Shopping for down bedding can be a mind-blowing affair

Marnie Jameson
| Specially for the Herald-Tribune

My friend Bud, who lives around the corner from me in Florida half the year and in his cabin in North Carolina the other half, recently texted me with a puzzling problem. Literally, he was baffled by the wretched bafflement of several duvets he had purchased.

Bud knows that worse bedding is a subject I don’t take lying down, so he wrote: “I have a possible column topic for you. You may not find it interesting, but it is to me!” Bud is 80, a widower and thin. He gets cold at night. So when winter approaches, he wants a good duvet.

He then shares that since he wraps himself in these comforters while watching TV and eating, the white ones aren’t practical. He purchased four colored duvets online from a retailer we’ll call Company C. He returned all four because many of the sewn-in squares meant to hold the duvets in place were flat, as in empty.

“You sleep. At night your legs feel cold,” he explained. “You put a blanket over them and go back to sleep. This happens again the following night. The third night you say, ‘Wait a minute. Why are my legs cold and nothing else? I have a brand new duvet.’ So, you get up in the middle of the night and spread the d*** blanket and find that 30% of the pockets are not filled.”

Who knew that down bedding was such a diverse business?

He ordered two more dyed quilts from Company L. Same problem. Dead spots. He returned them. Bud (a retired attorney specializing in product liability) was determined to find out what was going on and called Company L’s quilt manufacturer.

The woman he was talking to blew some fluff into her shorts about “sewn-in” vs. “blown-in” and claimed that sewn-in was better because the blown-in variety used openings in each compartment to accommodate tube-like fans, and those openings later became escape hatches for down . She insisted that the quilts Bud bought had “the preferred one” sewn into them. So why did they still have empty pockets? “She was wrong,” Bud said.

I text Bud back. “If I get, instead of a quilt, why don’t you get a well-made white down insert and a colored duvet cover that you can take off and wash?” For those who need a refresher, a quilt is one piece; a quilt has two, an outer cover and an insert.

“Maybe you’re better at tucking the down part into the duvet cover than I am,” he replies. He is right. The task can feel like arm-wrestling an octopus.

Now curious, I set out to get it down a bit and to find out why some quilts and duvets have flat spots. Neither company C nor company L called back. Next, I called Missy Tannen, founder of Boll & Branch, a leading luxury line. Tannen is the only person I know who is more picky about bedding than I am. The reason she started her company 10 years ago was because she couldn’t find sheets she liked. Go, sister!

A few years later, as customers kept asking what type of pillows or duvets she recommended, she added down inserts, quilts and pillows to her line. But first, she did a deep dive to find out what made a good product. Here’s what she shared:

· What’s down? Down is the light fluffy down found under the feathers of ducks and geese. Down keeps birds warm and regulates their temperature and does the same for us in bedding. Down clusters are three-dimensional spirals, not to be confused with feathers, which are flat, provide no loft, and poke through fabric and pick.

· It’s what’s inside that counts. For premium comfort, Tannen said, you want 100% goose or duck down, no feathers. Read the label and feel the product. If it feels or sounds crunchy, it has springs. Feathers have a role in bed pillows because they add texture. “We place feathers in the core and wrap them in layers of down and fabric,” Tannen said. When purchasing down products, also look for ethical sources. An IDFL Down Standard symbol means that the product meets the international requirements for responsible, traceable sourcing.

· Weighing of fluff. Industry insiders measure themselves by its fill power, which ranges from 500 to 800. The higher the number, the warmer and louder the covers. Down inserts and duvets are available in light, medium and heavier weights. Depending on where you live, whether you sleep warm or cool, and whether you change your bedding with the season will determine what weight is best for you. For those prone to allergies, there are also alternatives for synthetic down that are better.

· The protection up. The fabric covering the filling also matters. It needs to be tight enough to hold the filler fibers in and open enough to let air through. Look for 100% cotton or linen and avoid synthetic or chemically coated fabric.

· Stop the migration. Down inserts and comforters keep the down in place by having either sewn-in square pockets or baffle boxes. Sewn-in squares connect the upper and lower layers directly. Each square is filled with down. Since there is no filling at the seams, and filling peaks in the middle of the squares, the heat distribution is uneven. Higher-end duvets and inserts have baffle boxes, a grid-like layer of one-inch-high fabric walls that slide between and are sewn into top and bottom layers, forming square chambers. Pressure pipes blow into each chamber in precise amounts and distribute it more evenly, eliminating cold spots. Tannen suspects that the problem with Bud’s various quilts was due to manufacturer’s error, not putting enough into certain squares and poor quality control. (Her company puts each item on a light box and a scale.) Bud might pay a premium for bedazzled bedding, but at least he won’t lose sleep over it.

Marni Jameson is the author of seven books, including the recently released “Rightsize Today to Create Your Best Life Tomorrow: A Motivational Guide for Those Seeking Their Ideal Home Later in Life”and “What to do with everything you own to leave the legacy you want.” You can reach her at marnigameson.com.