About Pigeon

In an ever changing world, we like to hang on to a few fundamental values. We love to design and to create beautiful collections for little people. But we also care out where our cotton comes from, who makes our clothes, who sells them and who wears them.  

Our beautifully soft cotton is 100% organic and our clothes are made in a small number of factories which adhere to fair labour practices (see more about our certification below). We work with hundreds of small independent retailers across the UK and further afield and we care about providing them with the best possible service we can - we want to support vibrant high streets in our towns and cities.  And finally, we hope (and we are told) that the design and quality of our clothes means that they can be passed from baby to baby and child to child again and again.

Not everyone can be expected to buy organic products all the time, but we hope that when people have the choice, they will think about the positive benefits to the environment, to the farmers and their families, that organic farming can bring.  

Within our small Oxford base, we also try to minimise our own environmental impact, so all of our company’s electricity comes from renewable sources and any ‘seconds’ (eg. garments with small printing faults) and end of season stock is donated to charities working with vulnerable babies and children.  Through the sale of our greeting cards, we also donate to the incredible work of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), the charity that provides medical assistance around the world in the most challenging and dangerous situations. 

In an increasingly global world, we think the small local things are important: the chat with the shopkeeper; the children playing in the park; the cup of tea with a neighbour. These simple things are like threads that are woven together into the fabric of day-to-day life and we don’t want to lose sight of them.

At Pigeon, we don’t want to grow huge, we just want to do what we love doing, working with people we like, in a way that has a positive impact wherever possible. 

Jane Shepherd (Founder)
 

Our certification
Almost our entire range is certified by the Soil Association in accordance with GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard).  We are very proud that this certification covers the entire supply chain, from field to finished product - see the full details below. 

The only products not covered by GOTS are our cosy knitted shawls which are made (from organic cotton) in India by a factory that is not yet GOTS certified (although it does hold internationally recognised certificates in social and environmental management).

GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards):
The Soil Association is the UK certification body which certifies our clothes in accordance with GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards). GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) is a globally agreed standard to which the main national certification bodies have signed up.  It not only covers environmental factors, but also social considerations by ensuring that all processors and manufacturers meet the minimum social criteria of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), covering employment practices, working conditions, pay, collective bargaining, and the banning of child labour.  For more information about GOTs, go to www.global-standard.org.