While the issue at hand is still large and prevalent, many fashion industries have already taken on the challenge of providing inspirational suggestions and affordable choices. Some notable developments were concluded from my secondary research efforts.
Good On You: Ethical Fashion
Good On You is a group of campaigners based in Australia providing a promotional resource for users to practice sustainable fashion and cosmetic choices through the discovery of environment-friendly brands and tips for supporting ethical businesses. Good On You inspires users to choose brands that align with not just their preferences but their individual values.
This resource offers both online and mobile solutions for users. This app offers fashion and lifestyle advise that is sustainable through a blog form. Within the app, there are multiple features for a smooth interface interaction and experience. The homepage showcases news that provide reliable information and brand recognitions for their users with some of their recent articles like 10 Online Stores for Shopping More Sustainable in 2025 and How to Recycle Unwanted Clothes: Myths, Realities, and Practical Tips. Good On You’s mission is to publish the “world’s most comprehensive ratings” for both fashion and beauty brands. They promote only brands that align with their ethical values and the positive impacts on people, the planet, and animals.
In order to dive further into Good On You’s resources, I downloaded their app to see what exactly they offer users. As already mentioned in their home page, news stories are consistently posted to remain informative and educational. Other features include a search option to find popular brands, a filtering or categorical option to find sustainable brands, special offers for app users, and will even let the user directly message specific brands if they have feedback or questions.
I decided to search my favorite retail brand to by clothes, Anthropologie, to see what Good On You had to say. The rating system that they use reported that Anthropologie was “not good enough” in regards to Good On You’s sustainability standards. Although the app does not recommend users to shop at Anthropologie, they listed similar brands that were ethical and “sorted by relevance” to the specific user. Following the recommended brands feature was any related articles to Anthropologie such as How Ethical is Anthropologie? and How Ethical Are the Most Popular TikTok Clothing Brands? We Rated 27 to Find Out. What is smart about this app is it allows the user to take action through an opportunity to send a message directly to Anthropologie. Following the related articles is a “your voice” section where the app asks the user to select which type of message they would like to send, either give the brand positive feedback, urge them to do better, or ask a question. They then type their message and Good On You sends it to the brand. After conducting secondary research and a competitive analysis on Good On You, its clear that this resource is one of our largest competitors. Their depth in knowledge of ethical brands and expert advice through well-written articles are the solutions that this problem is calling for.
Good On You is trusted and maintains a clean and modern interface appearance that allows for an easy and enjoyable user experience. In conclusion, although Good On You has strong services for users that seek environmentally friendly and budget conscious brands to shop from, there are a few features lacking.
StichFix: Personal Styling
To further my secondary research, the next app helps to solve an entirely different part of our problem, being able to create budget-friendly outfits for different occasions that still align with the user’s personal style. This app is called StitchFix, a free online personal styling service that combines both human stylists with AI-powered algorithms to create styles tailored to individual preferences.
Some of the features that StitchFix provides is a styling quiz feature, stylist selection of curated outfits made by stylists, allows for user to try-on outfits, and offers purchasing and returning services. Within the StitchFix app, users are able to communicate with their stylists schedule deliveries, provide feedback, and upload photos for more personalized selections. StitchFix’s mission is to provide personalized outfits for specific occasions with ease. This service seeks to simplify the shopping experience by providing delivery for personalized fashion selections yet combining the expertise of human stylists with the convenience of technology.
In my experience using StitchFix I was unimpressed with the outfits the stylist curated for me, I prompted for something casual yet still mature. However, the outfits that the stylists had made for me seemed a little too mature and almost outdated. One of the largest concerns was that StitchFix did not offer any insight into sustainable brands. It is understood that it is difficult to find ethical and environmentally friendly brands that are also not overpriced.
In conclusion from my research on the app StitchFix, I found the styling technology quite resourceful and efficient however the fashion trends were slightly outdated in the styling quiz was too brief. StitchFix is another one of our problems competitors because it offers fashion advice on how to style clothes rather the resource good on you only recommended certain brands. StitchFix took fashion to the next level by seeking to personalize clothing and curate specific outfits for their users.
ThredUp: Online Thrift Store
ThredUp is a mobile app available for users to thrift on the go. The app features user-friendly navigation personalized recommendations and easy access to both shopping and selling functionalities. From what I can conclude throughout my secondary research is that there is no right way to practice ethical consumerism habits. From the first app I studied good on you the app sought to inspire users to view sustainability as an important part of their personal style by finding brands that aligned with ethical business standards. However, ThredUp provides a new solution option for ethical shopping when it comes to fashion.
In comparison to ThredUp, there are other sustainable buy and sell services offered on mobile apps such as Poshmark, Depop, eBay and even Instagram. The competition for buy and sell clothing apps is vast and almost all do the same however ThredUp creatively utilizes AI and enhances the user experience through personalization. Some of these include chat box assistance for completing outfits based on specific prompts and advanced search capabilities to find items that match a specific criterion.
Personally, I enjoy thrifting and find it to be a very sustainable and affordable way to buy clothes. However, it is challenging to find clothes exactly for me in the current thrifting experience takes time and effort to scan through racks and racks of clothes. With ThredUp’s utilization of AI technology finding exactly what the user needs with little to no time or effort takes thrifting to the next level. Finding closet staples has never been easier.
ThredUp offers a buying and selling platform of high-quality secondhand woman’s and children’s clothing. The service emphasizes sustainability by promoting the reuse of apparel thereby reducing waste in the fashion industry. Key features of ThredUp is an extensive inventory ranging in different brands like Gap to Gucci, a clean out service where the user can bag up any unused clothes and the company will handle the inspection, photography, listing, and shipping of the clothes, and lastly AI powered shopping tools such as image search, style chat, and enhanced search.
As I conclude my research on the app, ThredUp seeks to provide sustainable fashion that is accessible and enjoyable for a broad audience. The apps features remain relevant and effortless for users alike to find their favorite brands for a lower cost. Although the sustainability standards of ThredUp contrast with that of Good On You, instead of buying directly from the brand, everything that is sold through ThredUp is second hand which still prevents clothes from making it to the landfills. ThredUp’s features are exactly what our problem needs which makes ThredUp a strong competitor against our app, however styling curation or ethical brand recommendations is something that ThredUp fails to offer.
