Meet the Maker: Jessica Hanley, Piglet in Bed

We are very excited to be welcoming you instore…for those who may not have heard about you, could you tell us more about Piglet in Bed?

And we’re very excited to be joining you! I founded Piglet in Bed in 2017 from my mother’s garden shed in rural West Sussex. We started super small with 100% European linen bedding in three simple colourways, and gradually found that there was a community of people who, like me, wanted to invest in high quality pieces for their home that were beautiful but also low maintenance. As our following and customer base began to grow, we gradually added to the collection with more colourways and linen sleepwear for men and women.

In the last few years we’ve totally transformed our product offering, introducing new patterns such as gingham, as well as introducing sustainably-sourced cotton bedding and towels (amongst other ranges!). At the heart of it all is still a focus on homewares that are made from high quality and transparently-sourced natural materials, a celebration of rural Britain, and the idea that our lives and our homes are first and foremost made for living.

Your bedding is just beautiful… what was your inspiration for the brand?

Thank you! Growing up I felt like a lot of brands had a fairly prescriptive notion of what shoppers should be buying, how we should be dressing, doing our makeup and decorating our homes etc. With the rise of Instagram native brands, I started to see that change for a number of product categories but not so much for homewares. I was inspired to create a brand that empowered our community to have fun styling their interiors and to feel effortlessly comfortable at home. Linen was a dream fabric to get started with because, as well as being very sustainable to produce, it is low maintenance and looks nice even if you skip making the bed one day!

Your dedication to sustainability can be seen across the whole of Piglet in Bed. Can you tell us more about where and how you source materials? And why doing this is so important to you?

Sustainability has always been at the heart of what we do and we know that it matters immensely to our customers who are always looking for ways to reduce their footprint and choose more natural materials.

Linen is a fantastic choice because it is farmed in small batches, irrigated with rain water and using almost no perticides. The flax plant's root system and the fact that it is commonly farmed as a rotation crop also make it very soil friendly. When we eventually branched out into other materials such as cotton and wool it was really important to us that we were maintaining these same high sourcing standards and so that meant bringing on some experts to help us to understand which standards and certifications mattered the most when choosing fabrics. We feel proud of the choices we have made in terms of the materials, factories we work with, packaging and of the many other intricacies that go into making the business as sustainable as possible but the process is never complete and we are always on the lookout for ways to improve.

Your bedding reminds us of lazy Sunday mornings… could you describe your perfect Sunday?

Cooking up something tasty for brunch with my husband before heading out on a dog walk with Henry, our big and bouncy Portuguese Water Dog who loves nothing more than diving into the lake near our house! There are few things that make me happier than spending a Sunday afternoon curled up on the sofa in my PJs watching travel shows or my absolute favourite: Countryfile. I think watching British TV is even more nurturing an experience now that I am far from home. I also love to light a Piglet in Bed candle to really switch my brain into relaxation mode.