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Aadmit it: we have heard it told to us many, many times by our apprehensive mother, by our life partner or by our inner voice.
And you immediately go to put it on down filled comforter, to still feel a little of the warmth of home, to face General Winter's military strategist with greater courage and with adequate equipment.
After all, how can you say no to the softness that envelops us, to the warmth that isolates you from the outside world the moment we zip up your jacket, to the chemistry that arises when comfort is linked to elegance?
Well, my friend, I know the answer.
I can undermine the sensations we wear with this winter garment - warmth, whiteness and why not? Also tenderness - in two simple words:
“Intensive farming”.
A noun and an adjective. A semantic coupling that hides a crude reality of repeated tortures against defenseless and featherless ducklings (goose chicks), and that tells of cramped living spaces, where not even one square meter is allowed.
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In Italy the law is clear, it is article 19 of legislative decree 146/2001 which prohibits the plucking of live birds.
But it is a ban that can easily be circumvented in a larger legal system, Europe, where the process of acquiring this soft and precious material is not illegal, as long as the procedures and hygiene-sanitary regulations to protect the animal are respected.
In fact, European legislation provides for combing as the only method for obtaining feathers. The geese would suffer neither physical trauma nor stress from treatment.
The rules, as we know, are for the honest and the naïve.
There are many countries in the union that do not enforce the rules properly, in particular Hungary which has the largest number of geese farms for feathers in all of Europe, followed by Poland and Romania.
Places where cruelty to animals is repeated not once but a hundred a day for each worker, who tries to improve more and more in what she does, between the apathy and addiction of those used to giving in to violence every day .
Because it is piecework and the more they pluck, the more they will be paid and therefore plunge into this loop of fear, pain and blood.
It's not theirs, but their conscience will be washed with the next washing of hands.
But I'll give you a chance: come in with me, be involved in what's happening and what you're not aware of. This time, however, let's leave aside the clothes of homo sapiens.
Let us immerse ourselves without hesitation in a suffocating, dirty and inhospitable place through the eyes of one of the victims. Let's see what it feels like to feel like a “trapped goose”.
How would you feel about being on the other side of the bars?
Cold, an inhuman cold.
The dark air that surrounds me and my companions in misfortune in this narrow world hurts me: it is like a sharp blade in contact with the skin, now naked and covered only by exposed scars. The torturers are quick but not precise in what they do.
The real pain is at least gone for today, even if it's getting harder to resist. Today it was my neighbor's turn in prison.
She screamed and squirmed, putting up a fierce resistance, but they continued to tear away, area after area, the top layer of her skin until she was convulsing, screaming feebly and never moving again. .
That macabre sight had triggered something. An ancient force had taken advantage of this to take possession of my nerves and muscles, forcing me into inertia.
Even the tears no longer marched outward.
I was incapable of making the slightest movement and continued to suffer, this time in silence.
Then a weak idea, tired but still such. Time to formulate it, I had already closed my eyes and started to hope.
In the end of the nightmare, the end of the terror.
The end of everything.
And so it was. It's over, for now.
This is my third time and I barely remember the first one, I was little. I had only recently begun to move through the world, to live in what would prove to be a dark and personal hell.
The cold continues to mutilate me inside, to my soul. Is it worth resisting or would it be better to let yourself go into the unknown? Both roads will lead to the same fate.
In fact, no one has ever gone beyond the fourth periodic torture: we vanish, swallowed up by the darkness that desires us even more than our executioners.
I too will disappear - I know it - like the feathers that I have never been able to use to escape, to fly away.
Terrifying, right?
Now you know.
You know what happens inside these places of death due to unfair brands, such as Moncler: the Italian textile company ended up in a scandal between 2014 and 2015 for a reporting service, precisely on this burning issue.
The company has paid and has certainly suffered a severe impact on its image due to the media gnonia but many other companies have remained unpunished, covered by the anonymity of the failure to unmask.
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Brake for a second! I don't mean that...
I am making you participate in a reality and capable of making the choice you deem right.
Because, if it is true that there are many, too many unfair brands that profit from the pain of a defenseless animal, there are just as many that fight like hell to pass a simple but effective concept: fashion can also be done in an eco-sustainable way.
The example I give you is “Save the duck”, the first Italian brand to have obtained the “B Corporation”, embracing a 100% animal-free and cruelty-free policy.
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Don't worry, I'll clear your mind.
A B Corporation - simplified "B Corp" - is a certification that attests to a business's active commitment to raising awareness and promoting social and environmental activities.
You will understand that it is not every day that you hear about a fashion brand that can boast such an important title.
On the other hand, the school of thought and merits speak for themselves.
In fact, the company has patented the "plumtech" technology which consists of a light padding, in a particular polyester wadding, and transpiring which reproduces the softness of goose down without neglecting its thermal insulating capacity. It also allows quick drying, and is highly hygienic.
But “Save The Duck” didn't stop there, it believes in nature and tries to respect it as much as possible. Based on these reflections, the “Plumtech Recycled” patent was born, whose polyester fibers derive completely from recycled materials, while maintaining the characteristics of the product mentioned above intact.
And if this doesn't seem illustrative enough to you, I now present to you the policy of "Womsh”, another Italian brand that cares about the fate of mother nature and her creatures.
The brand practices "sustainable fashion" - you will notice this if you visit the official website - and does so through research and the use of materials with low environmental impact, which safeguard not only the ecosystem but also the health of the environment. man.
Like "Bianca", a leather obtained with a particular tanning process that does not involve the use of heavy metals. More safety for humans, or rather the workers in the supply chain, more protection for the environment, given that it does not involve the production of polluting, harmful and toxic industrial waste.
Or like "Apple skin", an innovative material, composed of 50% polyurethane and the other 50% apple fibre.
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You understood very well, apple-fiber!
Apple skin is a non-toxic, eco-friendly material because it is obtained from industrial waste - instead of disposing of them, isn't it more fun and creative to see how to recycle them? – but above all capable of withstanding the mechanical and physical stress to which the final product will be subjected.
If you are interested in learning more, the company that invented "Apple skin" is Frumat leather.
Well, now we can say that we are really "fruitful", my friend. Hahaha...
... jokes aside, we saw together the pain of being exploited and it is always bad for any living being, then we became aware that an alternative already exists, we just need to believe in the change.
Giuseppe - "Pino" to his friends -, Daniele and the entire Ideal Moda team did it: they decided to believe, act and choose these two brands for their assortment, which I now perceive as two real green movements.
Their cause is our cause, let's not show ourselves indifferent on these issues that seem so distant to us: after all, don't we live in the same crumb of the universe?
The boys of Ideal Fashion, as if that wasn't enough, they did more.
They also deal with articles padded with the "incriminated" material but they are certified products, whose origin is attested in production chains that only perform the combing to obtain the feathers.
The only, single consequence for these precautions is the slightly higher cost, since it takes much longer to obtain the necessary quantity for a single item and because few can be produced.
How can I not buy from such ethically correct, attentive people?
I already know my answer and I think I can guess yours, having gotten to know each other a bit along this path.
You will not overthink it, you will act judiciously and participate in something more important: change.
You too are a piece in that indefinite mosaic that dreamers still call "better future”.
