Adili

This post is focused primarily around Adili.com but also to compile a list of other retailers and links which may be useful/interesting.

Adili is an online department store, where the homepage is designed to be like a shop window - updated each week. The store stocks 80 'of the best sustainable and fair brands from around the world.'

There is also the Adili Own-Label where the company went back to the beginning, 'sourcing supply chains from scratch, managing cultural communication, investing a great deal of time, boundless energy and of course, money.' 

Often with 'eco' retailers, the expectation is of dowdy clothes in muted tones, but Adili is packed with modern, stylish designs to suit a variety of tastes. This is perhaps due to their working with young designers, 'we're nurturing and commercially supporting the very best young design talent. Together, with these young designers we hope to pioneer the new era of fashion - develop the next generation of the fashion industry to become more sustainable and ethically established.'

Stripe Party Dress

Annie Greenabelle

£65

The website is well crafted for accessibility and viewing, and you can shop by brand or garment and within that, by ethic. 

 Lenn Jacket

Kuyichi

NOW £86.25

Currently, there is also a comprehensive SALE section, well worth a look!

Refashionable.com

 'Refashionable is the home of recycled fashion. We trade exclusively in pre owned fashion or new items that have been made from recycled materials. We provide you with a great way to raise funds for and donate to the charities you love. Here you will find everything you need to unleash the cash in your closet, refashion your wardrobe and reduce your style miles!'

The website works in one of two ways, you can donate your good-quality unwanted clothes, and Refashionable photograph and list them for sale and 50% of the sale proceeds go to your chosen charity. Or you can shop - by Womens, Mens, Kids or by Designer. 

ASOS box pleat skirt

black

size: 12

£5.00 + £1.50 postage

'This item would have travelled approximately 5070 miles from China

 and 4160 miles from India if bought new. 

By buying locally you have helped reduce

 the environmental impact of the fashion industry

 and reduced your style miles.'

The website also has several video tutorials on sewing, mending, and adjusting your clothes. Over the course of this project I've learnt some sewing techniques, and added darts to a top from a charity shop to make it fit better. Knowing the basics of how to sew is a great life skill and good for adjusting second-hand clothes or creating new ones!

Labour Behind the Label

This site is mainly concerned with labour rights and looks at the affect of cheap clothes to the factory workers. The link is to the resources page - there are a selection of interesting articles. 

The Perfect T-Shirt

Better Thinking is an ethical branding consultancy, which has decided to try and create the Perfect T-Shirt. The idea is collaborative and readers are encouraged to send in the name of eco-fabrics or names of good, ethical factories. 'we're going to consider every impact the t-shirt could have, so we can justify every decision we made, showing how it results in the lowest overall impact.'

The idea of deconstructing every stage of a t-shirt's manufacturing right back to the materials used is a clever one. The T-shirt has its own manifesto and is being supported by Kate Fletcher, howies and Katharine Hamnett. Again, there is lots of information, so its well worth having a look for yourself.