In Fine Feather

Although most of us now swear by sleeping under a Continental duvet, a duck-feather-filled eiderdown is the height of bedtime luxury.

- Tessa Waugh

WHEN Sir Terence Conran introduced duvets—or Continental quilts, as they were known then—to the shelves of habitat in 1964, he instigated a revolution in the bedroom. An advertising slogan of the time entreated customers to ‘sleep with a Swede’ and we didn’t need much persuading.

Duvets—named after the French word for down—were more comfortable and lighter than traditional blankets and, best of all, they saved time. Making a bed, previously a laborious process involving folding blankets and stretching and tucking in sheets, became a two-second exercise, involving a little sheet straightening, some pillow fluffing and a quick shake of the duvet. Job done.

We waved goodbye to blankets and hospital corners without a backward look, but were far less enthusiastic about giving up eiderdowns. No amount of low-maintenance Nordic living (or sexy Swedes) could seduce us into jettisoning the decorative, feather-filled quilts upon which both modern and historic ideas of luxury are in accord.

Eiderdowns, or eiderdown quilts, first appeared on our beds in Victorian times as an alternative to heavy and scratchy blankets. In those days, several layers were used on beds, beginning with a top sheet, then blankets, an eiderdown and, sometimes, a bedspread on top.