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The best and worst brands of 2025

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All things considered, 2025 was a rough year for the sustainable fashion and beauty industries, with geopolitical and cost of living crises creating challenging times for brands, not to mention the ESG and DEI rollbacks that’ve seen many sustainability initiatives vanish altogether. 

But in putting together our annual round-up of news and the year’s best and worst brands, the Good On You editors realised that there are, in fact, some things worth taking a moment to feel positive about as we ease into 2026. The fashion industry is edging closer to excluding fur, for instance, with Hearst Magazines, Condé Nast, and New York Fashion Week all prohibiting it from their pages and runways. Rick Owens banned it too, and Poland just signed a farming ban into law. It’s one of the world’s biggest producers, so that’s a significant step. 

And governments are looking to take a harsher stance on ultra fast fashion, with France introducing an anti-fast-fashion bill, and UK politicians blocking SHEIN’s attempted IPO over ethical concerns. The brand is also being investigated by the European Commission, Texas lawmakers, and French prosecutors. Fast fashion brands are still engaged in their race to the bottom, of course, and some even got worse this year: Forever 21’s rating score dropped from 11 to zero, for instance, but it’s still worth noting that legislators are moving to take action. 

Speaking of fashion brand ratings, we’re revealing those who topped the “Great” list in 2025. Scroll on to meet them, and the ones you’re best off avoiding, too. 

In this week’s issue:
  • The top fashion brands we rated last year, to keep top of mind for your next investment.
  • Five fashion brands ‘We Avoid’, and you should too.
Back in April last year, Kenneth P. Pucker wrote for the Business of Fashion that a perfect storm of sluggish growth, cost-cutting, greenwashing concerns, and President Trump’s tariffs spelled danger for the sustainable fashion industry. It echoes what we heard from more sustainable brands in our network all year: rising costs, inflation, and shipping challenges are among some of the biggest issues they’re facing, and we’ve seen an increase in brands saying they need help. 

It’s why we keep on sharing details of the small brands working to do better—they often top our analysis of the most sustainable in our directory, and yet they’re facing the biggest hurdles. To that end, read on to discover the top five highest rated brands of the year, and then click through to see the full list of 10. 
  • Infantium Victoria is a vegan childrenswear brand from Germany that’s products are certified to GOTS standards.
  • ColieCo is an underwear brand based in Portugal that prioritises lower impact materials.
  • Dorsu is a Cambodian ready-to-wear brand that traces its entire supply chain.
  • Outland Denim offers employment opportunities for women rescued from human trafficking in Cambodia.
  • non is a PETA-approved vegan denim brand using recycled and organic materials.
See the full list.
Of the 1,502 fashion brands rated in 2025, 97 of them scored zero. That’s more than double the 48 in 2024. Unfortunately, many brands aren’t transparent and are scoring as low as possible because we have little to no information about their impacts, so we’d recommend avoiding them when you’re shopping. Here are five of the 97 brands that scored zero points and are rated “We Avoid”:
See the other five in our round-up.
Ethical brand ratings. There’s an app for that - Good On You
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