This awesome brand is a personal favourite of mine. Melbourne owned and run, the HQ, retail store and factory are all within a 6km radius. They are super transparent with photos from their factory on their website, accreditation audits and reports which are all published for the public to read, and they also share their carbon emissions, water usage and waste figures. They employ over 80 people and are a certified ethical fashion manufacturer with the Ethical Clothing Australia certification. They also work with Sustainability Victoria to continue minimising their environmental footprint – even their laundry is accounted for!
Of course, this would all be a waste if the product wasn’t good too, but I can assure you it is! They make a range of styles and can respond in real time to fashion trends due to their short supply chain.
Based in East Brunswick, Denimsmith is a family business known for unique designs with different colours, pocket designs, waist ties and cropped lengths using premium Japanese denim. While the jeans don’t come cheap, they’ve all been made in-house since the brand launched in 2015. The brand celebrates East Brunswick’s urban culture and history, taking inspiration from the local history of migrants, factory workers and small family businesses.
Denimsmith is accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia for their ethical production and treatment of their workers. You can even go and see where the magic happens in East Brunswick as their factory is on display and open to the public. If that’s not transparent production then I don’t know what is!
Every 26 seconds, a child is sold into slavery somewhere in the world – that’s about 2 million every year. Justice Denim was started to fund education for vulnerable children and prevent them becoming part of this devastating statistic. For every pair of jeans sold, they provide four weeks of education to a child in need. If you’re not in need of jeans though, you can also donate on their website. But not only are they on a humanitarian mission, they also have a zero-waste model which minimises their environmental impact. They source high quality denim from a Turkish company called Calik who are part of the international Better Cotton Intiative. Their denim distressing is all done inhouse to avoid potentially hazardous sandblasting techniques and they minimise waste by donating their offcuts to quilters. The only downside to this brand is the lack of a men’s range. However, they are one of the few ethical denim companies that make maternity jeans, so that’s a plus.