While shopping for winter jackets, I realised that it’s impossible for me to tell where exactly the feathers of mass-produced down jackets came from. Therefore, I attempted to make my own down jacket in a relatively harmless way: by manually collecting the goose feathers on the grounds in parks, riverbanks and forests near my house in Breda, the Netherlands.
After two months of collecting, cleaning, filling and sewing, the jacket was put to the test over three weeks in the High Arctic – to see if I could survive. During a sailing expedition of The Arctic Circle Residency, I made 21 landings and glacier hikes wearing only this jacket and minimal base layers. A how-to guide – A Step by Step Guide for Making Your Own Down Jacket – was designed based on my experiences to allow everyone to make a similar garment where they live.
