Taking its name from the duck which has nice, warm, downy feathers to hatch the eggs of its young, Eider, the clothing company began life in the French town of Annecy in 1962 when Georges Ducruet made a ski jacket using eider down insulation to make it nice and cosy. Still going strong in 2015 the company has grown into a major outdoor fashion house which produces innovative, fashionable, functional and desirable clothing. The jacket we have here in the collection dates from the early days, probably 1975 or a little later and was a favourite amongst French mountain guides back then since it was hard wearing and fashionable albeit not very waterproof, being made of a lightweight cotton/canvas material. The logic was that if there was precipitation in the high mountains it would more likely be snow than rain – global warming soon put a stop to that idea! Well known fashion guru, John Fulton, donated this fabulous jacket to the collection when clearing his wardrobe.