The SMCP group (Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot, Fursac) has decided to ban down of animal origin from its collections. An eco-responsible decision that fashion brands are slow to take.
No more exotic skins, no more fur, more down… But with what SMCP group will he make the collections of his four brands? Don’t worry, Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot and Fursac can always count on linen, cotton, denim, viscose… In short, fabrics of natural or synthetic origin which have the advantage of not coming from animal exploitation, do not miss. Not to mention that, for now, SMCP continues to offer clothing in materials that are not vegan, such as leather, silk or wool.
It was by email that SMCP informed the animal protection association, Peta, of its decision: “Our group is committed to having completely removed duck and goose feathers by the fall-winter 2023 season”. , and this after having operated “for several seasons a shift in favor of alternative materials allowing, among other things, to replace feathers and down in each of our brands“. A choice that follows, therefore, a decision in 2019 to ban fur from its collections, then in 2020 to stop using exotic skins.
This decision was welcomed by Peta, who has been saying for years: “animals don’t belong to us and we don’t have to use them for our clothes“. If unlike fur, geese and ducks are not systematically killed for their down, they are on the other hand frequently live pluckedusing methods that the association qualifies as cruel. Used in the fashion and bedding industry, down of animal origin is an expanding market (+6% growth between 2020 and 2021 according to a report by Future Market Insights), which benefit in particular China, the United States, Germany and Hungary, the main producing countries. In the spring of 2022, AFP (Agence France Presse) noted that duck or goose feathers “gstill arn more than 80% of duvets and down jackets in the world“. The qualities that are usually attributed to down? It is light, compressible and insulating. Characteristics that are now found in more eco-responsible materials.
What can I replace animal down with?
Down jacket specialists are increasingly using sustainable alternatives. This is the case of Canada Goosewhich obtained the label Responsible Down Standardcertifying that the brand has chosen down that respects animal welfare, a by-product of the poultry industry. Monclerthe Italian benchmark for winter jackets, has for its part launched a recycling program in 2021. The label, which has pledged to abandon fur by 2023, has launched its sustainable collection named Born to Protectin which we find clothes stuffed with recycled down.
More radical, some claws give up the down altogether and turn, like Ganni, to the recycled polyester or like Everlane, towards the recycled plastic bottles (60 are needed to make the model ReNew Long Puffer). At Arc’Teryx too, jackets for skiers are stuffed with isynthetic insulation. But the prize for innovation goes to the very cool brand Pagaiawhich has actually developed its own material, FLWRDWN (for “flower down”, flower down in French). “Before FLWRDWN™, there were only two options for lightweight, thermo-protective jackets: animal feathers or synthetic down. We didn’t want to use animal feathers, because the process can sometimes be cruel and the synthetic alternative (usually polyester) is made using petrochemical resources (fossil fuels). We believe there are earth-positive alternatives that minimize impact and capitalize on new nature-inspired technologies“.
The padding used by Pangaia is obtained thanks to wild flowers, biopolymers derived from corn and an airgel patented by the brand. The brand, which sees itself as a collective of creatives, scientists and technology specialists, is not at its first attempt in terms of innovative materials: peelings, fermented microbes, grapes, hemp… Responsible and natural fabrics are commonplace in the label’s collections. Less poetic than wild flowers, the French company TchaoMégot has developed insulation from recycled cigarette butts. It takes 4,500 to make a down jacket, which can be pre-ordered on the firm’s website. An ingenious idea, even if the prospect of smelling wild flowers is more tempting than cold tobacco.