The most influential sustainable fashion experts in the world

If you’re a sustainable fashion enthusiast who’s active on social media, you’ll know that there’s nothing more frustrating than looking at another ‘fast fashion haul’ on the platform. In the world we live in today, the media can be overwhelming. But social media can also be a great source of inspiration and education. 

If you want to make your social media scrolling a little bit more educational and productive, then you are in the right place. I’ve compiled a list of the best sustainable fashion Instagram and Twitter influencers, bloggers, journalists and experts that you can follow to stay in the know.  

On this list you’ll find the biggest names in sustainable fashion, as well as some emerging social media leaders worth checking out!  

1. LIVIA FIRTH  

Livia Firth is an eco-fashion influencer and co-founder of Eco-Age, a sustainability focused business consulting agency. Firth’s work with Eco-Age revolves around drafting elegant frameworks and campaigns for environmental and social justice with global reach.  

A UN Leader of Change, Firth was also awarded the UN Fashion 4 Development Award and the Rainforest Alliance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sustainability. She’s also the co-founder (alongside Lucy Siegle) of the Green Carpet Challenge, which uses celebrities to raise awareness about sustainable fashion and was started in 2009.  

Firth regularly posts on social media about her professional industry projects and how she approaches sustainability and conscious living in her personal life.   

2. ORSOLA DE CASTRO  

Orsola de Castro is an award-winning designer, author, and sustainability expert. She started her career with the upcycling label ‘From Somewhere,’ which was active from 1997 to 2014. But you might know her better as the co-founder of Fashion Revolution, a global movement and organization launched in response to the 2013 Bangladesh Rana Plaza tragedy.  

De Castro is a leading voice and mentor to emerging designers in the slow fashion and fair labor world. She’s also an associate lecturer at UAL and a visiting fellow at Central Saint Martins. Orsola penned her first book about sustainable fashion titled Loved Clothes Last in 2021 which is a memoir of her work in the sustainable fashion sector.  

A regular keynote speaker, Orsola uses social media to advocate and share information about different events and updates in the sustainable fashion industry.  

3. CARRY SOMERS 

British fashion designer, activist and social entrepreneur, Carry Somers is the founder and CEO of Fashion Revolution, the world’s largest movement campaigning for systemic reform of the fashion industry with a focus on supply chain transparency.  

Somers started her fashion career by launching a fair-trade fashion brand ‘Pachacuti’ in 1992 that sold fashionable hats celebrating Panama-style hat making. The brand was the first to be certified under the World Fair Trade Organization Sustainable Fair Trade Management System.  

While Somers has quit Instagram, she actively posts and engages in online discussions through her Twitter and LinkedIn pages.  

4. ELIZABETH L CLINE 

Elizabeth L Cline is a journalist, author and speaker who advocates for labor rights and sustainability in fashion. Cline was one of the first to raise her voice against fast fashion with her expose titled Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, that was published in 2012. She has also authored a follow-up book The Conscious Closet: A Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good that came out in 2019.  

Elizabeth is also the Director of Advocacy and Policy at Remake, a global non-profit helping women get fairly paid in the fashion industry. Cline’s writings have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, and The New Yorker, among others.  

A go-to expert on sustainability in the apparel industry, Cline shares updates about important issues in the industry on her social media.  

5. CELINE SEMAAN  

A Lebanese Canadian designer, writer, and activist, Celine Semaan is the CEO & Co-Founder of non-profit Slow Factory and the Study Hall Conferences. She is said to have coined the term ‘fashion activism’ and is an outspoken supporter of climate justice and human rights.  

Semaan’s foundation has created several educational programs that promote sustainability literacy and work towards a mission to re-architect fashion into a zero waste, circular industry. Celine’s debut book, A WOMAN IS A SCHOOL (set to be published in 2024) is a mix of memoir, research, and social theory advocating for alternate paths to sustainable growth and self-realization.  

Far from the pretty pastel graphics that are famous on Instagram, Celine’s social media feed forces you to stop and really think about our actions and the state of our planet. 

6. ROSARIO DAWSON 

American actress Rosario Dawson is not your typical celebrity. She’s a huge proponent of sustainable practices in the fashion industry.  

She’s not only an actress and activist, but she also co-founded the artisan-produced fashion lifestyle brand and social enterprise Studio 189, which was launched in 2013. In 2018, Dawson’s Made-in-Africa label even won the prestigious CFDA Lexus Fashion Initiative for Sustainability. The brand focuses on promoting traditional African crafts through small collections, upcycled or repaired materials and regenerative farming.  

Dawson also uses her fame to call out the fashion industry for failing at inclusivity and representation and the problematic nature of fast fashion.   

7. BANDANA TEWARI  

Bandana Tewari is an Indian journalist, sustainable activist, and former editor-at-large of Vogue India.  

She stepped down from her role at Vogue to direct all her focus on raising awareness on the impact of fashion on the environment and has helped many brands become more conscious about their practices. 

Tewari currently serves as a special advisor to Global Fashion agenda and was even a judge for the H&M Foundation’s Global Change Award. She even gave a TED Talk on what Gandhi can teach us about slow fashion.  

Bandana has worked in the fashion industry for nearly 2 decades and is considered a leading expert in the field of slow and conscious fashion.  

8. ALDEN WICKER  

Self-proclaimed ‘recovering influencer’ Alden Wicker is an award-winning journalist and founder of EcoCult, a popular sustainable and ethical fashion digital publication. Alden says she started EcoCult in 2013 as she couldn’t find places that were talking honestly about the impact of fashion on the planet and people.  

Wicker’s investigative journalism pieces have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, Wired, The Cut, Vox, InStyle, Harper’s Bazaar and many more leading publications. She often speaks on and moderates panel discussions on sustainability for various media houses.  

Wicker is also working on a book about the toxic chemicals used in fashion production that will be released in 2023.  

9. LEWIS PERKINS 

President of the Apparel Impact Institute (AII) and former President of the Cradle-to-Cradle Products Innovation Institute, Lewis Perkins had spent most of his career and personal life championing the cause of sustainability.  

Lewis is a sustainability strategist and advocates for the use of safe and circular materials in the fashion industry through his work. He has served as a member on the H&M Global Change Award Expert Panel as well as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Circular Fibers Initiative. He also speaks at global conferences regularly, including two appearances at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit.  

Perkins also hosts a YouTube talk show where he invites fashion professionals and leading sustainability experts to discuss key climate-related topics.  

10. SAFIA MINNEY  

British executive coach, author and one of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, Safia Minney MBE is the founder of People Tree, a pioneering sustainable and Fair-Trade fashion label. She is recognized as an Outstanding Social Entrepreneur by the World Economic Forum.  

Safia left her role as Global CEO at People Tree in 2015 after leading the company for 24 years. She recently founded a grassroots movement called Fashion Declares that is addressing the climate, ecological and social crisis in fashion.  

A global advocate for sustainability, anti-modern slavery and fair-trade production, Safia has created many short films, shows and authored 6 books on the subject. Minney also trains and mentors leaders in sustainability across different industries.  

11. CHRISTINA DEAN 

Christina Dean is a writer, activist, and the founder of NGO Redress and The R Collective, which together work to reduce waste in the fashion industry. She founded NGO Redress in 2007 in Hong Kong and founded The R Collective in 2017.  

An award-winning journalist and frequent contributor to VOGUE, BBC, New York Times, Forbes and Bloomberg Business Week—as well as the host of docu-series Frontline Fashion—Christina is widely quoted on issues related to fashion and sustainability. 

Christina has received numerous recognitions, including by UK Vogue as one of the UK’s ‘Top 30 Inspirational Women’ and by Asia Tatler as one of Asia’s Most Influential.  

12. TANSY HOSKINS  

Tansy Hoskins is an author and award-winning journalist who has been writing about fashion for nearly 10 years.  

Tansy is a passionate advocate for sustainable fashion; her work focuses on labor rights in fashion and climate. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Open Democracy, i-D, and Huck Magazine. She also lectures across Europe on the politics of the fashion industry at universities, museums, cultural events and political gatherings. 

Her first book Stitched Up, is available in six languages and was selected by Emma Watson for her ‘Ultimate Book List.’ Her second book, Foot Work is an exposé of the dark origins of the shoes on our feet. Her third book The Anti-Capitalist Book Of Fashion was published in August 2022.  

13. AJA BARBER  

Aja Barber is a writer, stylist and consultant who focuses on the intersections of sustainability with the world of fashion. She is the author of Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism. 

Aja has written for Eco-Age, The Guardian, CNN and Selfridges, among other sites. She has also spoken at events for V&A Museum, Study Hall Central Saint Martins, Cambridge Student Union and Riposte Magazine. She also writes microblogs on her Instagram page daily as well as posts exclusive content on Patreon. 

Her writing builds heavily on ideas like privilege, wealth inequality, racism, feminism and colonialism—all with a focus on how to fix the fashion industry by changing our daily habits.  

14. ADITI MAYER  

Aditi Mayer is a sustainable fashion blogger and photojournalist, who is passionate about using her work to promote intersectional, decolonized thinking.  

Aditi has created a space where she can look at sustainability with an eye that is equally curious, curatorial, and critical. Her work has become a voice in the larger sustainability movement.  

She approaches her work from multiple domains—from grassroots organizing in Downtown LA’s garment district to educating folks on the importance of diverse perspectives.  

Sustainable fashion is something we’re all learning more about as the world becomes more aware of the problems with fast fashion. While on the surface, social media may seem like a frivolous waste of time, but with a little digging and thought, you can use it to feed your mind with the latest developments in the spaces of climate justice, fair wage, ethical fashion and sustainability.  

Although I’ve collated 15 of my favorite names in the sustainable fashion community, there are many, many more people in the space that you can discover and follow at your own leisure. I do hope that this list serves as a great starting point for you to engage with the sustainable fashion community on social media and help keep the conversation going and spread awareness to those who don’t know much about it.