This book reveals the world of the feather-workers (plumassiers), who confided the secrets of their trade to the photographer and designer Rip Hopkins. Little known to the general public, feather-workers cultivate discretion and remain in the shadows, out of modesty and a concern to preserve their precious know-how, handed down from generation to generation, often within the same family. Rip Hopkins takes us to South Africa, source of the ostrich feathers omnipresent since the birth of the trade, before going back up the supply chain through France, England, Belgium and Italy, encounter after encounter. The texts recount the many ways and techniques used to work feathers, whether a military hat plume, a cabaret boa, a feather duvet or a hackle, a feather wound around a hook to make a dry fly that floats on the surface of the water to catch a trout. A rare book on a subject that has not been treated for more than a hundred years. Exhibition at the MATOU in Toulouse, 24 May to 12 November 2023.