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 small people. But we also care out where our cotton comes from, who makes our clothes, who sells them and who wears them.  

As well as designing our collections, we also want to make a difference wherever we can.

A helping hand – According to WOMENSAID.ORG.UK “On average two women are killed by their partner or ex-partner every week in England and Wales.”  We are pleased to send some of our spare stock to refuges supporting vulnerable women and their children in Oxfordshire (our home county).

Refugee support – We find it impossible to imagine being forced from our home, our town and possibly even our country.  According to the UN, by the end of 2017, 68.5 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide – the highest level ever seen. In what feels like a tiny gesture given the size of the problem, we recently sent two pallets of spare stock to be used in refugee camps in Greece, under the guidance of the charity Everyday Refugees. 

Baby Bank Network Whether or not we’ve had children ourselves, we all know what a wonderful but also challenging time it can be. There is huge pressure to do the right thing, be a good parent and to provide the very best in terms of emotional wellbeing and physical goods for the new baby; so potentially (and ironically) it can be an incredibly difficult, lonely and stressful time. We're delighted to support three Baby Banks in Exeter, Birmingham and Bristol with donations of spare stock.

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 we are currently in transition to compostable bags for our packaging. 

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.