Dulcie’s Feathers – Company Spotlight

Time for another of my favourite festival focused companies! This time in the spotlight is Dulcie’s Feathers – Bristol-based self-confessed “festival floozy” Dulcie started off by selling feather headdresses and has now branched into gorgeous festival fashion made from recycled authentic Indian silk saris. The colours are amazing, and each piece is made by hand in India and is totally unique!

I got in touch with Dulcie to ask her some questions about how she got started, her festival career, and when I can get my hands on the new collection!

Hey Dulcie! So tell me a little about yourself! Who are you and what do you do?

I am a 24 year old festival floozy who lives happily in Bristol – my favourite city in the world! My primary occupation is working for the magnificent Boomtown Fair in their PR and communications department… I’ve got fingers in a fair few pies though and on the side I dabble in a bit of blog writing at ThatFestivalLife.com, some face painting and obviously my clothing line Dulcie’s Feathers! I like cats, raves, sequins and making brunch. I hate tidying, mean people and poorly put up tents.

When and why did you start Dulcie’s Feathers?

So I did an art foundation in Exeter before I went to uni in Bristol to study Journalism… I specialised in fashion and I’ve always been into crafty stuff but I was the only one in my class not going on to study fashion in some way! I made a feather collar for my final major project which I turned into a headdress at festivals that summer… it went down really well so the next summer I experimented in my little room in halls at uni and made a few more to sell!

I sold them out of my backpack at festivals and it went really well… the name Dulcie’s Feathers was only supposed to be a placeholder name (bit obvious init) until someone thought of something good and that never happened, so it’s stuck.

And what about now? What kind of things do you make?

After a few years making different festival headgear (and watching as the festival fashion market blew up and became oversaturated with it) I was trying to think of new ideas. Whilst on a half a year trip to India I just got super lucky in the last two weeks of my trip to a little holy town named Pushkar in Rajasthan where I met some tailors who made things out of recycled silk saris.

Pushkar sounds incredible! It’s such a good idea to use reclaimed saris, and you must get the best quality going direct to the source…

Yeah the fabrics are insane ! I got so lucky, the colours are incredible, Indian silk does rip easily though so we’ve been working on reinforcing the designs this year. I’ve also been looking into other ways to recycle different types of old Indian textiles – soooo much is produced in that country! I’m really interested in ways to be more sustainable and ethical in fashion generally.

Do the jumpsuits & kimonos fit everyone? You know I’m a tall girl!

My aim is to make the range as inclusive as possible! I was so pleased to see that the jumpsuits fit ladies of every flavour and the kimonos are mega flattering and unisex so they suit everyone. That’s my intention with the new range as well but it is yet to be test driven 🙂

What’s been your favourite experience of your travels to India?

I love the time I spent in Pushkar last year, surrounded by incredible people it was a really special energy – God I sound full India haha! This year it was probably heading to Magnetic Fields, an insane festival in a palace in the desert in Rajasthan (Dulcie’s blog post on Magnetic Fields is here)

What are you planning for the 2018 season? Any new pieces? Will you have a stall at any festivals?

Who knows! This is my first festival season with an actual grown up job as well so we shall see… obviously I’ll be at Boomtown but working! I’m likely to be back at Shambala with my Fashpack girls as well and hopefully stocking on other people’s stalls!

The new festival fashion collection has a couple of two-piece combos including a pair of super comfy silk BLOOMERS! 2018 is going to be the year of the bloomer – you heard it here first!

What was your favourite festival experience of 2017?

Ben UFO playing jungle in the sunrise in the middle of the desert at Magnetic Fields. M A G I C.

If you could create your dream festival line up, who would be on it?

Guns n’ Roses, The Carpenters, En Vogue, Tash Sultana, My Nu Leng and China Bowls – quite eclectic might be tricky to market!

I would 100% go to that!

I’ve only ever been to UK festivals, you’re much better travelled than me! Any particular overseas festivals you would recommend?

Magnetic Fields which I might have mentioned already 😛 – but a little more close to home and just as (if not more) mind blowing would probably be Meadows in the Mountains in Bulgaria.

I’ve heard amazing things about Meadows! Maybe next year for me.

Your silliest/funniest festival story?

I’m struggling to think of anything that is appropriate for public consumption… but there is one episode of mind bending randomness that has stuck in my mind as a turning point for where I realised how much I flipping love festivals….

Glastonbury 2011 when Shangri-La was a warren of little streets and doorways, I was bowling about with a crew of randoms I’d met and we were down in a dark backstreet corner when a little man’s head popped out of a side window and said “‘aaav you booked a room?” We looked around bewildered and told him “yes…?” Some more opening and closing of the window carried on whilst he assured us the maids were getting our room ready… Then a door opened and two guys dressed as hotel bellboys ushered us into a tiny room totally filled with a heart shaped velvet bed! Music started and we were asked to remove our wellies before dancing manically on the bed for 2 minutes… the music then stopped and we were promptly shoved out another back exit!

I could happily spend a whole festival seeing not one single band (and often do!) if stuff like that happened all the time!

I’ve told so many friends about the old days of the Shangri-La “warren” as you put it! I got dragged into a tiny Japanese karaoke room and made to sing “Total Eclipse of the Heart” whilst wearing a kimono, then was given shots of sake! I miss those days!

So finally, most importantly… I’m 100% going to be buying from your new collection! What’s the best way to do this?

As everything is one of a kind your best bet is to sign up to the newsletter to be the first to hear when stuff goes online – there might be some extra little treats for newsletter subscribers too 😉

You can follow along on Instagram (@dulciesfeathers) where I’m revealing little snippets from the collection and how it was made too!

Thanks so much Dulcie! See you in a field soon I’m sure! xx

I’ll soon be writing more posts on festival fashion and small independent brands I love!

Want to READ my other company spotlights?

Kiss & Glitter – Headspace Headdresses – Dust and Dance