Materials
From incoming raw material to certified lot: every family of down and feather goes through a traced process of washing, sorting, blending and laboratory testing.
The process
01
Raw material
Incoming raw material is received, traced and placed in on-site quarantine.
02
Washing and sorting lines
4 washing lines and 11 sorting machines separate down and feather by species, size and purity.
03
Custom blending
Batches are blended to reach the down content (DC) and fill power required by the customer.
04
Laboratory
Every lot is tested in our internal laboratory before shipment: no lot leaves without a technical data sheet.
The families
Technical data, species and ideal uses of every family processed by Minardi Piume.
Goose
- Typical FP
- ~850
- Species
- Anser anser domesticus
- Ideal uses
- The most prized fill: luxury outerwear, fashion, premium bedding.
Country duck (Muscovy)
- Typical FP
- ~800
- Species
- Cairina moschata
- Ideal uses
- Free-range country duck: quality close to goose, for fashion outerwear and bedding.
Barbary duck
- Typical FP
- ~780
- Species
- Cairina moschata
- Ideal uses
- From industrial farming: high quality for fashion outerwear and bedding.
This farming supply chain falls outside the scope of the RDS scheme.
Pekin duck
- Typical FP
- ~700
- Species
- Anas platyrhynchos domesticus
- Ideal uses
- The most widespread species: smaller cluster, volume bedding and outerwear.
P.U.R.E.®
- Typical FP
- ~750
- Species
- Recycled post-consumer down
- Ideal uses
- Sanitised and reprocessed in our internal recycling department: capacity 1,000,000+ kg/year, 843,000 kg regenerated in 2025.
Typical FP higher than Pekin at equal down content.
Flower Down®
- Typical FP
- ~750
- Species
- Patented down + Kapok blend
- Ideal uses
- Patented high-FP blend: bedding and outerwear combining down softness with kapok lightness.
Patented Minardi Piume technology.
Kapok & plant fibres
- Typical FP
- —
- Species
- Ceiba pentandra and other plant fibres
- Ideal uses
- The lightest plant fibre in the world: bedding and vegan fillings, botanical alternatives to down.
Synthetic fibres
- Typical FP
- —
- Species
- Polyester and technical microfibres
- Ideal uses
- Pure or blended with down and feather to specification: volume bedding, washable garments, price-controlled products.
We process them on customer request. On environmental performance there is no contest with down: see the LCA study on Sustainability.
Fabrics
- Typical FP
- —
- Species
- Cottons, blends and downproof technical fabrics
- Ideal uses
- Selected and tested to hold the filling: we run the downproofness test in our own laboratory rather than asking the supplier for it.
Typical fill power figures are measured in our own laboratory to the IDFB method, in a conditioned climatic chamber. Figures obtained under other measurement standards are not directly comparable.
Flower Down®, measured
In a fill power test run by an EDFA-recognised laboratory in 2020, Flower Down® reached 750 cu.in against roughly 450 cu.in for polyester measured under the same protocol, in the same test.
Kapok
The plant fibre that lightens the blend grows wild in tropical forests, with no artificial irrigation and no pesticides, and is harvested by hand by local communities.
Not only raw material
Duvets, quilts and pillows leave our bedding atelier finished: the same down, sewn into fabrics we select and test ourselves.
Discover the bedding atelier →