What killed the sustainable fashion brands?

As I worked to update several old sustainable shopping posts over the weekend, I couldn’t help but notice a sobering trend. In each edit, I kept hitting the delete button, removing entire brand profiles from the list.

Link after link was dead. A quick Google search confirmed the worst: many sustainable fashion brands I had promoted over the past 13 years had shuttered their doors, most of them in the aftermath of the pandemic.

To paraphrase Anne Shirley, sustainable fashion has become “a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.” Over the past five or so years, a wave of fashion brands built on sustainability, ethics, or slow production has shut down.

But what caused these sustainable fashion brand closures? Taken together, their stories offer a clearer picture of the structural challenges facing ethical fashion today. The issue is not a lack of consumer interest – surveys consistently show sustained demand for sustainability – but rather the difficulty of sustaining a business model that prioritizes people, materials, and time in an industry optimized for speed and volume.

Below are just a few of the brands that have closed since 2020, along with some that have since reopened at a smaller scale.

Closures

People Tree (closed 2023)

People Tree helped pioneer fair trade fashion in the 1990s, working with artisan groups and emphasizing transparency long before it became industry language.

Its UK business entered liquidation in 2023 after accumulating significant debt. Public reporting points to long-term financial strain: ethical sourcing and small-scale production limited margins, while competition increased from both fast fashion and larger brands adopting “sustainable” collections. The closure underscores how difficult it is to maintain early leadership in a category that has since become crowded.

Tonlé (closed 2023)

Tonlé built its model around using remnant fabrics and producing garments in small batches in Cambodia. The brand became a widely cited example of zero-waste design in practice.

Its closure potentially highlights the limits of that model at scale. While Tonlé succeeded in demonstrating an alternative system, it struggled to translate that system into long-term financial stability, especially in the wake of pandemic-era manufacturing closures and shipping complexities.

Sotela (closed 2023)

Sotela emphasized inclusivity and made-to-order production, reducing overstock and waste.

Founder statements indicated that the model’s strengths also constrained the business. Made-to-order production limited volumes, slowed revenue cycles, and reduced style options, while costs remained high due to ethical manufacturing standards. In a market that rewards speed and scale, Sotela’s deliberate pace proved difficult to sustain.

Sseko Designs (closed/merged 2022)

Sseko Designs is best known for selling artisan made leather sandals, shoes, and bags, which they eventually translated into a direct sales model.

Although the exact financial and structural details are difficult to track down, a podcast between the two founders indicates that Sseko Designs merged with Austin-based Noonday Collection in 2022. At that time, Uganda-based manufacturing facilities were sold (or transferred) to Ugandan employees and the Sseko Fellows program was discontinued.

Amour Vert (closed 2025)

California-based Amour Vert had its own in-house collection of tencel and organic fiber clothing alongside small scale and boutique brands.

After moving their headquarters to Los Angeles and rebranding in 2024, the company struggled to improve slow sales and declared bankruptcy in 2025. Numerous reports from customers and former employees tell a story of ongoing mismanagement and fulfillment failures.

Scaled Down

Elizabeth Suzann (closed 2020; later relaunched smaller)

Elizabeth Suzann built a strong following with made-to-order garments produced in-house in Nashville—an uncommon model that prioritized transparency, fair wages, and long-term wear. In April 2020, founder Elizabeth Pape announced the company’s closure as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted sales and exposed the financial vulnerability of maintaining a large domestic production team. In public statements, Pape explained that the brand’s high fixed costs—staff, studio space, and in-house manufacturing—became unsustainable when revenue dropped. Rather than shift to outsourcing or reduce wages, the company chose to close.

The brand later returned in a much smaller form, operating as a limited studio practice.

Hackwith Design House (scaled back early 2020s)

Hackwith Design House built its model around small-batch, locally made garments released in weekly drops. The brand avoided traditional fashion calendars and emphasized consistency over growth, producing everything in-house in Minnesota. In the early 2020s, however, the company significantly reduced its output and visibility.

While it did not announce a formal closure, there has been a clear reduction in production and releases.

Ilana Kohn (closed 2025; reopened new line)

Ilana Kohn produced small-batch collections using natural fibers and ethical manufacturing partners. The brand announced its closure in 2024 after years of operating as a small, independent business. While detailed financial data was not released, its trajectory reflects a common pattern: limited access to capital, rising costs, and the personal demands of running a values-driven company without large-scale infrastructure.

Kohn reopened as a smaller project called SAMET.

---

What these closures show

Though this post barely scratches the surface on total closures (partly due to my own memory failing me), several consistent factors appear across these cases that are likely true across all of them.

Rising costs outpace price expectations. Ethical production increases expenses at every stage: raw materials, labor, and logistics. At the same time, many consumers remain highly price-sensitive, especially during periods of inflation or economic uncertainty. This mismatch compresses margins.

Scaling responsibly remains difficult. Investors typically expect rapid growth, but sustainable production requires slower timelines and tighter control over supply chains. Sseko Designs’ investor-driven growth followed by rapid closure (I know, technically a merger) illustrates this tension clearly: growth expectations and ethical constraints often pull in opposite directions.

Market saturation reduces differentiation. Sustainability is no longer a niche selling point. Large retailers now market “conscious” or “eco” collections, often at lower prices (even if these claims are eyebrow raising). Smaller brands must compete not only on ethics but also on design, marketing, and accessibility—without comparable resources.

Operational complexity adds strain. Models like zero-waste production or made-to-order manufacturing solve key environmental problems but introduce logistical challenges that can limit growth and predictability.

A structural problem, not an isolated one

These closures do not suggest that interest in sustainable fashion is declining. If anything, consumer awareness continues to grow. But awareness alone does not resolve the structural imbalance between how ethical fashion operates and how the broader industry functions.

Most fashion systems still reward speed, volume, and low cost. Brands that reject those priorities must find ways to survive within a framework that does not support them.

In that sense, these companies didn’t exactly fail. Many reached the limits of what is currently possible without significant shifts in consumer behavior, investment models, or supply chain infrastructure. In a weakened, capitalist economy impacted by pandemic, global market changes, tariffs, increased migration, and mass violence, any brand operating at small scale is likely to fail eventually. The system isn’t made for them.

I wish I could end this post on a happier note, but I’m not sure there’s a silver lining – except to note that some of these brands have been able to find a way forward, even if it means restructuring. The human spirit is resilient, and we can hope the same is true for sustainable fashion.