Feathers

Feathers are enjoying huge popularity as trimmings for fashion and home decoration. The most popular feathers are ostrich, peacock, guinea fowl, and marabou.

Ostrich feathers

Ostrich feathers range in size from 20 to 100cm and are ideal for masks, fans, head-dresses, bridal wear, trimmings and feather dusters. The latter are all the rage following Kim and Aggie's 'How clean is your house?' TV series. Ostrich feathers fans are a wonderfully opulent evening accessory, and make a plain slinky dress look stunning.

Peacock feathers

The rich iridescent greeny-blue of peacock feathers makes a dazzling trimming for costumes, masks, head dresses and bridal wear. The eye feathers are especially prized. Peacock feathers are collected from live birds during their normal moulting process. The feathers are fumigated and washed before they are used for decoration.

Guinea fowl

Guinea fowl feathers are spectacularly spotty, in shades of cream and brown. They are about the size of hen feathers and are usually sewn into fringes. In fashion and clothing, they are used to adorn jackets, dresses and lapel lines, and in home decoration, for fringing lampshades and throws.

Marabou feathers

The majority of marabou feathers used today are the soft down feathers of the American turkey. The feathers are small and light and are bound into boas of various thickness. Marabou feathers go particularly well with satin and are often used to edge glamorous nightwear.