The environmental effects of the fashion industry and dependence on quick, cheap, and easy clothes are felt more every day. A UN news story published in March of 2025 has even reported that the fashion industry consumes approximately 215 trillion gallons of water a year. In another story from Earth. Org published in January of 2025, Rashmila Maiti reports that 85 percent of textiles go to dumps every year.
However, many clothing creators are trying to push back on this wastefulness, redirecting the fashion industry towards 'greener' pastures. These textile artists align with the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Climate Action. Here are the 3 groundbreaking fashion creatives dedicating themselves to quality
BEEJ & Co.
BEEJ and Co. is a brand founded in 2020 by husband and wife, Dr. Vishal C. Bhand and Bijoya Halder, in the town of Santiniketan, created to support craftspeople whose livelihoods were at risk because of losses due to the pandemic. Bijoya Halder is the creative lead of BEEJ and Co., holding the official position of Creative Director.
Halder specializes in Indian traditional weaving, with a B.F.A. in the History of Art from Visva Bharati University, India, and is currently completing a postgraduate degree in Textile Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Dr. Vishal C. Bhand is an honorary design consultant of BEEJ & Co.
Halder approaches the naturally dyed sarees with a minimalistic design, as seen in the photo above, using eco-printing to modernize traditional dyeing techniques.
Studio 189
Studio 189's products are made in Africa, with African and African-inspired clothing. The brand focuses on using sustainable natural fibers and repurposing recycled materials to be used in their products, including glass and cotton. The brand's founders are actor and activist Rosario Dawson, known for roles in iconic '90s films such as Kids and He Got Game, and Abrima Erwiah, who has over 16 years of experience in fashion and luxury marketing. Currently, Studio 189 has a manufacturing facility in Accra and works on community-led projects in Africa and the United States.
Their colourful, patterned African and African-inspired clothing relies on several forms of craftsmanship, which they list on their website, including where each step in production takes place. Their hand-batiking, a process of decorating material in wax and dye, is done by artisans in the Cape Coast of Ghana; their shoemaking is done by makers in Accra and Kumasi, Ghana, and their jewelry is made by goldsmiths and metalwork artisans in Accra, Ghana.
Fatra
On their homepage, beneath a stylized image of one of their purses, is a line that captures the core of Fatra as a brand: "you don't have to compromise ethics for aesthetics." The fashion brand, founded by activist, designer and professor Akilah Stewart, specializes in purses made from upcycled materials like leather and plastic. In fact, in Haitian Creole, the word fatra means garbage, rubbish and trash. The brand is described by Stewart as "creative waste management."
In an interview with Metal Magazine, Stewart explains that Fatra is not only created as a brand, but to show how many ways people can use waste, "Fatra just happened to go into fashion because that's my background."
An image on the brand's homepage visually outlines the components of Stewart's bags, including a strap made from recycled white leather, and the exterior body of the bag, or the foundation, made from plastic bottles. The result is an elegant fringed white bag.
These brands manage to, while presenting interesting styles unique to each of the founders and makers behind them, hold firm to a belief that companies can resist the wastefulness and disregard for the planet that is present throughout so much of the industry. Through small companies, passionate about the quality of products they make and the world that they enter, maybe a shift is possible.