Saie's Sustainable Fashion Favorites

Photo: Carlotta Guerrero for Paloma Wool

During this unpredictable season, we’re using our time at home to embark on some projects that have fallen on the back burner. We’ve been doing a little spring cleaning and reorganizing our closets and bathrooms while we have the time on our hands. Cleaning out your closet and donating clothes, giving pieces to friends, or selling them online is a great way to prolong the life of your pieces and keep things sustainable.

Lisa Says Gah

Based in Oakland, CA, Lisa Says Gah works with independent female designers to carry items that are sustainably made and just really, really cute. Some of the outside brands they carry include Baggu, Mara Hoffman, and Wolf Circus, to give you an idea. The LSG collection itself makes pieces using natural fabrics and take cues both from vintage looks as well as more forward-thinking, trendy items.  

Paloma Wool 

Paloma Wool describes itself as “a project about getting dressed and about space or ideas that are created around the act of getting dressed”. If you hop on their website, you’ll see what they mean. Paloma Wool feels like a whole lot more than a simple clothing label, and their products and practices communicate that easily. The brand operates on a philosophy of keeping things local and as sustainable as possible, so they make all of their clothing in very small runs out of their production house in Barcelona, Spain. None of their items are created to align with the seasons of the fashion industry, but instead are designed to be timeless pieces that tell a unique story. 

Mate the Label 

Mate the Label makes the comfiest loungewear and they seriously know their stuff when it comes to sustainable fashion. Roughly about 8,000 different types of chemicals are used to manufacture clothing, but they’re on a mission to change the way it’s done and to keep us cozy along the way. They use only GOTS-certified (Global Organic Textile Standard) cotton, they keep an extremely tight-knit and local supply chain out of LA so that their carbon footprint stays low, and they let customers return items back to them after they’ve been used so that they can recycle the pieces and turn them into new products. Like Saie, they also use 100% recycled materials for their shipping mailers and boxes, and they don’t send any extra branded materials with orders so that they can help eliminate single-use waste. 

Botanica Workshop 

If you’re not buying bras and undies from here, you should be. Botanica Workshop was started in 2014 to fill the gap of responsibly-produced intimates that still had a designer aesthetic and quality. Based in LA, theye partner with local artisans and technicians to create very small production runs of pieces only a few times of year to keep waste low. It’s basically slow fashion at its finest. 

For Days 

Welcome to your new favorite place for t-shirt shopping. From classic white tees to comfy tanks and dresses, For Days has created an innovative, closed-loop system that keeps shopping as low waste as it gets. It goes like this: You pick 5 different items to add to your “trial kit”, wear them for as long as you want (seriously), and then when you’re ready to select a new item, you send your old one back and they’ll send you your fresh tee. It’s basically an endless, sustainable cycle of amazing tees and everyday wardrobe staples. 

The Real Real 

Two words: Luxury Consignment. Whether you’re on the hunt for a Max Mara sweater or some Maryam Nassir Zadeh boots, The Real Real’s got you covered but way discounted. The Real Real was created as a way to extend the lifestyle of high-end, luxury goods so that fashion stays circular and less wasteful, luxury buyers can unload beautiful (and often only occasionally worn) pieces, and mainstream shoppers can have the opportunity to jump on favorites they might not otherwise be able to afford. 

Maggie Marilyn

One of the many things we love about Maggie Marilyn is that they hold themselves to very high sustainability standards without ever sacrificing on style, quality, or cool-factors. For example, they’re a major go-to for us when it comes to really forward-thinking, luxury pieces, yet by the end of 2020, 50% of their clothing collection will be made from repurposed and recycled materials. They get that the word “sustainability” is often murky and tossed around, and have even made a point to get really transparent on the language surrounding the clothes they make so that you know exactly how each and every piece was created. 

Araks

Lingerie, intimates, and swimwear should definitely be made of materials that are non-toxic and safe for your body, and we’ve been longtime fans of Araks for their uniquely designed and beautiful lingerie and swimwear. They use GOTS organic cotton for lingerie, and ECONYL fabric–– a fabric made of recycled nylon materials that would otherwise go to landfills–– for their swimwear. In addition to the care they take in making sure all of their pieces are made from safe materials, they also design them to last. They choose to use core fabrics that are evergreen, which means the excess material they don’t end up using will still find its way into future seasons instead of getting thrown out. 

Mother of Pearl

Mother of Pearl was founded in 2002 with one idea in mind: make fashion with wit, heart, and conscience, and honestly they’ve nailed it. As one of the pioneers of luxury sustainable womenswear, their standards and practices are so dialed in to the point that they’re able to trace each piece back to its original, raw-material form. Definitely a must check-out for fans of contemporarily-designed pieces with a streak of playful uniqueness. 

Gil Rodriguez

Gil Rodriguez makes comfy, elegant basics with a fashion-minded sensibility, sprinkled with just a *hint* of 80’s workout wear. Her pieces remind us of the early days of American Apparel because of their bright, primary colors and the fabrics her team uses to design the collection, but unlike AA, they do it all sustainably in small-batch production runs and without the creepy CEO or toxic work culture. :) Slow fashion influences everything they create, with quality and simplicity at the core of each of their pieces. Also, did we mention it’s all just really cute?