Checking in not so briefly as away, will be back in the new year and internet is iffy for now.
Glad to hear everyone enjoyed the advent calendar, I've even been adapting some things myself as a result 
I think the ethical dilemma is exactly that, a dilemma. Often brands will do well in one subsection like sustainability, workers rights abroad and/or locally, etc. but not in other areas.
It's rare that they get it right on all fronts and still make clothes you actually want to wear. I'm a bit wary of it in a sense, it reminds me a lot of greenwashing as seen in other industries. Vegan often means shit for the environment because they'll more likely incorporate synthetic fabrics. It's not much of an issue here yet but since the second hand market is on the up I expect it will become an issue the way it is in some areas of the US, where higher income groups have taken on 'thrifting' as a hobby and driven up the price by increasing demand coupled with high spending power and leaving those in genuine need without access to low priced clothes with a base quality higher than fast fashion.
A new sustainable brand seems to launch weekly, as much as I want to support them all that feels problematic too as inevitably several will go belly up. On top of that sozes are often limited and cuts are basic. I love the idea of Everlane but getting it flown back and forth from the US plus all the hassle of returns and import taxes (the Everlane ones are particularly problematic, they charge a fee, you have to pay the return costs and you lose the prepaid taxes). Similar brands here are still small, I have mentioned some UK based ones here, Olive Clothing, Ninety Percent and recently I saw of interest a Scandi one, Kerber, and a French one Alfa.
I sort of accept I'll never be perfect with this, I tend to source the majority of my clothes come from what I consider the secondary circuit which includes, previous years' stock (online outlets basically), consignment shops, sample sales, physical outlets (though I rarely visit these), occasional eBay and I keep eyeing things at Vestiaire but I dislike the high shipping costs. Certain things are just very hard to get, like the white roll neck jumper I knew was going to be hard to find anywhere but new.
I did a few months of fast fashion free this summer (only broken by necessity of ridiculously hot weather and short time frames) and it has been quite nice. For me it's stepping out of the mentality of buying instantly, I can hold off now and just think about buying something. In the past I did buy and often returned things after being unconvinced. Basically I cut out that noise and I'm really not missing out on the rare good gems you find in FF. An article popped up coincidentally yesterday about Giving up fast fashion for a year, I do like the quote about buying something so expensive it hurts. I don't really have an issue spending but on fairly ordinary things it can hurt, like socks, or plain cotton underwear as I'm not completely convinced they're better quality at 10 or 20x the price, you really are just paying for a slightly higher grade cotton (which you stop noticing after a few washes unless you iron them 
) or wool and that it's fabricated in Europe (no guarantee for fairer labour treatment but likelihood of exploitation tends to be lower).
We've also discussed on here that it's a privilege to be able to have these choices and quite easy to do in some shape or form when you've got time/money/inclination so it can come across a touch patronising at times.