Kleider machen Leute - Clothes make a man (and a woman)

"Kleider machen Leute" or "Clothes make a man (or woman)" is an old saying in German. The implication is that what you wear gives a representation of you and your character.

In terms of sustainability the clothing industry has been critisized (rightly) for quite some time. "Fast Fashion", more garments, in shorter time spans and a detoriating quality are the keywords.

And granted the industry has realised this and tries to move to a cycle of reuse and recycling.

Still, why not go back a few decades and use the approach our grandparents and grand-grandparents had to clothes. Buy better and wear it longer.

Or, how my stepmum told me: "I'm too poor to buy cheap". In the end, you buy more with cheap stuff and end spending more.

Here are a few companies if you wnat to buy less clothes but better quality.

This is an entirely subjective and personal list. No assumption of this list being complete. If you know of other companies, please comment below. (Remark: I wasn't given any freebies or renumeration to mention the companies below in this list).

Son of a Tailor offers amazing basic garments. Think about your white T-Shirt or black pullover. Stuff you wear on a regular basis, in summer, spring, autumn and winter. All items are custom-made to your size. This is done through two ways: You either provide themwith your height, weight and shoe size and their algorithm will match your body shape (quite surprisingly accurate I have to say) or you provide detailed measurements that you enter when you order your items.

All clotheswill only be produced once you placed the order. That means, in terms of sustainability, it addresses one of the major issue of the garment industry: Overproduction.

Production takes place in Portugal, free shipping worldwide. I own three T-Shirts that I wear on a regular basis. I bought the white T-Shirt around 1.5 years ago, it went through 50 washing cycles (standard Eco programme at 40C) and still looks as good as new.

I'm impressed.

Merz b. Schwanen offers timeless pieces of clothing. What was good 100 years ago should be good enough now, shouldn't it? Garments are produced in Southern Germany on 100+ year old machines. I recommend you to watch the videos on their website that show the production process. It's truly amazing how industrialised the garment production process was more than 100 years ago.

I recently purchased my first product (comfie underwear) and so far it holds my expectations in terms of comfort and quality. Will definitely go back and purchase more once the need arises.

Blaumann-Jeanshosen, gefertigt in Deutschland is producing Blue Jeans in Germany. Who would've thought that jeans production is coming back to Germany, but it is. I haven't had the chance to purchase one (still have enough jeans to carry me through for two years and I don't buy stuff I don't need) but it's high on my list. Speaking about jeans, even C&A offers Blue Jeans made in Europe with the denim coming from Italy and production taking place in Germany.

This list wouldn't be complete with the one company that has been producing garments for decades here in Germany TRIGEMA W. Grupp KG . Trigema offers pretty much all garments you need, starting from underwear, to T-Shirts, pullovers, running gear, you name it.

As with Blaumann Jeanshosen I haven't worn their products but they are on my list for new (and warmer) running gear.

What are your favourite sustainable clothing brands and why?