Top tips: how to buy sustainable clothing on a budget

One of the biggest barriers to building a sustainable wardrobe can be financial. Sustainable fashion has a reputation for being very expensive in comparison to fast and ultra fast fashion, however in prioritising the people + the planet ethical clothing actually represents the true cost of fashion.

Here at The Emperor’s Old Clothes we are passionate about finding ways to make your design your own garments as financially accessible as we can. Here’s are some of the options we’ve introduced over the years:

Payment plans

For years now we have offered the option of in-house payment plans enabling customers on low incomes to spread the cost of their design your own garment across 2-6 months.

We want more people across different income brackets to be able to access sustainable fashion at a price-point that honours the makers + resources that go into making the clothing without going into retail debt through schemes like Klarna.

Simply choose the ‘Pay deposit’ option when you add your garment to your cart and choose how many months you’d like to spread the cost over. You pay the initial deposit plus shipping charges when you place your order then each month you will receive an email prompt with a link to make your next payment plan payment until the garment is paid off. Once your plan is paid off your design your own garment will join our production queue.

Anyone can take out a payment plan as it is offered on a trust basis, though as a small business we do ask that if you do have the financial means to pay up front then please do so as our payment plan option is designed with those on low income in mind.

Reduced shipping charges

Similarly to our payment plan offering we provide the option for customers on a low income to opt out of our reusable packaging surcharge at checkout. Again this is done on a trust basis at the point of purchase without the need to provide any evidence or communicate with our team.

Alterations service

At The Emperor’s Old Clothes we totally appreciate that ordering made to measure clothing online can be a daunting prospect, especially if you’ve never had custom clothing before. We want to reduce the stress and risk of longer term cost so we offer an in-house alterations service for your Emperor’s garments.

Our design your own garments are non-refundable, however if there are any fit issues when the garment first arrives we will alter it for you at no extra cost. Further down the line if you’d like to adapt or amend your garment in any way we are here to help. Whilst further alterations incur fixed charges by mending your clothing you are choosing a more sustainable option and saving yourself the cost of replacing those items of clothing altogether.

Emperor’s Resale

Recently we have introduced our Resale service where you can both buy and sell your Emperor’s garments at significantly reduced rates. Whether you have a garment that doesn’t fit you any more or is no longer your style you can fill out a quick online form and send it back to us for us to list in our online resale shop. Resale garments are sold for between 25%-75% off its original RRP so they can be a great way to invest in sustainable clothing on a budget.

As well as pre-loved Emperor’s garments from other customers we also sell sample garments that have been worn once or twice for photoshoots but are basically brand new.

We hope this has shown you how to buy sustainable clothing on a budget here at The Emperor’s Old Clothes. If you have any questions or want to know more please check out our FAQs, contact the team or get designing!