Giving back: Feel-good children’s fashion

If you need a new reason to hit the shops and update your little one’s wardrobe, I’ve scooped out some of the children’s fashion pieces you can buy to support a good cause!

Jeans
Fulham-based children’s brand Pepa & Co, which has a showroom on Filmer Road, has a jeans line (see picture above) with beads embroidered on the pockets by women from the Samburu tribe. Each pair of Kenya Jeans provide the women with work and a salary, and profits from the sale of the jeans go towards education projects in the Samburu National Reserve. Behind this project are Pepa González, founder of Pepa & Co, and Julia Framcombe, founder of Samburu Trust.

Shoes
For shoes, check out shoe and eyewear brand Toms, which gives a pair of new shoes to a child in need for each pair you buy. Toms has a range of shoes for children, including classic Toms shoes, Mary-Jane shoes and shoes with laces. The company has given away more than 10 million pairs of new shoes to children, and in recent years, it has also expanded the one-for-one model to eyewear, with each pair of glasses sold restoring sight for a person in need.

T-shirts
New York-based clothing brand Out of Print’s collection includes a range of printed t-shirts for children, featuring iconic book covers, such as Pride and Prejudice and Babar. In addition to spreading the joy of reading, the company donates one book to a community in need through its partner Books For Africa for each product sold.

Closer to home, John Lewis teamed up with London-based children’s charity Kids Company last year to launch an exclusive range of clothing, and the collection includes a selection of colourful t-shirts, including some designed to mark the John Lewis 150th anniversary. For girl’s, there’s a pink London-themed collage t-shirt drawn by children using pictures of John Lewis archive prints, and 10% of sales go to Kids Company.

Tags: Charity, Jeans, Out of Print, Pepa & Co, Shoes, T-shirt, TOMS