7 Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Dresses for Summer
Photo Credit: Christy Dawn
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliated; I may earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. These brands have been carefully chosen because they are have committed to sustainability!
Summer is the perfect time to wear light and bright clothes. Unless you live in Miami, like me, and there’s no other season but summer, you have to make the most out of this wonderful period (which you can also do by enjoying the activities from this sustainable bucket list for summer). I could use these year-round, but for most, they’re a great option for the summer days and nights. As sustainability in fashion is important, and our choices as consumers have a big impact on the environment, I gathered some options for you the enjoy the warmest days of the year. The brands listed in this post use eco-friendly fabrics and are involved in sustainability practices.
These dresses for summer are chic and sustainable, all at the same time, and there’s a style for everyone, for the minimalist as well as for the one who prefers a feminine fashion style. Either way, I think this list is made up of timeless pieces, as I picture myself wearing them 10 years from now. In my opinion, that’s another key factor when it comes to sustainable fashion: that you choose a piece that can be worn throughout the years without losing its style and quality, in contrast to a trendy item that will become obsolete as soon as the year’s over, and you’ll place in the donation box, to make room for a new one. These are irreplaceable.
Check out below my recommendation of sustainable dresses to wear in summer!
SUSTAINABLE AND ETHICAL DRESSES TO WEAR IN SUMMER
Photo Credit: Neu Nomads
1) COWL NECK GOWN
Neu Nomads
$269
Elegant, full-length silhouette, and with a je-ne-sais-quoi allure that will make you the queen of any party, this dress comes at the top of the list. Made with 100% TENCEL™ Modal, AZO free dyes, and non-toxic, it is the perfect combination between fashionable and environment-friendly clothing. Neu Nomads manufacture their garments in family run factories that pay fair wages and provide medical care, they source their fabrics from sustainable and renewable natural resources, and use recycled and biodegradable packaging to ship them straight to you.
Photo credit: Passion Lilie
2) PALM TREE WRAP DRESS
Passion Lilie
$96
A wrap dress is one of the most indispensable pieces to have in your summer closet. They are fresh, cute, and versatile, as you can dress them up or down depending on the occasion. This sustainable dress is made with 100% organic jersey cotton, hand screen printed with organic dyes, fair trade, designed in New Orleans and handmade in India. Passion Lilie is committed to producing high-quality and timeless products in their attempt at promoting a slow fashion mindset.
Photo credit: Christy Dawn
3) THE ANTONIA DRESS
Christy Dawn
$428
This sustainable dress is a piece of art and super special. It features custom embroidered artwork, which takes embroidery artisans about 8 hours to embroider just one dress! It is hand grown, hand drawn, hand sewn, and hand embroidered on 100% regeneratively grown cotton. Additionally, it’s made with dyes that are non-toxic to both humans and the environment in facilities that recycle water to be reused in the system.
Christy Dawn works with farmers that use indigenous, healing practices to improve soil, ecosystem and community health, and they only partner with people, factories and communities that pay a living wage, provide benefits and uphold respectful and dignified working standards.
Photo credit: Pact
4) FIT & FLARE MIDI DRESS
Pact
$58
This is a great basic sustainable dress that can be worn in various situations: to run errands, go out for lunch, or go to the beach. Basic means versatility, and translates into “you probably won’t want to take this dress off”. It has a flattering silhouette, a flowy skirt, hidden pockets, a built-in wireless shelf bra, and is light and fresh for the warm summer days. The dress is made with 95% organic cotton and 5% elastane, for that tiny bit of stretch-iness, and comes in two different lengths.
This eco-friendly midi dress is made in a Fair Trade Certified™ Factory, and the organic cotton is GOTS certified. Organic dress? Yes, please! Swapping from conventional cotton to organic cotton means saving a lot of water, pesticides, fertilizers, and pollution.
Photo Credit: Whimsy + Row
5) LOLA WRAP DRESS
Whimsy + Row
$248
The Lola Wrap Dress is a great eco-friendly alternative for weddings, events, birthday parties, or any kind of event that demands a more elegant outfit. It is made with 51% Tencel and 49% Cupro— which means vegan silk! Biodegradable, easy to wash, produced in a closed loop, hypoallergenic, and thermo-regulating, it is an ethical fabric that replaces conventional silk (which is made of insects).
Whimsy and Row is committed to sustainability in several ways. They cut limited quantities and lower their carbon footprint by producing locally. The majority of their clothing is made within a few miles from their main office; this way, they can visit their factories weekly to ensure fair wages are given and the workers are being treated fairly. Additionally, they have a waitlist feature on the website so that they know exactly how much to make of each product: a great way to avoid over or under cutting. The company also offsets their emissions with Carbon Fund. Ethical dresses are taking over the summer!
Photo credit: Altar
6) BEDDING DRESS
Altar
$130
What would you say if I told you you can wear a sustainable dress that’s also unique? Behold the Bedding Dress! The marigolds in this piece are hand-drawn and hand-colored, and were printed on to a cotton twill fabric from deadstock in Los Angeles CA, in a small batch and they won't be reprinting, so hurry up!
Most of Altar’s apparel is made by them in their Portland studio, but they also partner with two factories in Los Angeles, who were specifically chosen for their long-standing presence as ethical manufacturing houses and both have been proudly serving the design community for more than two decades. They are family-owned and operated with a longstanding staff with fair wage labor practices and safe, healthy working conditions.
The company also sources compostable, biodegradable, and recycled shipping materials as well as packaging for in-store sales. They have also added a carbon credits program called Climate Friendly Cart, an app that appears on the cart checkout page of online store and gives customers the ability to add a carbon credit to their purchase by simply clicking a button. Moreover, they focus on zero waste practices in the production process, meaning they use as much or all of their fabric yardage. For the unusable scrap pieces, they recycle with the ReTold Recycling program.
Eco dresses FTW!
Photo credit: Nu-In
7) COLD SHOULDER HIGH NECK MIDI DRESS
Nu-In
$32.99
I love this eco-friendly dress for a summer night out, when the temperature drops a little bit (and you can tolerate a long sleeve!). The bare shoulders makes elegance look sexy, and the minimalist aesthetic creates a perfect blank canvas to accessorize, which will create endless outfit possibilities.
Now, on the sustainable side: this midi dress is made with 95% EcoVero Viscose, a fabric that practices responsible production to maximize resource efficiency and minimize environmental impact. The packaging is also eco, as the product bag is 100% compostable and degradable, and the product Carton is 100% FSC* paper or 100% Recycled Mailer.
Most Nu-in garments are manufactured in Portugal, and very few styles from previous collections were produced in other trusted factories (you may find where each garment was produced directly on the product page). Also, the working conditions for all their partners include fair wages for all employees, no child labor and worker safety in the factories at all times.
An environmentally-friendly dress from a company that is committed to sustainability in every aspect is goals!
What sustainable dresses for summer would you choose to wear?
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Hi, I’m Melina,
I’m the creator of Sustainable Rookie, and my goal is to share what I learn throughout my sustainability journey, so that I can help other people live a more conscious life.
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