Words by Smiley Team
If you’re shopping for kids’ clothes this winter, it can be hard to find brands that are truly ethical and sustainable.
This is something Lucy Todd knows only too well. The journalist-turned-business owner has created ‘My Little Green Wardrobe’ – a one-stop shop for sustainable children’s clothing brands, to make life easier for busy conscious parents.
It was while Lucy was working for the BBC on the arts and entertainment desk, where she was for more than a decade, that she became more aware about the impact fashion had on the environment. “It’d never occurred to me before,” she tells Smiley News. “I found it so shocking, and knew I needed to stop buying fashion in the way I did. It was an eye-opener on a personal level.”
She decided to stop buying new clothes – and while it was easier for her, it was harder to do for her children, who kept growing. She wanted to shop more sustainably for them, but found it difficult to distinguish between brands that were actually sustainable, rather than just saying it.
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It was around this time that her four-year-old was about to start Reception at school, and Lucy had been issued with a list of items they wanted her to have. Some items were duplicates of what she had already. “I didn’t want to just buy more, so I looked into doing it in a more ethical way,” she says. “I found wellies made from sustainable materials – it took me a whole afternoon to find them! It was unreal why it was so hard and how the onus is on us to find more ethical brands.
“A lot of brands make it hard for shoppers to understand what the product is made from,” she adds. “It took me ages and I’m a journalist!”
Lucy thought there should be a website, where ethical brands brought together – and My Little Green Wardrobe was born. “I want it to be the home of kids’ and babies’ sustainable clothing brands,” she says.
“There are loads of great independent British brands doing cool stuff, they just haven’t got a platform and so it’s hard to discover them unless you know about them already.”
Lucy got in contact with both bigger and smaller brands that were making sustainable kids’ clothes and got a good reception, all were on board with her website.
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She launched the website in June 2021 – and the reception has been good. Lucy says the prices are not super premium, but the costs do take into account organic cotton and a lower yield, for example. All workers at the brands on MLGW are paid ethically, with proper wages, and the quality is higher.
In short, you get what you pay for – clotehs will last longer, rather than having kids’ leggings that get holes in the knees after one or two wears.
Right now, MLGW caters for children up to the age of six – and the ambition is to get up to the age of 12.
There are lots of great independent brands to browse – including Rockit Kids, says Lucy, which are clothes handmade here in the UK in Northampton from British designers and illustrators. “They’re fun, quirky designs that you won’t find anywhere else!”
There’s also Ducky Zebra, she says, which aims to be a gender neutral brand, with clothes for all children representing kindness and confidence.
To browse the clothes and find out more, visit https://mylittlegreenwardrobe.com/.
