Ugly Guy in a Winter Coat Funny
Say what you like about Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, it turns out that he may be the most ethically conscious fashion person in the world.
I discovered this recently when I became interested in the rise of the puffer jacket. Why were we all wearing them this winter? The down jacket, once used only when climbing Everest, is now on the back of every parent on a chilly Saturday morning at netball, on every skier, on everyone out in the cold.
While I appreciate its effectiveness, I think they look terrible.
The puffer jacket, made of sewn together tubes filled with feathers or down, makes everyone look like they're wearing plastic garbage bags. It makes everyone look puffy.
Weren't they enough to withstand the rigors of an Australian winter even in Melbourne or Hobart?
Why do we now need to look like a shivering tribe of Michelin people?
So, I asked my radio listeners and we determined that it was similar to the rise of active wear and other sports costume that we now wear everywhere. Track suits, training shoes, yoga leggings, puffer jacket: all the same thing.
We heat our homes and malls more now, so we dress lightly and then throw on the jacket for the moments outside. And our retail landscape has changed. The arrival of Asian and European stores like Uniqlo, H&M and Zara which stock these jackets means they're available.
And then we got to the main point. They're cheap and they're effective.
Cheap. For a potentially ghastly reason.
It's in the filling
A listener suggested that it may be best not to buy the cheap jackets as the down they are filled with may be gathered in ways that many might find unpleasant, if not horrific.
Down comes from geese and mainly ducks. How do we get down from a duck?
Well, unless your jacket is filled with down that meets the TDS, the Traceable Down Standard, then it's likely that the down was live plucked.
Live plucking is an exact description.
The bird is then returned to the pen until the feathers grow back and can be plucked again. This can happen up to four times a year.
In 2012, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a video of the practice. Shot in China, which produces 80 per cent of the world's down, it's ghastly and disturbing.
A new standard
This video prompted some companies to adopt what is now known as the global traceable down standard.
This is administered by the international standards body, the NSF and through a system of audit from farm to factory, claims to deliver down that has not been live plucked, nor have the animals been force fed, or subject to cruelty in any way.
It's a stringent process but only a tiny fraction of the down produced in the world today meets this standard.
In 2016 PETA went back to China, shot video again and showed that live plucking was still occurring. The sheer numbers suggest this as well.
A single harvest from a single bird, whether live plucked or harvested after the bird has been killed for consumption, yields around 60 grams of down.
Last year Japan alone imported 6,000 tonnes of down. A tonne is a million grams.
At four harvests a year, that's 20 harvests. If live plucking is stopped, the down industry has gone from 20 harvests per bird to one.
The questions are straightforward. Where is all this down coming from? And it tends to be only high end jackets that can afford to meet the traceable down standard — so what about all the others?
The symbiotic duck
So what of Vladimir Putin? How come he's so woke to all this?
There is one way of collecting down from a waterfowl which is 100 per cent sustainable, leads to no pain or anguish for the bird involved and may actually improve their life.
Jon Sveinsson lives in Iceland. On his land nests the eider duck.
The eider duck spends most of the year out on the North Atlantic ocean. It comes to land just once a year to nest and lay its eggs. In Iceland, the duck and humans have developed an extraordinary relationship, a true symbiosis where both species are now intertwined and each benefit.
The eider duck makes its nest and then after laying its eggs it deliberately sheds its down. It does this to transfer maximum body heat from its now bare chest to the eggs. And it uses the down to line the nest.
Since the Norse settled Iceland in 900 AD, Icelanders have collected this down. Jon Sveinsson's family have been involved in eider down collection for the past century.
After collecting the down from the nest they replace it with dry hay. This is a better insulating material than the original down which tends to get wet and rot.
The birds are so accustomed to this ritual that when Jon approaches they move a few feet away, allow him to gather the down and then they return to their nest.
There is no other way of doing this. You can't cage the duck, you can't breed the duck: only if the duck lives out its wild life will the down be produced. It's a unique relationship. Name the other animal product we harvest without harming or changing the animal.*
It takes 55 nests to create one kilogram. Iceland exports 3 tonnes of eider down per year.
A genuine eider coverlet or blanket sells for more than 10,000 Euro.
It's expensive, rare and its use in clothing is limited. Russian Tsars had eider coats and you can currently order one custom made. And there is one Russian leader today, who has done so.
Putin's new coat
Jon Sveinsson received an order for 2 kilograms of down from a Moscow jacket manufacturer.
The manufacturer wanted his best quality as he was about to make a jacket for the "Number One Face of Russia". Jon explained that's what they call the President, Vladimir Putin. Putin wanted an eider down puffer jacket for himself and several of his close friends.
Not that you'll see him in it. Putin doesn't tend to parade his wealth and in fact even if you did an eider duck puffer jacket would look like, well, a puffer jacket.
Vladimir however can feel doubly warm. Eider down is some of the most effective heat insulating material on the planet so he can keep those icy Russian winds at bay while he also can bask in a warm inner glow knowing that the down in his jacket was given willingly, sustainably and joyfully by 55 nesting pairs of wild eider ducks.
Putin's jacket would cost about 10,000 euro.
Right now, you can buy a full-length down coat at any number of discount stores for $70. A short jacket for $40, a vest for $20 or $30.
But what does that jacket really cost?
*Ambergris. Produced in the bile duct of a sperm whale, it washes up on beaches and has been used in the production of perfume.
Posted , updated
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-02/the-rise-of-the-puffer-jacket-has-a-dark-side/8857236
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