What we wear every day changes all the time. Yet, there is one staple that we all share: underwear–our everyday base. Our underwear must be high-quality, comfortable, and – of course, ideally – sustainable.
Luckily for us, there is a growing number of brands that comply with all these requirements. Below, I have listed 7 of these underwear brands.
Eco Intimates
Founded in 2008, Madonna Bain started the label Eco Intimates with the intention of creating natural yet feminine lingerie that makes women feel beautiful and stand the test of time.
Eco Intimates is dedicated to ethical and sustainable practices. Working with only the highest quality fabrics, the brand uses GOTS organic cotton as a base. In addition, Eco Intimates works with three home-based manufacturers in Bali, where every item is hand-made in small batches to avoid overproduction. The manufacturers dictate their own sewing costs, ensuring ethical treatment and a safe and healthy working environment.
Interested in Eco Intimates? Please visit their website or take a look at their Instagram (@eco_intimates).
Organic Basics
Organic Basics is a Copenhagen-based underwear brand. This brand makes comfortable everyday underwear and loungewear. As they mentioned, sustainability is their core mission.
Organic Basics works with trusted and certified factories to ensure sustainable and ethical practices. These factories are continuously working on reducing their environmental footprint and ensuring safe and healthy working conditions for their employees.
The brand uses various sustainable materials in its products, including GOTS organic cotton, recycled cotton, recycled nylon, and Tencel™ Lyocell. The brand also mentioned it uses a low percentage of elastane in some garments, even though it is not known as a sustainable material (quite the opposite, actually). However, it improves the longevity and performance of the products. This is also a good example of the brand’s transparency, as it mentions not only the good but also where they could improve.
Organic Basics calculates its environmental impact by doing life cycle assessments of its products. This measurement tracks the condition of the environment by using environmental indicators and gives rather accurate results. This information is very useful in understanding where improvements and, more specifically, reductions can be made to improve the brand’s sustainability.
Moreover, Organic Basics offsets its carbon emissions throughout the supply chain by partnering with One Carbon World, which certifies business as carbon-neutral.
Last, Organic Basics holds several certifications for its materials, like GOTS and GRS. Still, most prominently, the brand is a certified B corp, meaning it is up to the highest environmental and ethical standards.
Interested in Organic Basics? Please visit their website or take a look at their Instagram (@organicbasics).
WAMA
Founded by Shakib Nassiri, WAMA is an organic, sustainable underwear brand using primarily hemp for its fabrics.
The brand chooses hemp as the main material because of its many benefits. Hemp requires limited amounts of water, no chemicals, and can grow in many climates. In addition, the material is naturally antibacterial, has anti-odor properties, and is breathable and soft.
On its website, WAMA provides a complete overview of its supply chain. The majority of the supply chain takes place in China. The hemp is grown on a family-owned organic farm in rural Northern China, free from pesticides, herbicides, and other harmful chemicals. Once the yarn is spun and combined with organic cotton and spandex in another part, it is sent to an Oeko-Tex-certified factory where the yarn is made into the fabric. Hereafter, it is dyed using Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified dyes, safe for humans and the environment. Finally, the fabrics are sewn into the products in a BSCI-certified factory in southern China.
All suppliers have signed the brand’s code of conduct to ensure a safe and healthy working environment for the workers throughout the supply chain.
Interested in WAMA? Please visit their website or take a look at their Instagram (@wamaunderwear).
Uye Surana
Founded in 2012 by Monica Wesley, Uye Surana is a lingerie brand based in New York City. Monica established Uye Surana as a means to express her artistic nature.
Partnering with a family-owned factory in Colombia, Uye Surana prioritizes ethical practices and ensures that the employees work in healthy and safe working conditions and are paid a fair wage.
Beyond ethical practices, Uye Surana embraces sustainability by using reduced-waste printing. As they accurately state, traditional dying heavily affects the environment and waterways. However, the brand does not waste excess water and dyes through sustainable printing, as it transfers the print without them.
In addition, Uye Surana only produces in small batches to avoid overproduction and makes the designs from durable materials to make the products last longer.
Last, Uye Surana is very size-inclusive, with sizes up to 5XL. The designs have been tested extensively to ensure the products fit perfectly and comfortably for everyone.
Interested in Uye Surana? Please visit their website or take a look at their Instagram (@uyesurana).
Subset
In 2018, Cayla O’Connell Davis and Lauren Sagadore launched ‘’Knickey’ but changed the name to Subset in 2023. The brand’s mission is to be the most sustainable basic company.
To show their dedication to their mission, Subset has set five pillars that guide the company’s devotion. These five pillars are: 1. Drive Material Innovation, 2. Minimize Environmental impact, 3. Certify our claims, 4. Support Our Communities, 5. Always Be Learning.
The primary material in the brand’s clothes is GOTS-certified cotton mixed with small amounts of polyamide and elastane. As not all these materials are yet natural and organic, Subset is working towards 100% natural and organic materials in the near future.
Subset is very transparent and has partnered with Green Story to publish the impact of each of their products.
In addition, the brand has calculated its carbon footprint to see where its biggest contributors are located to offset these amounts accurately. The brand holds the climate-neutral certification as they have successfully offset their emissions.
Subset also highlights the importance of ethical practices. The brand only works with factories with specific certifications like Fairtrade, GOTS, and Oeko-Tex to ensure a safe and healthy working environment, a living wage, and reasonable working hours for the employees.
Interested in Subset? Please visit their website or take a look at their Instagram (@wearesubset)
Luva Huva
Founded in 2009 by Joanna, Luva Huva started off as a lingerie stall at Portobello Market in London. The brand quickly gained international recognition by being featured in Vogue, The Financial Times, and other magazines.
Initially, the brand primarily used vintage scrap materials to great designs. However, over time, the brand introduced new materials, Nowadays, Luva Huva uses fabrics made from GOTS-certified cotton, bamboo, Seacell, and Oeko-Tex or GRS-certified lace. The brand highlights the importance of circularity by using a circular design method and ensuring no fabrics go to waste.
Luva Huva does not have seasonal drops. Instead, it only makes new collections once the existing ones sell out. In addition, the brand offers a free product repair service to prolong the garment’s life.
A-dam
The final brand is A-dam, an underwear brand from the Netherlands. What sets this brand apart is its stance on sustainability– the brand explicitly rejects the label of being a sustainable brand. According to A-dam, true sustainability is a continuous effort rather than an achieved status. The brand places emphasis on responsibility, acknowledging the ongoing journey towards a more sustainable future.
A-dam demonstrates this commitment through its choice of materials, using recycled and organic fabrics across all its products. The brand oversees its supply chain, ensuring accountability for all individuals involved in the production process. Collaborating with certified partners such as GOTS, Aquafil, and waste2wear further reinforces A-dam’s dedication to responsible practices.
Interested in A-dam? Please visit their website or take a look at their Instagram (@adamofficial).
Sources
All pictures link to their source, and all credits go to the rightful owners.
You can find the header picture here.
Image Credit: A-dam Instagram
