ByKate Antoniades Hours Updated
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Brands That Offer Eco-Friendly Clothes to Wear to Work

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collage of five outfits from eco-friendly workwear brands

It's been a couple of years since our last roundup of slow fashion workwear to try, so today we thought we'd share 7 brands that offer eco-friendly clothes to wear to work. These are all mainstream, easily accessible brands, most of which have inclusive sizing — not always the case with eco-friendly fashion and slow fashion!

Pictured above: black pants / blue dress / blue blazer / brown cardigan / black dress

Here's a promising observation: I've written about slow fashion and eco-friendly brands for years, and companies' policies and goals have come a long way since even the mid-2010s. The big brands that are committed to becoming more environmentally friendly are being more transparent and publishing more information online about their specific guidelines and metrics.

In the past, we've also talked about eco-friendly, zero-waste cleaning products, green cleaning products that actually work, and brands that offer safe beauty products. We also discussed where to recycle, donate, and sell your work clothes.

Readers, are you hunting for eco-friendly clothes to wear to work? Which are your favorite sustainable workwear brands?

{related: check out our guide on How to Avoid Fast Fashion for Work Clothes!}

Update: Our Latest Favorite Eco-Friendly Clothes to Wear to Work

As of 2024: If you're hunting for eco-friendly clothes to wear to work, check out major brands like Boden, Eileen Fisher, Hobbs, LK Bennett, Karen Kane, Ministry of Supply, Reformation, Ted Baker, Theory, and Treasure & Bond (by Nordstrom). Sustainable luxury brands include Acne Studios, Chloé, Gucci, Loeffler Randall, Mara Hoffman, Stella McCartney, and Vivienne Westwood. Nordstrom has a big section devoted to sustainable style!

Also try smaller eco-friendly workwear brands like these:

Where to Find Eco-Friendly Suits for Women

Wondering where to find eco-friendly suits for women? As of 2024, check out Theory, Ministry of Supply, LK Bennett, and Aday — and for more gender-neutral suiting, try Kirrin Finch and Wildfang, both of which offer extended sizes. NET-A-PORTER has some pricey options like Stella McCartney in their NET SUSTAIN section.

The Latest Brands That Offer Eco-Friendly Clothes to Wear to Work

Saint & Sofia

Saint + Sofia is a British brand focusing on sustainability. More about the brand from their website:

Saint and Sofia is based in London, England creating fashion and accessories that are fair and sustainable. We believe in challenging the status quo; fusing the art of design with the science of production. We design all of our styles in our London studios and make them exclusively in Europe with family-owned factories that we control.

If you’re in the U.S., they offer free standard shipping on orders $75+, and have a 28-day refund guarantee.

Hobbs

Hobbs is a UK-based brand that has a bunch of great tailored, polished pieces — and so many of them are machine washable!

Their “Hobbs Sustain” line is relatively new, but the company notes slow fashion has always been their goal:

We've always been passionate about creating timeless designs, made to last. Clothes that live in your wardrobe for years – not in landfill. It's this belief that underpins Hobbs Sustain – our promise to be more responsible in everything we do – and we're making great strides forward.

Their three pillars of concern are 1) supply chains and communities, focusing on respecting human rights and fostering an inclusive business, 2) environment and sustainability standards, and 3) wellbeing of employees.

The website notes that Hobbs is part of TFG London, and all of their brands are trying to be more sustainable in general — the other brands include Phase Eight and Whistles.

You can also find the brand at Bloomingdale's!

LK Bennett

LK Bennett is known for being one of Kate Middleton's favorite brands — if you like her style of tailored, polished, ladylike pieces, it's great to note that this brand is eco-friendly too!

Although the brand notes that it has “always championed slow fashion,” they’ve committed to further reducing their impact with the LKB Conscious line. They describe these steps as including “the materials we use, the suppliers we work with, and the packaging we wrap and deliver our pieces in.” Nice!

Many things are in their LKB Conscious line, including some suiting.

Boden

Reader-favorite brand Boden has some impressive goals for sustainability, including specific initiatives for each type of fabric they use, e.g., 100% sustainable viscose by 2025, 100% of cotton from mostly sustainable sources by 2023, and 100% Lenzing-verified Tencel Modal by 2025 (more details here).

They also try to make clothes that last — they offer a 365-day quality guarantee. 

Boden is part of the Better Cotton Initiative, which helps cotton growers use more sustainable farming methods (more than 80% of Boden clothing is made from cotton), and they strive for sustainable practices regarding their catalogs, packaging, warehouse, and offices.

Boden offers regular, petite, and tall sizes.

H&M

H&M is working toward only using recycled or other sustainably sourced materials by 2030 — they're currently at 57%. The H&M Conscious line includes items made from at least 50% sustainably sourced materials, and many contain more. 

Other goals include becoming climate positive by 2040 (removing more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than they contribute); using reusable, recyclable, or compostable plastic packaging by 2025 (they've already stopped using plastic shopping bags at stores); and using fossil-free commercial transport by 2050. They're also reducing water and harmful chemical use at their suppliers.

You can read a lot more about H&M's practices and goals on their Sustainability page.

Stores also have a recycling program: Bring any brand of unwanted clothing or textiles and you'll get a coupon for 15% off. The clothing will be sold and reworn, reused (for non-clothing purposes), or recycled. 

H&M offers regular, petite, plus, and maternity sizes. 

Theory 

Theory‘s newest fabrics are ethically sourced and developed with fabric mills that are involved in sustainable manufacturing. The company wants to reach 100% traceability in its supply chain (back to the raw materials) by 2025. 

We've mentioned the brand's Good fabrics initiative in the past, but since then, Theory has added Good Cotton (in 2020) to its existing offerings of Good Wool (launched in 2017) and Good Linen (2019). Good Wool and Good Cotton are traceable, and all three are ethically grown. 

Theory is available at Nordstrom and elsewhere. 

Reformation 

Reformation classifies fabrics on a scale from A (“Allstars,” e.g., recycled cotton and Tencel Lyocell) to E (“Eww, never,” e.g., conventional cotton and conventional silk), based on their combined social and environmental impact. The company is committed to making up to 75% of their products with A & B fibers.

Reformation is currently carbon neutral but is aiming to be climate positive (i.e., removing more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than they contribute) by 2025. Their production is already 100% water-neutral, and their California stores are Green Business Certified. 

You can read a lot more about their practices and goals by using their site's Sustainability menu, and you can even buy climate credits (i.e., carbon offsets) on their website. 

Reformation is available at Nordstrom and elsewhere. In addition to regular sizes, they have a petites collection, an extended sizes collection that goes up to size 22, and a collection for customers with a full C to DD cup size. (Note: Some of Reformation's pieces aren't suitable for more formal dress codes; much of it would be appropriate for casual, business casual, or creative workplaces.)

Eileen Fisher 

Eileen Fisher has a three-part social consciousness focus that includes Sustainability. They're committed to using organic, recycled, and sustainable fibers; using factories with certified dye processes; increasing water efficiency in their manufacturing; and more. In 2017, they stated they would reduce their absolute scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 100% by 2025 and certain absolute scope 3 emissions by 25% by 2025. (These are the three scopes, in case you're interested.) 

For several years, the company has been buying renewable energy credits to support wind power for 100% of the electrical consumption in its stores and corporate offices. 

You can read about their “Horizon 2030” plan on their website.

Also, with their RENEW program, you can bring in your “worn or torn” Eileen Fisher items in exchange for a $5 Rewards Card.

Eileen Fisher is available at Nordstrom and elsewhere (and their popular stretch crepe pants are in our Workwear Hall of Fame). They offer regular, petite, and plus sizes. 

Karen Kane 

Karen Kane‘s five core values are listed on its website: Be Transparent, Be Ethical, Be Compassionate, Be Conscious, and Be Sustainable. In 2020, the company became a Certified B Corp.

The brand is increasing the percentage of recycled and sustainably sourced textiles in its production and has made other changes, such as using more eco-friendly packaging, recycling more and using less water and power in its manufacturing, and switching from using new hangers to reused hangers (which are then recycled).

To reduce the company's greenhouse gas emissions, they've ensured that 35% of the total energy use at their California manufacturing facility comes from renewable resources (and they have plans to increase it).

Karen Kane is available at Nordstrom, Amazon, and elsewhere, and they offer regular, petite, and plus sizes. 

Ted Baker

Ted Baker London features their sustainable pieces in their Conscious Shop. These women's styles contain more than 50% responsibly sourced materials, e.g., recycled polyester, organic cotton, and other fabrics.

A few of the company's goals are to solely use organic, recycled, or Better Cotton Initiative cotton by 2024; to only use responsibly sourced materials by 2030; and to only use regenerated cellulosics (i.e., plant-based materials such as viscose, lyocell, and modal) from FSC or PEFC Certified forests, with a further 50% produced through sustainable production methods by 2025.

You can learn more about the company's efforts on its Sustainability page, but it's not completely up to date; e.g., as of early 2021, one section noted, “A supply chain map will be ready for early 2020.”

Ted Baker also avoids certain materials for animal welfare reasons, including angora, mohair, and fur (they do sell faux fur) — and they are phasing out down and feathers. (Fun fact: The company maintains beehives on the roof of its headquarters.)

Ted Baker is available at Nordstrom and elsewhere.

Plus-Size Eco-Friendly Clothes to Wear to Work

We've noted some above, but these are some other eco-friendly plus-size stores of note…

Eco-friendly plus-size workwear can be even harder to find! As of 2024, these are the ones we know about — you might also want to check our roundup of made-to-measure clothing.

What are your favorite brands that offer eco-friendly clothes to wear to work? How important is it to you that you wear sustainable workwear brands, or that your weekend/athletic clothing is sourced and produced sustainably? 

19 Comments

  1. Just an FYI these are all pretty much green washing with the exception of Eileen Fisher.

    1. Yes and no. I believe that the greenest item of clothing is the one in your wardrobe already, and the second-greenest is the one you will wear and wear and wear and wear, which means it needs to fit right and wash well. From that respect, for me, H&M does the job – I have a very long torso and their LOGG brand basics are the best-fitting of all the ones I’ve tried, which means I wear them for years. Even the most ‘ethically’ or ‘sustainably’ produced item isn’t sustainable if you only wear it a few times because it’s not quite right for you.

      In the UK, I like Thought Clothing and M&S as my other main two clothing shops. I was really impressed by M&S’s supply chain transparency lately; they let Oxfam in to talk to their staff.

      Meanwhile I’m trying to find a way to stop Instagram showing me ads for brands owned by Boohoo.

      1. That’s how I feel too. I really try to reduce my purchasing and especially my purchasing online.

        But when a company makes clothing from recycled fabric, that’s not green washing, is it? What’s the argument there?

        1. The argument is that they are focussing on (potentially spurious) environmental claims to distract from abuses within the supply chain.

        2. Recycled isn’t necessarily good, companies can use recycled fabrics and still dump toxic dye into rivers. That also doesn’t consider the findings and finishes (zippers, thread etc) nor does it account for human rights violations, like poisoning employees with the aforementioned dye. Dying synthetics is incredibly difficult and requires a lot of chemicals.

          1. If a company advertises as green/eco-friendly, I don’t think this includes or even implies things like treatment of employees/working conditions at all. That would fall under labels like fair trade. Those are two different things.

      2. That’s a good point – I have dresses from Old Navy that I’ve worn for years and years even though it’s “fast fashion.”

    2. Can you please tell me more about this? I’m very much interested in sustainable and ethically produced clothing, but I don’t really know how to evaluate claims made by companies.

      1. I use the app Good On You as a starting point, and then keep my eyes open for reports like the Oxfam one into the M&S supply chain.

          1. Yes, I agree, Good On You or Common Objectives have decent directories with detailed actions from brands, at least it’s a starting point…
            (and also: spamtest123… I’m not a robot… at least not yet)

    3. Yes, it’s like they want to distract us from their contributions to microplastic pollution.

    4. I’d much rather buy from H&M than a lot of similar stores because they are very sensitive to public outcry and work hard at their public image – a lot to loose. I will buy a t-shirt there, but not at Zara or Top Shop or similar fast fashion brands. I prefer different materials and brands, but in that price bracket, I don’t mind H&M.

      I follow Justine Leconte on youtube, and I was quite interested/horrified by her video about how some brands have responded to Covid. The video is called “When Fast Fashion brands think we are not watching”. Highly recommend. Let’s say that I am no longer interested in buying from Everlane.

  2. Check out Amour Vert — I have some office items from there (and they have some fleece items I need for my current WFH forever life). Lots of eco-back-stories. I always look at what they have and love what they do.

  3. People Tree is also a good place for ethical clothing. Depending on your style, of course, but they do have some suiting as well. Higher score on Ribena’s app than Patagonia…

  5. Also ThredUp you can buy used clothes. Filter by brand, size and condition. I don’t work for them or anything I just like them.

  6. I think it is so great how many brands are becoming more sustainable, especially when it comes to work clothes. It can be so hard to shop sustainably because of the prices, but places like H&M can be affordable. I found this post very insightful as I am trying to shop more sustainably.

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