I was lucky enough to have an appointment with Dan Jaffe of Jaffe et Fils Ltd at his factory situated in Aximinster. The buildings are affectionately known as ‘the feather factory’ by the locals. The company is the last surviving feather works in the UK.
It was started by his parents, Lois and Eric Jaffe after the war and is now run by two of his sons, Ben and Felix. They import all kinds of feathers from all around the world (where the different birds are farmed) as raw material. They then dye, cut and treat the feathers ready for the fashion industry to use in all kinds of creative ways.
As you can imagine, I was very excited to be there and it was a pleasure to be shown round the whole factory. There were boxes upon boxes of different feathers all labeled up. There were orange ostrich feathers, black peacock feathers, turquoise spines you name it, they had it. They also do all sorts of feather mounts to be used in military regalia and feather Scots Pipers Bonnets for the marching bands. Dan was happily showing me The Hat magazine in which various well known milliners use their feathers. He then took me around the rest of the factory to show me how everything was made.
First he took me to the courtyard where on a series of washing lines were bunches of ostrich and peacock feathers hung upside down to dry in the sun. They had been treated and dyed ready to be turned into something magical.
In the warehouse there were bags of Turkey Marabout feathers (soft and fluffy) in every colour of the rainbow. These are used for trims and boas. They were like giant multicolored pillows you wanted to jump into (I had to stop myself). There was a room with some ladies sewing strips of feathers into fringing to decorate costumes with, edge headdresses, trim cushions....whatever you can think of! And there were other ladies upstairs trimming and cutting feathers into arrowheads. It’s fantastic that everything is done by hand on the premises and for the consumer buying from this company supports British industries and saves on air miles.
We went upstairs and there was a warehouse full of all the raw materials, with huge bags full of natural plumage from guinea fowl, partridge, turkey, goose, duck, cockerel, Ring Neck, Lady Amherst and Reeves pheasant. On this floor was a lady stripping and cleaning ostrich feathers. She looked very content surrounded by all the fluffy waste from feathers. Dan explained to me that shortly after the war his father had found a bag of feathers that had been thrown out and that his mother who was very artistic turned them into brooches and sold them at a market. It all started from there. Dan explained how the business went from strength to strength. However the increased use of cars with a closed top the car saw the decline of people wearing elaborate hats. He said that the buses and trams gave more space for a lady to wear large hats with feathers on and when people started traveling in cars they began to wear hats that were more practical for the smaller spaces. However business is still going strong for the family who has recently expanded to a brand new building. I ended up staying for over two and a half hours just chatting and learning about the history of feathers and the millinery industry in Briton.
The factory is not open to the public but if you want to buy feathers from them you can go to their retail website: www.thefeatherfactory.co.uk