There’s no such thing as a fake feather

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1:04Hi, I'm Lisa and this is MinuteEarth. In addition to being an illustrator here, I love making costumes. Generally, I look for cheap materials, fake hair, fake leather, fake fur, you name it. And these are all made of plastic, but cheap feathers are all 100% real. One reason all craft feathers are real, though not the main one, is that there are lots of real feathers out there that need a job. Every chicken, turkey, and duck that ends up in a sandwich once had a whole lot of feathers, which can be used for installation in blankets and coats, or they can be dyed fun colors and used for boas and fans. And because all birds naturally mold their feathers throughout their lives, even fancier feathers, like those from ostriches and peacocks, are pretty easy to combat. But the bigger reason we don't make fake feathers is that we cannot convincingly replicate real feathers with plastic, which is often the easiest and cheapest way to make fake stuff. Fake leather is just flattened plastic adhered to fabric that's both cheap and a pretty believable imitation of real leather.

2:06The same goes for fake hair. Plastic can be stretched into long, wirey strands for weeks. Now let's be real, it doesn't fool people who work with it. I use plastic hair in costumes all the time, and it is best for my distance. Anyway, if you attempted to mold a feather out of plastic, it would end up looking more like a leaf. It would be cheap, but not feathery at all. And that's because a feather's featheriness is the result of incredible structural complexity. Like this feather is tipped with thousands of microscopic velcro-like hooks and barbules that enable the feather to essentially zip up, a lot like an actual zipper. This is what makes feathers waterproof and flight-worthy, but also what makes them look and feel like feathers. On top of that, a mold would produce a fake feather with a solid core of plastic, while the core of a real feather has a sponge-like structure with lots of air pockets, making the feather as light as, well, a feather. Even a feather's iridescence is the result of microscopic structural complexity. The keratin at the surface of the feather can act like a prism,

3:07bending light and giving the feather a translucent shine. Some of these itty-bitty structures can be as small as 10 micrometers, which are too intricate to replicate with a plastic mold. There are artists and engineers out there using creative materials and methods to make super cool fake feathers. But the best ones are time-consuming and challenging to make. For now, mass-producing feathers is still for the birds.