The red carpet has been a hotbed of sartorial protest this year, with influential people opting to express their politics through their wardrobe. But as many celebrities scramble for the moral high ground, some controversial guests have slipped under the radar. They go by a few names – marabou, ostrich, peacock – and accompanied Angelina Jolie to the Critics’ Choice awards, Lupita Nyong’o to the Cannes film festival and Katy Perry to the Met Gala.
Yes, feathers are suddenly everywhere again – not only in the wardrobes of glossy style icons, but also on embellished fascinators (as worn by the Duchess of Cornwall at the royal wedding) and in a sizeable proportion of the nation’s pillows, parkas and duvets. Yet, in some quarters, there is a growing discomfort with them.
The fashion industry has a celebrated history with feathers. They were one of Coco Chanel’s favourite motifs, frequently used as embellishments in her collections, as well as those of her contemporaries Cristóbal Balenciaga, Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. The late Alexander McQueen was inspired by the feather – “[its] colours, its graphics, its weightlessness and its engineering” – and used it elaborately in his designs.
Fastforward a decade, to the recent spring/summer 2018 fashion shows, and feathers fluttered down the catwalks of fashion houses including Saint Laurent, Maison Margiela and Moschino, making them a high street trend right about now.
This pervasiveness goes some way to explaining why feathers have not rung the same alarm bells in the public consciousness as animal products such as fur and exotic skins. “Opinion polls show that the overwhelming majority of Brits would never dream of wearing real fur – because most have a clear idea by now of the ways in which animals suffer on fur farms and when caught in steel-jaw traps in the wild,” says Yvonne Taylor, the director of corporate projects at Peta. “However, many shoppers are still unaware of the cruelty inherent in the down and feather industries.” Peta claims that “workers in China – the source of 80% of the world’s down – forcefully restrain geese and rip their feathers out as they struggle and scream”. The organisation recently made headlines when it accused Canada Goose of mistreating the geese in its supply chain (an allegation that was denied by the outerwear brand).
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
