The ELLE Green List 2024
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A definitive guide to the brands, people, collectives and innovators who are putting sustainability back at the top of fashion’s agenda.
Tina and Piarvé Wetshi
Sisters Tina and Piarvé Wetshi are proof that, sometimes, working with your family is a great idea. The duo are co-founders of Colèchi, a research agency working to promote sustainable developments in fashion. Last year, they launched the first issue of AGREENCULTURE, a stylish and rigorously researched journal spotlighting the relationship between fashion and farming.
Tori Tsui
Born in New Zealand, raised in Hong Kong and based in Bristol, the activist has sailed across the Atlantic with the think tank Sail to attend COP25 (Stella McCartney, who declared Tsui an ‘Agent of Change’, sponsored her) and writtena book: It’s Not Just You. She co-founded the Bad Activist Collective and is outspoken about the intersection of mental health and the climate crisis.
Priya Ahluwalia
Working with recycled and natural fabrics has earned Priya Ahluwalia accolades (the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design, and a Leader of Change prize for ‘Environment’ at the British Fashion Awards) and high-profile collaborations (including with fellow eco-minded brands Ganni and Mulberry). She has also partnered with Microsoft to create EU Digital Product Passports for her designs.
Chopova Lowena
As exemplified by their signature carabiner-clip kilts, Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena’s work occupies a singular space that is part punk, part romantic and part kitsch. Using folkloric Bulgarian textiles and deadstock fabrics, the duo also employ traditional craft techniques at their south-London studio.
Aja Barber
Author, consultant and ELLE UK contributing editor Aja Barber proves there is space to call out injustices and inequalities in the fashion world while still appreciating and enjoying style.
Her book, Consumed: The Need for Collective Change; Colonialism, Climate Change & Consumerism, and Patreon newsletter are essential reading.
Stella McCartney
Not one to rest on her laurels, the designer is always striving to do more. The venue for her SS24 show? Stella’s Sustainable Marketplace, a Parisian marché lined with stalls belonging to some of her favourite eco-conscious collaborators. The collection was made using 95% responsible materials, including innovations like crochet Kelsun, Keel Labs’s seaweed-based yarn, and Uppeal, a vegan, cruelty-free alternative to leather, made from apple waste.
Billie Eilish
The Grammy, Oscar, Brit and Golden Globe-winning artist added another trophy to her cabinet last year: the inaugural Universal Music Group x Reverb Amplifier Award, marking her dedication to lowering the environmental impact of her music and touring. She’s also a sustainable-fashion champion: upcycled Gucci, a vegan-shoe collab with Nike and getting Oscar de la Renta to stop using fur.
Bethany Williams
The LVMH Prize finalist works with social enterprises and local manufacturers to produce her collections, which are created using recycled, organic and deadstock materials. Understanding the intersection between environmental and social issues, Williams partners with a different charity each season, granting it 20% of the profits from sales.
Rosie Okotcha
Think of Rosie Okotcha as the person you wish you could go thrifting with. Well, you can – thanks to her handy (and very stylish) Instagram. A treasure trove of useful tips (know your fabrics, choose the right times to go, bring a tape measure), it is an indispensable companion for the keen vintage shopper. Trust Rosie to show you where all the good charity shops are – and provide inspiration for how to spin car-boot finds into better-than-designer ’fits.
The Calendar Magazine
Fashion-industry veteran and former ELLE UK editor-in-chief Anne-Marie Curtis knows great style – and that it’s about more than just how something looks. In 2021, she launched The Calendar Magazine, an authoritative, impeccably curated ‘sustainable glossy’ digital publication guiding readers on how to live more consciously without sacrificing any of the joy that fashion and beauty bring.
Fashion Revolution
The 2013 Rana Plaza tragedy – when 1,134 garment workers were killed in the collapse of a fast-fashion garment factory in Bangladesh – inspired Carry Somers and Orsola de Castro to launch Fashion Revolution. Today, the activism movement works tirelessly to end human and environmental exploitation.
Alighieri
The trinkets and talismans from London-based jeweller Rosh Mahtani’s brand are made with 100% recycled gold, silver and bronze. Diamonds, pearls and gems are ethically sourced from trusted suppliers, and there is a lifelong guarantee on all designs to ensure the pieces are loved and worn by their owners forever.
BETTER by Julie Pelipas
The tailoring obsessive and former fashion director of Vogue Ukraine believes in style with substance. In 2020, Julie Pelipas launched her brand Better, offering languid suiting upcycled from deadstock and second-hand pieces. Addressing issues of waste and inclusivity, Better uses customers’ body metrics in production. Following the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Pelipas also helped start a community supporting her home country’s creatives.
Gabriela Hearst
‘Considered’ is a word that comes up time and again in reference to Gabriela Hearst. Raised on a 17,000-acre ranch in Uruguay, she has always felt close to nature, an affection that is translated into her dedication to sustainable practices – ranging from working with co-operatives to the materials used in her stores.
Conner Ives
Ives’s deconstructed-then-reconstructed T-shirt dresses have made the American Central Saint Martins graduate one of fashion’s most exciting names. Scooping the British Fashion Council Foundation Award in 2023, he recently partnered with Depop to source second-hand textiles from the site, as well as selling some of his own designs exclusively on the platform.
Brett and Scott Staniland
When Brett Staniland appeared on Love Island in 2021 (pre-eBay partnership), he was the first-ever contestant who refused to wear the fast fashion on offer. Along with his twin brother, Scott, he continues to champion the green agenda on his social-media platforms and beyond.
Phoebe English
The slow-fashion designer’s mission is simple: to put in more than she takes on. That means committing to a circular approach, which utilises regenerative agriculture practices and natural plant dyes, rules out any fabrics made from virgin fossil fuels and produces collections in limited runs. Her bespoke wedding commissions are a magnificent choice for eco-conscious nuptials. And the bride wore… green? Kind of.
Fanny Moizant
When Vestiaire Collective launched 15 years ago, it redefined how we look at pre-loved fashion. Co-founded by the ultra-chic Parisienne Fanny Moizant – now its president – it continues to lead the conversation. According to its 2023 Impact Report, Vestiaire Collective has a net climate-positive impact, preventing almost three times more emissions than it generates. Last year, it also became the first resale platform to ban fast fashion.
Farhana Yamin
The supremely elegant international climate lawyer runs the Climate Justice-Just Transition Donor Collaborative and co-ordinates the Climate Reframe Project, amplifying the voices of experts from racial minorities. She has done instrumental work on the Paris Agreement (including the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, which will have a major impact on the fashion industry), but Yamin is not afraid to go grassroots: in 2019, she glued herself to the pavement outside Shell’s London HQ.
Diana Verde Nieto
How do you know which brands you can really trust? Diana Verde Nieto has a solution. She is the co-founder of Positive Luxury, the company behind the Butterfly Mark – a much-needed symbol of reassurance awarded to brands meeting high standards of responsibility and continually making a positive impact on the world around them. Diana is also the author of Reimagining Luxury, which is a playbook on how to build a sustainable future for your brand.
Flock Together
Born in London, the brilliant Flock Together kicked off in 2020 as a birdwatching club for people of colour, ‘challenging perceptions on what “nature” is and who it belongs to’. Founded by Ollie Olanipekun and Nadeem Perera, the now-global movement is inclusive to the core. Spreading its wings beyond twitching, Flock Together has now collaborated with Fila on a capsule of hiking gear.
Bode
That poetic sensibility you’ve noticed in menswear the past few years? It’s heavily indebted to Emily Adams Bode Aujla, whose collections transform antique quilts, French linens and lace curtains into shirts, trousers and patchwork jackets. Honouring traditional craft techniques, her work is defined by an appreciation of narrative. Having twice won the CFDA Award for Menswear Designer of the Year, Bode added womenswear in 2023.
Cecilie Thorsmark
Copenhagen Fashion Week has long been a hub of sustainable style, something its CEO Cecilie Thorsmark has nurtured and developed. Today, in keeping with her ambitious 2020 action plan, brands must meet a minimum of 18 sustainability standards – producing collections from a minimum of 50% recycled, upcycled or deadstock fabrics; no single-use plastics – to be included on the schedule.
Earthrise
‘We’re making the revolution so damn beautiful it can’t be ignored.’ That’s the philosophy of self-confessed ‘creative troublemakers’ Alice Aedy and brothers Jack and Finn Harries, the co-founders of media company Earthrise. Using storytelling to challenge the status quo, they create content, campaigns and offer consultancy services for a broad range of clients, extolling ‘revolutionary optimism’ and ‘relentless curiosity’.
Claire Bergkamp
‘A stubborn optimist ready to get to work’ is Claire Bergkamp’s spot-on Instagram bio. Formerly sustainability director at Stella McCartney, she is now the CEO of Textile Exchange, a global non-profit on a mission to overhaul fashion’s material supply chain. Its goal? A 45% reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions from fibre and raw-materials production by 2030.
Cameron Russell
In 2013, Russell’s Ted Talk – ‘Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model’ – went viral, and she has continued to speak up for what she believes in. A co-founder of the Model Mafia, an activist community fighting for a more equitable, just and sustainable industry, she also co-created the inaugural fellowship for global-advocacy organisation Remake. Her memoir is out this month.
Pamela Anderson
One of the most talked-about looks at the British Fashion Awards was surprisingly low-key: Pamela Anderson going make-up free (a statement in itself) in a Stella McCartney suit and lab-grown Pandora diamonds. A passionate advocate for human, animal and environmental rights since her Baywatch days, Anderson recently entered the beauty space by acquiring a stake in cruelty-free and vegan skincare brand Sonsie.
Mother of Pearl
Uncompromising in her commitment to a greener, fairer world, Mother of Pearl’s award-winning founder Amy Powney has never been afraid to do things her way. The documentary Fashion Reimagined is a fascinating insight into her world, following the process of creating a collection ‘from field to finished garment’. As well as principals, her pieces possess practicality and prettiness.
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