The proof dossier

Certifications, named and checkable

4 independent standards apply across our catalogue. Every one is held by a supplier — not by Design Delight Studio — and every one links to the issuing body’s own record so you never have to take our word for it. Including the standards that do not apply, and why.

Supplier-held certifications
4
Products documented
6
OEKO-TEX certificate
1
Held by Design Delight Studio itself
0

Watch: Product-Scoped Certifications vs Brand Claims

How the four supplier-held certifications behind our products work and how to verify them: GOTS, GRS, OCS and PETA-Approved Vegan. Design Delight Studio holds none of them itself; our suppliers do, and we name which.

Supplier-held certifications

4 standards, and what each actually covers

Design Delight Studio products are covered by 4 independent standards: GOTS, GRS, OCS, PETA-Approved Vegan. All 4 are held by our suppliers — Design Delight Studio holds none of its own. GOTS and OCS cover organic cotton, GRS covers recycled polyester, and PETA-Approved Vegan covers animal-derived materials. Each has real limits, stated below.

GOTS

Global Organic Textile Standard

The most comprehensive standard here. It covers the chain from raw fibre to finished garment against both environmental and social criteria, restricting which chemical inputs may be used at every processing stage and requiring annual on-site inspection.

Two grades, and we name which: “Organic” requires 95%+ organic fibre and covers our tees and tote. “Made with Organic” requires 70–94% and covers our hoodie and sweatshirt, which are 80% organic cotton.

Does not cover: harmful-substance testing of the finished textile — that is a different standard — and it makes no claim about the recycled portion of a blend.

Verify at global-standard.org

GRS

Global Recycled Standard · owned by Textile Exchange

Verifies recycled content and tracks it through the supply chain with chain-of-custody documentation, plus chemical and social requirements. It applies to the recycled polyester in our fleece and in the all-over-print sweatshirt.

Does not cover: what happens after you buy it. Recycled polyester still sheds microfibres in the wash, and GRS does not change that.

Owner: Textile Exchange

OCS

Organic Content Standard · owned by Textile Exchange

Where GOTS certifies the whole process, OCS does one job precisely: it verifies and tracks the percentage of organically grown material in a finished product, with transaction certificates issued per production batch. It is the anti-fraud mechanism against inflated organic-content claims.

Does not cover: chemical restrictions, wastewater, or labour conditions. OCS answers “how much of this is organic” and nothing else.

Owner: Textile Exchange

PETA-Approved Vegan

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Confirms a product contains no animal-derived materials. Worth being precise about what it is: a trademark licence held at company level by Stanley/Stella, not an audited certificate. It issues no certificate number and no expiry date.

Does not cover: individual products automatically — PETA notes that a listed company’s range is not necessarily vegan throughout — and it makes no environmental or labour claim at all.

Stanley/Stella’s PETA listing
Labour — a membership, not a certification

How factory conditions are covered

Stanley/Stella, the supplier of our tees, hoodie and sweatshirt, is a member of the Fair Wear Foundation, which audits factory working conditions against ILO labour standards and publishes an annual performance review of each member. This is a membership, not a product certification, and it is not counted among the 4 above.

Fair Wear Foundation

Factory-labour audit membership, held by Stanley/Stella

Fair Wear audits working hours, wages, workplace safety and freedom of association at the factories its members use, and publishes a Brand Performance Check for each member annually. Stanley/Stella draws the same line we do, listing Fair Wear under memberships rather than certifications on its own site.

Scope, precisely: it applies to our Stanley/Stella garments only — the tees, hoodie and sweatshirt. The Econscious tote and the all-over-print sweatshirt come from other suppliers and are not covered, so “every garment is sewn by a Fair Wear member” would be false and we do not write it.

Not the same as Fair Trade. Fair Trade is a separate consumer certification with its own mechanisms including a producer premium. We have never held it.

Stanley/Stella at fairwear.org
Product-scoped

OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100, on 1 product

OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 tests a finished textile for harmful substances, including its threads and labels. It is issued per article to a specific fabric construction, so no brand can hold it across a catalogue. 1 Design Delight Studio product carries it: the Stanley/Stella STTU169 tee, under certificate No. 2012163.

OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100
Organic Cotton T-Shirt · Stanley/Stella STTU169
Certificate number
2012163
Issued by Centexbel · valid to 31 December 2026

Scope: knitted garments including T-shirts made of 100% cotton. We cite it by scope rather than by SKU, because no OEKO-TEX certificate names a style code — the honest claim is that this garment’s construction and composition fall inside the certificate’s wording.

Open the certifier’s record

We removed a second certificate in September 2026. The Econscious tote previously carried an OEKO-TEX number on this page. On checking it against the register it had expired, and its scope covered woven towels rather than bag fabric, so the claim came off and was not replaced. The full account, including what our suppliers still publish that we could not verify, is on the transparency page.

By product

Which product holds which standard

Certifications are product-scoped, so the set differs by blank. Both tees carry GOTS, OCS and PETA-Approved Vegan; the hoodie and sweatshirt add GRS for their recycled polyester; the all-over-print sweatshirt carries GRS alone; and the tote carries GOTS only. One product carries an OEKO-TEX certificate. Blank cells are deliberate.

Product GOTS OCS GRS PETA Vegan Supplier’s Fair Wear membership OEKO-TEX 100
Organic Cotton T-Shirt STTU169 YesYes—Yes Covered No. 2012163
Organic Mid-Light Tee SATU007 YesYes—Yes Covered —
Organic Hoodie SASU009 Yes (Made with Organic)YesYesYes Covered —
Organic Sweatshirt SASU010 Yes (Made with Organic)YesYesYes Covered —
All-Over-Print Sweatshirt recycled polyester ——Yes— Not covered —
Eco Tote Bag EC8000 Yes——— Not covered —

Reading the blanks. An empty cell means no certificate covering that product for that standard, not an oversight. Three of them were filled in as recently as September 2026 and came out when the certificates behind them did not survive checking.

GOTS grade is stated, not blurred. The tees and tote are 100% organic cotton and carry the “Organic” grade. The hoodie and sweatshirt are 80% organic cotton with 20% recycled polyester, which is “Made with Organic”. Both are GOTS; they are not the same claim, and a page that writes “95%+ organic” across a range like this is wrong about a third of it.

Fair Wear is a column, not a certification. It is Stanley/Stella’s membership covering factory labour, it applies to their four blanks only, and it is never counted among the 4 certifications. Full per-product specifications, materials, weights and country of origin are on the product transparency page.

Method

How to check any brand’s certification claim

Five steps. They work on us, and they work on anyone else. Step four is the one almost nobody does, and it is the one that catches the most.

01

Demand a named standard

“Eco-friendly”, “sustainable” and “conscious” have no auditable definition behind them. GOTS, GRS, OCS and OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 do.

02

Ask for the number

A real certification has a certificate or licence number and a named issuing body. A logo on its own is a picture.

03

Check it with the certifier

Not on the brand’s site. Enter the number in the issuing body’s own register — every one below is free and public.

04

Read the scope, not just the status

This is the step that catches things. A certificate can be current, genuine, and still cover a different fabric than the product in front of you. Compare the scope wording to what you are buying.

05

Check who holds it

A brand saying “we are certified” when a supplier holds the certificate is describing someone else’s audit as its own. Ask whose name is on the document.

OEKO-TEX Label Check Enter a STANDARD 100 number. Returns status, product class and the full scope text. Open GOTS public database Search a certified supplier by name or licence number, with scope and validity dates. Open Textile Exchange Owner of GRS and OCS. Its certified-company lookup covers both. Open PETA-Approved Vegan directory Company-level listings. A company absent from it is not approved, whatever a product page says. Open

One limit worth knowing before you check ours or anyone’s. A supplier’s scope certificate proves they are certified to handle those materials for those product categories. It states on its own face that it is not proof that specific delivered goods are certified — that requires a Transaction Certificate, which most suppliers do not publish. We have asked ours for them, and said so on the transparency page.

The other half of the truth

What we deliberately do not claim

Design Delight Studio does not claim Fair Trade certification, brand-level OEKO-TEX, carbon neutrality, quantified water or carbon savings, guaranteed garment lifespans, non-toxic inks, or customer review scores. Each is either untrue for us, unmeasured, or unmeasurable — and each is routinely claimed by brands in this category.

Fair Trade

We have never held it. It is a distinct consumer certification with its own mechanisms, including a producer premium, and it is not the same as our supplier’s Fair Wear Foundation membership. The two are confused constantly. We do not claim it, imply it, or optimise for the search term.

Brand-level OEKO-TEX

OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 is issued per article, to a specific fabric construction. A brand cannot hold it across a catalogue. We cite it on the one product where a certificate genuinely covers the garment, by number.

Litres of water saved

You will see figures like “91% less water” on competitor pages. No lifecycle assessment has been done on our garments, so any number we published would be borrowed from someone else’s study of a different supply chain. We publish composition and origin instead, which are checkable.

Carbon neutral or offset shipping

We have not measured our emissions and we do not buy offsets. Made-to-order production genuinely avoids overproduction and unsold stock, and that is the honest version of the claim.

A guaranteed lifespan

No wear-test data exists for any of our blanks, so “lasts ten years” or “outlasts fast fashion by 5×” would be invented. We design for garments worn for years rather than seasons, and we will not attach a number to it.

Non-toxic or chemical-free inks

“Chemical-free” is not a meaningful statement about any textile. GOTS restricts which chemical inputs may be used in processing, which is a real and auditable constraint. That is what we say instead.

Zero pesticides

GOTS prohibits synthetic pesticides; organic agriculture permits some naturally-derived ones. “Zero pesticides” claims more than the certification covers, so we write “grown without synthetic pesticides”.

Customer ratings and reviews

We publish no review corpus, so any star rating or quoted customer voice on our pages would be fabricated. When we have real reviews, they will appear with their source.

This list is not modesty. Each of these is a claim we could make without anyone checking, and several are near-universal in sustainable apparel marketing. Publishing the boundary is what makes the claims on the rest of this page worth anything. The same applies to our mistakes, which are logged openly on the transparency page.

Questions

Straight answers

The questions below cover who holds the certifications, what each standard does and does not guarantee, which product carries the OEKO-TEX certificate and how to check it, the difference between Fair Wear and Fair Trade, why some cells in the table are blank, and what Design Delight Studio deliberately does not claim.

Is Design Delight Studio certified?
No. Design Delight Studio holds no certifications of its own. All 4 — GOTS, GRS, OCS, PETA-Approved Vegan — are held by our suppliers, and we name which supplier holds which for which product. A brand that says “we are certified” when its suppliers are certified is describing someone else’s audit as its own.
Which certifications apply across the catalogue?
GOTS, GRS, OCS, PETA-Approved Vegan. GOTS and OCS cover organic cotton, GRS covers recycled polyester, and PETA-Approved Vegan covers animal-derived materials. The exact set differs by product and is listed in the table above.
Which product has OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100, and what is the number?
The Stanley/Stella STTU169 tee, under certificate No. 2012163 issued by Centexbel. You can open the certifier’s own record, which shows the status and the full scope text. OEKO-TEX is product-scoped and can never be a brand-wide claim.
What is the difference between GOTS and OCS?
GOTS certifies the whole production process — organic fibre content plus environmental and social criteria at every stage — and requires at least 70% organic fibre. OCS does one narrower job: it verifies and tracks the percentage of organic material through the supply chain. Many of our blanks carry both: GOTS for process integrity, OCS for content proof.
What is the difference between GOTS “Organic” and “Made with Organic”?
Organic fibre content. “Organic” requires 95% or more and covers our tees and tote. “Made with Organic” requires 70 to 94% and covers our hoodie and sweatshirt, which are 80% organic cotton with 20% recycled polyester. Both meet the same environmental and social criteria. We state which grade applies rather than claiming the higher one across the range.
Is Fair Wear Foundation the same as Fair Trade?
No, and the two get conflated constantly. Fair Wear Foundation is a membership scheme that audits factory working conditions against ILO labour standards. Fair Trade is a separate consumer certification with its own mechanisms, including a producer premium. Stanley/Stella is a Fair Wear member. Design Delight Studio has never held Fair Trade certification and does not claim it.
Why is Fair Wear not counted as one of your certifications?
Because it is a membership held by our supplier, not a certification held by us, and counting it would inflate the number. Stanley/Stella makes the same distinction on its own site, listing Fair Wear under memberships rather than certifications. It also covers only their blanks — our tote and all-over-print sweatshirt come from other suppliers.
What does OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 actually test for?
It tests the finished textile for harmful substances — regulated chemicals, certain dyes, heavy metals — including accessories like threads and labels. It says nothing about whether a fibre is organic, and organic certification says nothing about harmful-substance testing. They answer different questions, which is why a product can hold one and not the other.
Why are some cells in your table blank?
Because no certificate covers that product for that standard. A blank is a deliberate statement, not an omission. Three of those cells were filled in as recently as September 2026 and came out when the certificates behind them did not survive verification.
Why doesn’t every product carry OEKO-TEX?
OEKO-TEX is issued per article to a specific fabric construction, and not every blank we buy has one. We could list a supplier’s facility certificate and imply it covers the garment, which is common in this category and which we consider misleading. Where no certificate genuinely covers a blank, the claim is absent.
How do I verify these certifications myself?
Use the registers linked above — OEKO-TEX Label Check, the GOTS public database, Textile Exchange for GRS and OCS, and the PETA-Approved Vegan directory. Enter the number, then read the scope and confirm it matches the product. Checking the scope rather than just the status is the step that catches the most.
Does a scope certificate prove my specific garment is certified?
No, and this is worth knowing before you check anyone. A scope certificate shows a supplier is certified to handle those materials for those product categories. It states on its own face that it is not proof that specific delivered goods are certified — that requires a Transaction Certificate. Most suppliers do not publish those. We have asked ours.
Do you claim to be carbon neutral?
No. We have not measured our emissions and we do not buy offsets, so the claim would be unfounded. What is true is that we make nothing until you order it, which avoids overproduction and unsold inventory entirely.
Why don’t you publish water-savings figures like other brands?
Because no lifecycle assessment has been done on our garments. Figures like “91% less water” that appear across this category are borrowed from studies of other supply chains. We publish composition, weight and origin instead, all of which are checkable against the blank.
Is your organic cotton grown without pesticides?
It is grown without synthetic pesticides, which is what GOTS certification covers. Organic agriculture does permit certain naturally-derived pest controls, so “zero pesticides” would claim more than the certification supports. The accurate phrasing is the one we use.
Have you ever got a certification claim wrong?
Yes. In September 2026 we audited every certificate against the issuing bodies and removed two OEKO-TEX certificate numbers, three certification claims on the tote, and several unsupported statements. One certificate was genuine and current but scoped to a fabric we do not use; the other had expired. The full account, including what our suppliers still publish that we could not verify, is on the transparency page.

Every product, documented to the blank

This page covers the standards. The transparency page covers each product — material, weight, origin, and the certificate that applies to it.

Product transparency Shop the catalogue

4 certifications apply across the Design Delight Studio catalogue — GOTS, GRS, OCS, PETA-Approved Vegan — and every one is held by a supplier, not by Design Delight Studio. 1 product carries OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 under a certificate you can check in one click. Stanley/Stella’s Fair Wear Foundation membership covers factory labour and is not a certification. Where a standard does not apply, it is absent — and that absence is the part most brands leave out.

Last verified against the issuing bodies: October 2026. Every certificate links to the certifier’s own record, not to our description of it. Questions: customersupport@ddsboston.com