How do I buy ethically-sourced down and feather products?

So you fancy a bit of the feathery stuff for your home. Here's what you need to know about choosing ethically-sourced items

It’s up to you to shop responsibly. Look for the Downmark and other humane certification for feather fills. Pictures: iStock

Feather and down is part of the language of luxury. Outerwear aside — mattresses, toppers, duvets, cushions and bolsters floating on the softer under-feathers of domestic and wild fowl has been favoured since the Middle Ages.

Feather “ticks”, including the biological borrowings of various farmed birds, were precious dowries when a wealthier 14th-century woman married. Favoured over hay stitched into large sacks, the true feather bed, resplendent in a cambric-style cover with its baffled edges, was rolled up and carted from place to place even in wartime. In essentials, its design has changed very little.