Best Sustainable Fashion Boutiques in Barcelona
Sustainability is a hot topic that touches on nearly every aspect of our lives today, and a lot of fashion brands are eager to revamp their image with a more palatable, Eco-friendly identity.
It’s widely known that the fashion industry is one of the largest contributors to the climate crisis, and many consumers are starting to look for alternatives to the “throw away” clothing lines endlessly churned out by the mega manufacturers of fast fashion. But what does sustainability in fashion really mean?
As it turns out, it can mean a lot of different things.
While there are a number of sustainability certification organizations in the fashion industry–such as GOTS, Fairtrade, BCorp, Cradle to Cradle–there is no clear set of industry standards or government regulations outlining what it means to label a product “sustainable,” so often it’s really just a marketing term. Brands labeling themselves as sustainable can mean anything from “we use less plastic packaging than we used to” to “all of our products are 100% certified organic and Fairtrade.”
It’s an incredibly complicated and nuanced topic, and it can seem an insurmountable task to try to take into account the sourcing of raw materials, water and land use, ethical labor practices, energy use, waste in manufacturing and everything else that goes into the clothes you're wearing right now.
We set out to find those shops and brands in Barcelona that are run by people who are passionate about doing just that–making every effort to take it all into account and doing their level best to effect change in the industry.
Storefront Boutiques
InfinitDenim
InfinitDenim is a shop that sells upcycled clothing and accessories created by Back to Eco, a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that recycles old denim clothing. Born of a desire for better social and environmental practices in the fashion industry, Back to Eco’s four main values include circulatory recycling, local production, innovation and transparency. These values have helped the organization divert more than 20 tonnes of post-consumer denim from landfills and incinerators in Catalunya alone. Back to Eco’s focus on sustainability extends to its workshop where local workers at risk of social exclusion are hired through social and labor insertion programs such as DiomCoop Association, Fundació Ared and Fundació Formació i Treball.
Carrer del Bruc, 5 | infinitdenim.com
BONITO
Founded in Barcelona, BONITO is a unisex surf clothing brand with sustainability as its core value, placing it at the center of every decision. All of its clothing is made in or near Barcelona at local workshops using either recycled or GOTS certified organic cotton. BONITO gives back to the community through its Socialito project which helps adolescents in complicated family situations with limited financial resources. Through this project, troubled teens have the opportunity to take sailing, surfing and windsurfing courses so that they can discover these sports while immersing themselves in a natural environment.
Carrer del Doctor Trueta, 168 | wearebonito.com
Nudie Jeans
Nudie Jeans is a women’s and men’s clothing line that started with a passion for dry denim and a focus on sustainability and longevity. Made with either recycled or certified organic and Fairtrade cotton, its denim jeans are durable and made to last for years. And, you don’t have to know how to thread a needle to keep your tejanas looking sharp; to help you extend the life of your jeans, each pair comes with a lifetime of free repairs. In addition to new clothing items, the company has a Re-use line that takes handed-in Nudie Jeans then washes, repairs and resells them as second-hand jeans and its Rebirth collection is made of at least 70% recycled fibers. Believing that “there’s no sustainability without transparency” the company website provides all the details of its garments right down to the labeling, buttons, rivets and tags, including everything from where and how the raw materials were sourced to where the final product is assembled and how it was shipped.
Rambla de Catalunya, 33 | nudiejeans.com
Green Life Style
Green Life Style’s motto is “being naked is the #1 most sustainable option, we are #2.” Founded in 2011 by Carolina Simón, this women’s clothing and accessory boutique was the first certified organic fashion store in Spain. The shop works with a number of independent designers who create and produce their collections in Europe—all of which adhere to the Global Organic Textile Industry Standards (GOTS). Carolina believes in timeless fashion, with classic styles that follow designs rather than trends. The core values of Green Life Style are minimalism, respect for the environment, an adherence to fair trade practices and transparency.
Carrer del Torrent de l'Olla, 95 | greenlifestyle.es
The Good Store Barcelona
Through a carefully curated selection of clothing and accessories for men and women made from high-quality, sustainable materials, The Good Store aims to prove that sustainable fashion is a real alternative in this fast-fashion world. The boutique partners with designers that use sustainable and recycled materials including certified organic cotton, Tencel, hemp, linen, recycled leather and recycled polyester made out of plastic bottles and fishing nets taken from the sea. Ethical production is also key in its business model—all of its partners hold official certificates that guarantee humane working conditions and decent wages.
Carrer de Valencia, 343 | thegoodstorebarcelona.com
Sunsais
Sunsais is a clothing store for women with the motto that “fashion can’t be a trend if it doesn’t care about sustainability.” Founded in 2011 as an online, sustainable fashion boutique, a physical shop was opened in Gràcia in 2016 where you can find clothing, accessories, shoes and home goods from designers that focus on organic fabrics, sustainability and fair trade practices. Sunsais even offers an array of jewelry crafted by local artisans and a selection of vegan candles and self-care items.
Carrer de Ramón y Cajal, 34 | sunsais.com
Velvet BCN
Also located in Gràcia, Velvet BCN partners with national and international brands to offer a variety of sustainable items ranging from clothing for women and men to cosmetics and home decor. Defining sustainable fashion as a form of reducing every step in the manufacturing process, Velvet BCN selects clothing lines with a focus on quality and durability using fabrics sourced from recycled materials or GOTS certified organic fibers. Self-care product lines include the Spanish-made natural cosmetic brands Kalopolis, Maminat and Banbu (which is certified organic and vegan).
Carrer de Verdi, 42 | velvetbcn.com
Online Shops
TwoThirds
Designed in Barcelona and crafted in Portugal, TwoThirds is an all-online clothing line that offers sustainable women’s, men’s and children’s casual wear and accessories. The company produces garments right here in Europe using a variety of fabrics such as Tencel, hemp, linen and organic cotton as well as leftovers from production processes, post consumer waste, recycled materials and deadstock. Extensive overproduction in the industry leads to an enormous amount of clothing being tossed into landfills or incinerated. To tackle this issue TwoThirds uses a pre-order system that leads to higher resource efficiency and minimizes raw material waste which results in lower production costs and reduces the end cost to the consumer–making buying sustainable clothing even more accessible. For the TwoThirds team “reduction matters every step of the way when striving to hit zero” so every effort is made to achieve climate neutrality in all aspects of the business–from the manufacturing facilities in Portugal to its office in Barcelona.
Online shop | twothirds.com
Nathalia García
Using fabrics that come from discarded or unused garments, Nathalia García is a Barcelona-based women’s clothing line that breathes new life into the fashion industry’s post-consumer “waste.” A meticulous attention to detail and eclectic style coupled with traditional artisanal methods transform what was once considered “trash” into beautiful, one-of-a-kind garments. Her colorful designs combine geometric patterns and asymmetrical cuts to create a distinctively modern Barcelona look.
Online shop | nathaliagarcia.com
Cocoro
Cocoro is a young femtech company that was founded right here in Barcelona in 2016 by four women who wanted to offer sustainable menstrual products in an industry that has changed little since the 1960s. Designed to replace pads and tampons, Cocoro’s period underwear are thin, lightweight, comfortable, breathable, odor resistant and flexible, yet highly absorbent and retentive. The website offers an impressive number of designs to choose from in three absorption levels: light, moderate and heavy with sizes from XXS to XXL. While Cocoro doesn’t have a physical store, you can find its products in many shops in Barcelona that offer reusable and sustainable menstrual products.
Online shop | cocoro-intim.com
Thinking Mu
Named after the founders’ Jack Russel dog, Mu, Thinking Mu was one of the first sustainable clothing brands in Europe with a wide range of casual wear for men and women. Since opening in 2008, the company’s initiatives have grown to include four main tenets: organic farming, a zero waste initiative, transparency and fair trade practices. The raw materials in Thinking Mu’s clothing line include certified organic cotton and hemp and the biosynthetic fabrics Lenzing EcoVero and Tencel—both made from wood and wood pulp sourced from sustainably managed forests. Thinking Mu’s zero-waste project makes upcycled clothes out of fibers recovered from post-consumer, recycled materials. For complete transparency, each garment is tagged with a QR code that tells its story by providing every detail of its production, from the materials used, place it was made and number of hands that touched it to its packaging details and water, carbon and waste footprints—all certified by BCome. Every item from Thinking Mu is Fairtrade certified, with a strong emphasis on BSCI and SEDEX, which guarantee no child labor, no forced labor, no excessive hours, living wages and a safe, hygienic workplace.
Thinking Mu doesn’t have a physical store but you can find its clothing lines in select shops in the city or order online at thinkingmu.com.