Light, insulating, with swelling power: the properties of goose or duck down remain unequaled compared to petroleum-derived materials which still fill more than 80% of duvets and down jackets in the world, according to estimates by professionals in the downwear sector. feather.
Despite their higher cost, animal down jackets are offered by almost all fashion and leisure clothing brands, sold from 60 or 70 euros by C&A, Zara or H&M, and can reach several thousand euros at Moncler or Louis Vuitton.
“More and more consumers are making sustainability a key factor in their purchasing decision. As down comes from natural sources, responsibly sourced down is a good option to include alongside synthetic materials,” highlights before Julian Lings, head of sustainability at The North Face, a famous outdoor clothing brand.
In 2014, after "being made aware of the risks of animal abuse in the food supply chain" providing it with its down, The North Face co-created, with the NGO Textile Exchange and a certification body, the label RDS guaranteeing in particular that the waterfowl are neither plucked alive nor force-fed.
Feathers in the Interplume factory in Saint-Hermine (Vendée) on March 9, 2022 Loic VENANCE AFP
"In 2020, the RDS standard covered 636 million birds worldwide", specifies Textile Exchange.
Downpass, another reference label, certified more than 5,700 tonnes of feathers and down in the same year, in a world market estimated at 180,000 tonnes (all uses combined) and dominated by China.
Less than 1% of palmipeds in the world - raised primarily for their meat - would still undergo live plucking, in China and Eastern Europe, according to the independent reference laboratory IDFL.
flowers and even cigarette butts
Even more eco-responsible than feathers, its recycled version: Uniqlo, giant of the down jacket famous for its ultra-light version to slip under a coat, started from the idea of "involving" customers, by inviting them to bring back to the store the items they no longer put: some 830,000 down jackets have been recovered since 2019 and their down reused in new collections.
A recycling program was also launched in mid-2021 by Moncler.
The giant (listed on the stock exchange) of the luxury down jacket, which announced in January to give up fur like many fashion brands, however has no intention of doing without down.
Surprising alternatives also exist: H&M - a clothing giant that offers down jackets made from recycled down from pillows - is innovating with a down jacket with vegan filling "approved" by the animal rights organization Peta, containing wildflowers and sold for 249 euros.
Less bucolic but just as ecological, the start-up TchaoMégot cleans up cigarette butts "without water or toxic products" to make an insulating material for construction or clothing: 4,500 butts are needed for a down jacket, for example.
An employee of the Interplume factory in Saint-Hermine in Vendée checks the quality of feathers on March 9, 2022 Loic VENANCE AFP
"Companies that collect the butts of their employees for us order down jackets from us to + close the loop +. But we would like to go on a larger scale, according to our ethical values. However, we refused the proposals of large textile groups who wanted to send the fiber to thousands of kilometers for the manufacture. If we recycle cigarette butts, it is not to then dump CO2 by making them travel", highlights Olympe Delaunay, in charge of communication.
Recycled or not, it is out of the question to use animal down for the Italian brand of down jackets Save the Duck (literally "save the ducks") which wants above all to preserve them "from the cruelty that the industry imposes. In ten years, we have sold 5 million down jackets and thus saved more than 20 million" waterfowl, highlights its president Nicola Bargi, who indicates that he is using "more and more padding from the recycling of plastic bottles" to limit the environmental impact of synthetic.
© 2022 AFP