The question comes up often. Usually from a parent who's done their homework, someone who's clearly spent time reading labels, researching brands, figuring out what the certifications actually mean. And they ask it directly: "Are your clothes GOTS certified?"
The honest answer is: kind of. Not fully. It depends on which piece you're looking at, and what part of the process you're asking about.
I've been sitting with how to explain this for a while, because the honest answer is more nuanced than a yes or a no. The nuance is the more useful thing to know.
So. Let's talk about what GOTS actually certifies, where we stand, and why the full picture of what we do is harder to fit on a tag.
What GOTS actually certifies
GOTS stands for Global Organic Textile Standard. It's one of the most rigorous textile certifications in the industry, and it covers two things:
One: the fiber itself, meaning the cotton (or wool, or other natural fiber) was grown organically, without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers.
Two: the entire processing chain, meaning every step from raw fiber to finished garment meets chemical safety and social responsibility standards. Dyeing. Finishing. Manufacturing. All of it, audited.
That second part is where it gets complicated for small brands. Meeting the full chain of custody requires every facility in the chain to be independently certified, audited, and documented. That's a real cost and a real infrastructure lift. For small-batch brands working with family-run manufacturers, it often doesn't exist yet, even when the actual practices are genuinely there.
Where we actually stand
All of our cotton is certified organic. Every piece. That's the foundation, and it's non-negotiable for us.
For our sweaters, the organic cotton, baby alpaca, and merino wool pieces, we work with a small family operation in Peru that's been our partner for five years. Their organic cotton yarn is GOTS certified. The wool and alpaca fibers they use come from farmers in the Andes Mountains they know personally, with close working relationships built around humane animal care and sustainable land practices. The dyes they use are all natural, and they dye everything themselves.
Do they have a wall of formal certifications? No. They're a small family business, and that infrastructure costs money a family operation doesn't always have. But five years of working together means I know the standards they hold throughout their entire process, and I know the care they put into the relationships they hold with the farmers and artisans they work with.
For our woven styles, made in India, the story is different but equally specific. Our supplier there grows their own organic cotton, so they control the full process from start to finish. They carry the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) certification, India's organic textile standard. They're also Fair Trade certified and ISO 14001 certified, which covers environmental management across their operations.
Our printed bodysuits use GOTS certified cotton.
So why doesn't the finished garment say GOTS?
Because GOTS certification covers the full chain of custody, every link, every facility. Our materials clear the bar. The reason the finished garment doesn't carry the GOTS label across our whole line is that completing the full chain certification requires every partner in the chain to hold that certification independently.
That's a process we're working toward in some areas. In others, we've made a deliberate choice to work with partners we know deeply and trust completely, even when they don't have the certification to prove it to a third party.
I want to be honest about that distinction. "Working toward" is different from "already there." And "trust the partner" is different from "audited certification." Both are real. Neither is the same as the other.
What we do instead of a label
We ask questions. We choose partners based on relationship first, not just paperwork. We prioritize suppliers who have full control over their own process, which is part of why our India supplier growing their own cotton matters so much. Fewer handoffs means fewer gaps.
We use natural dyes where we can. We produce in small batches. We design for longevity so these pieces aren't heading to a landfill after one season. And we built a trade-back program so they can keep going when your little one grows out of them.
If you want to go deeper on why natural fibers matter in the first place, this post is a good place to start.
None of that replaces a certification. But it's not nothing, either.
The thing I actually want you to know
The certification system exists to solve a real problem: global supply chains are hard to verify. Certifications give you a shortcut, a trusted third party saying "we checked, and this is what it says it is."
I believe in that system. I want to build toward more of it.
But a brand can hold a GOTS label and still produce at a scale that misses the spirit of what it certifies. And a brand without full chain certification can still be doing genuinely careful, considered work.
The best version isn't one or the other. It's asking the question, which is what you're doing when you ask us about this.
So: thank you for asking. Here's the honest answer. And here's my commitment: as we grow, we're going to keep building toward more formal verification, more transparency, more of the chain certified end-to-end. We're not there yet. But we know exactly where we're going.
xoxo Megan