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Orgo-Life the new way to the future Advertising by AdpathwayOur editors curate highly rated brands that are first assessed by our rigorous ratings system. Buying through our links may earn us a commission—supporting the work we do. Learn more.
Here’s our selection of top-rated local and responsible brands from Australia and New Zealand.
More ethical brands from Australia and New Zealand
Sustainability is becoming increasingly important and more and more people are trying to reduce their impact on the planet, but some of Australia and New Zealand’s biggest brands aren’t doing enough. The likes of Cotton On (“Not Good Enough”), Zimmerman (“It’s a Start”), SIR (“It’s a Start”), and Faithfull the Brand (“It’s a Start”) don’t rate higher than our middling score, meaning there’s room for better brands to take the lead. As a result, a growing number of responsible fashion brands are emerging to meet the demand and help change the fashion industry for the better. So if you live in Australia or New Zealand, you might be wondering which clothing brands are doing it right. First, here’s what you need to know about what makes a brand more ethical and sustainable in the first place.
What makes a better brand?
Simply put, a more sustainable brand makes sure it has a positive impact in every aspect of its work.
Good On You rates brands on their policies and actions across three key sustainability pillars: people, planet, and animals.
Among the many things we look at (there are 100 key issues), is evidence that a brand’s workers are treated fairly across the supply chain, including policies and practices on child labour, forced labour, worker safety, the right to join a union, and payment of a living wage. We also look at resource and energy management, whether a brand is actively reducing its carbon emissions, managing its impact on our waterways, and using and disposing of chemicals safely.
Finally, we analyse the use of animal products like wool, leather, fur, angora, down feather, shearling, karakul, and exotic animal skin and hair. Ideally, the brand is 100% vegan.
We give each brand an overall rating which you’ll see throughout this list, but you can find out more about a brand’s rating on our directory.
Now that you know what makes a responsible brand, you might decide to shop from companies located in your country or region. Whether it is to support your community at home or reduce your carbon footprint when shopping online, shopping locally can have positive benefits.
So if you live in Australia or New Zealand or want to support labels made there, you might wonder which clothing brands are doing better. We know how you feel, which is why we compiled this list of “Good” or “Great” rated fashion brands either based or produced in Australia or New Zealand.
Curious about brands in other regions? Check out our editors’ favourite brands from:
- the USA (including California, LA, and New York)
- Canada
- Europe, Germany (including Berlin), Belgium, Spain and Portugal, Italy (including Milan), France (and Paris), the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, and Switzerland
- the UK (and brands from London)
- India
- Japan
Brands from Australia
Spell
Spell is an Australian fashion brand inspired by far-off places, vintage treasures, and childhood memories. Its clothes are proudly designed and sampled in Byron Bay, and produced responsibly in factories around the world.
Most garments are available in sizes 2XS-2XL.
Outland Denim
Outland Denim makes premium denim jeans and clothes, and offers employment opportunities for women rescued from human trafficking in Cambodia. This Australian brand was founded as an avenue for the training and employment of women who have experienced sex trafficking.
Find most of the brand’s range in US sizes 22-34.
RŪPAHAUS
Based in Australia, RŪPAHAUS is home to hand-dyed and responsibly made clothing and homewares. The brand not only embraces the artisans and the natural resources found in Indonesia, but also gives back and empowers the communities and the environments where the cultures collide.
Find most items in sizes XS-2XL.
Sans Beast
Founded in 2018 with the sole purpose of delivering pieces that had beauty without the beast, Sans Beast is an Australian accessories brand creating luxury vegan bags and accessories entirely cruelty-free. They are particular about their sourcing, using materials like Global Recycled Standard certified materials, and innovative plant-based leathers made from cactus and apple.
Goodnap
Goodnap makes linen and organic cotton restwear, handcrafted by survivors rebuilding their lives through dignified work in Cambodia.
Sorella Organics
Australian brand Sorella’s certified organic sleepwear range includes tops, pants, wraps, nighties, as well as maternity wear. The label’s founder Anna McGregor has a background in international human rights work. This is obvious with her use of Fairtrade certified cotton, and it ensures strict social standards are met in production and trading. Best of all, purchasing the clothing won’t make you cry over your bank balance.
Find the range in sizes S-XL.
Frske
Frske is an Australian womenswear brand whose design principles are grounded in utility, lower impact materials, soft silhouettes, and quality over quantity.
Bhumi
Australian brand Bhumi believes in sustainable luxury, paving the way for a new era in the textile industry by choosing 100% Fairtrade, organic, and vegan materials for its basics and bedding.
Find the clothes in sizes XS-XL.
Amble Outdoors
Amble Outdoors (formerly Team Timbuktu) creates high-performance waterproof raincoats and sweat-wicking outdoorwear, made from recycled plastic bottles in Australia.
Sizes offered in XS-4XL.
Afends
Born in Byron Bay, Australia, Afends is a more responsible brand leading the way in hemp fashion. Drawing inspiration from the environment, streetwear, and surf culture, Afends’ mission is to create more sustainable clothing through innovation, action, and positive change. As true hemp advocates, it purchased 100 acres of farmland called Sleepy Hollow to grow its own hemp crops and ignite the hemp revolution.
Find most of the range in sizes XS-XL.
ettitude
Sleepwear and bedding made with innovative CleanBamboo™ fabric, engineered for comfort. This Australian brand reuses offcuts to minimise textile waste, and reduces its water use by using a closed-loop system in its supply chain.
Find most clothing in S-XL.
NICO
Established in 2012 by Lis Harvey, NICO celebrates minimalism and understated luxury. The brand brings high quality basics and underwear to the Australian fashion landscape, featuring clean lines, luxe fabrics, and the styles and colours needed for everyday. NICO’s factories are signatories to The Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Accord and are compliant with BSCI and certified with WRAP.
Find the range in sizes XS-2XL.
Flare Street
Flare Street is a Melbourne-based brand capturing the style of the 1960s and ’70s with quality fabrics and vintage-inspired prints. After searching far and wide for the perfect flares, its founders created their own more responsible designs. The brand uses lower-impact materials and locally sourced factory ends in its limited production runs, and ensures payment of a living wage in its final production stage.
Find the range in sizes 2XS-3XL.
Bon Label
Born from brand owner Linda Smyth’s search for the perfect white tee, Australian brand Bon Label’s products emulate that timeless French simplicity and elegance. The t-shirts are made from 100% organic cotton to perfectly match with your favourite denim on the weekend or a classic pin skirt in the office. Bon Label uses no animal products in manufacturing and has a strong focus on responsible labour practices.
Find AU sizes 6-14.
nat’v basics
nat’v basics is an Australian responsible underwear label designed for the everyday woman. Made from recycled and lower-impact materials, nat’v basics pieces are designed to be the most comfortable basics you’ll ever wear. No frills or trims or awkward bits—so you can put them on and forget you’re wearing them.
Find the range in AU sizes 6-20.
Etiko
Etiko is an Australian designer of organic fair trade clothing and shoes. The brand constantly sets the bar for upholding and campaigning the human rights of people working in traditionally exploitative industry supply chains.
Find the clothes in AU sizes 8-20, and the shoes in UK sizes 3-13.
BJ’s PJs
Australia-based BJ’s PJs was founded with the mission to create minimal, comfortable, and supportive lounge and sleepwear using lower impact materials. It manufactures its garments locally to reduce the impact of shipping, and traces most of its supply chain.
Find its clothes in sizes XS – 4XL.
ESSĒN
“I founded ESSĒN in 2016 as a response to a fashion cycle that overproduces more than it carefully crafts, chases trends more than it determines classics, and wastes more than it sustains,” says founder Marre Muijs. The shoes and accessories brand, which limits its production runs and uses low-waste cutting techniques, eschews the fashion calendar in favour of a single, permanent collection.
Eco Intimates
Eco Intimates is a basics brand that features organic cotton lingerie, intimates, and sleepwear for women who care about their bodies and the Earth.
Find the loungewear in XS-2XL, and some lingerie up to 4XL.
Boody
Founded in Australia by two best friends, Boody is a clothing brand with comfort, style, and health at its core. It creates comfortable, thoughtfully-made everyday essentials made from organically grown bamboo. It reduces waste through lower-waste cutting techniques and using a closed-loop system in its supply chain, supporting the green and ethical movement.
Find the range in sizes XS-4XL.
Citizen Wolf
Citizen Wolf uses revolutionary technology to give you high quality custom-fit t-shirts that it guarantees will be the best you’ve ever worn. After capturing your customisations, the brand handmakes each tee in Sydney using certified lower-impact fabrics like cotton, hemp, and Merino wool milled in Melbourne.
Oobi
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Oobi is an Australian girl’s fashion, swimwear, homewares, and lifestyle brand. In addition to creating stylish clothes for children, the brand makes sure it uses low-impact non-toxic dyes throughout its range. It also uses no animal products and opts for sea freight to transport products to reduce its climate impact.
Elk
A pioneer of independent Australian design, Elk was founded in Melbourne in 2004. Elk creates bi-annual collections that are informed by a design ethos where simplicity and sustainability meet innovation.
Find most items in AU sizes 6-18.
Kalaurie
Stunning designs, beautifully made, to the highest standards—Kalaurie is one of those labels that gives you a rush of excitement when you first find it. This is a Melbourne, Australia brand that makes capsule collections, with an emphasis on signature shirt tailoring. There are many reasons to love Kalaurie, and it rates highly in all three categories.
The pieces are available in 2XS-2XL.
The ANJELMS Project
The ANJELMS Project is an Australian clothing brand on a mission to help improve the lives of its makers. It celebrates traditional techniques, creating clothes that are naturally dyed and hand-loomed in India using more sustainable practices and limiting production to minimise waste.
Find most garments in XS-2XL.
ReCreate
New Zealand brand ReCreate makes boutique clothing that transforms lives through fair employment, training, and empowerment. It uses lower-impact materials, including organic cotton, and incorporates textile offcuts to reduce waste.
Find most items in sizes XS-XL.
Kowtow
Kowtow is a New Zealand brand that uses organic, fair trade cotton and non-toxic dyes to produce its clothes. It designs elegant, timeless womenswear, and also has a range of ceramics.
Find the clothes in sizes XS-L.
Joyya
Joyya makes organic apparel that helps create good jobs in communities in Kolkata, India. The brand was founded through the merger of three companies that knew they would be better together. The New Zealand-based brand originally started back in 2001 in Kolkata, India, with one ambitious goal: to spark opportunity where little is found until there is an end to the horrors of extreme poverty and human trafficking.
Find most items in sizes XS-4XL.
Editor's note
Feature image by ESSEN, all other images via brands mentioned. Good On You publishes the world’s most comprehensive ratings of fashion and beauty brands’ impact on people, the planet and animals. Use our directory to search thousands of rated brands.
We updated this article on 26 May 2026. Our editors frequently make updates to articles to ensure they’re up to date. We refreshed our round-up to ensure it reflects brands with recent ratings.
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