auction sites like eBay and swishing sites like Big Wardrobe, and Posh Swaps remaining popular, there are plenty of opportunities to pick up a bargain. Guess who wouldn’t want that.