Tog is the term used to describe the warmth of a duvet. The higher the tog’s number, the warmer the duvet will feel to sleep beneath. As a general rule, we follow the below guide for each season.

SPRING / AUTUMN
Choose a duvet with a 9 to 12 tog rating – it will keep you cosy without overheating.

SUMMER
Choose a duvet with a 4.5 to 7 tog rating – it will feel lovely and light to sleep beneath.

HIGH SUMMER
Choose a duvet with a 1 to 4.5 tog rating – it will still give that duvet tucked in feeling to help you sleep.

WINTER
Choose a duvet with a 13.5 to 15 tog rating – it will feel wonderfully cocooning on cold nights.

ARCTIC
Choose a duvet with a 15 to 20 tog rating – it will help you survive those harsh winter nights.

Know your Duvet Tog

If you're in the market for a duvet, you've probably heard people talking about togs. These are actually a scientific measure of the relative warmth of a duvet – a very personal matter. Duvets are placed on a metal plate at body temperature in controlled conditions, and a measure is then taken of the heat lost through the duvet to the surrounding environment. The higher the tog rating, the warmer the duvet. The scale ranges from 1 tog all the way up to the warmest duvet in the UK, our Arctic 20 tog duvet.

You’ll know how warm or cold you want to be but, in general, you’ll probably want a 4.5 tog duvet for summer, a 9 tog for spring or autumn, and a 13.5 tog for winter. If you don't have the space to keep three different duvets for your bed, we'd recommend either choosing a 10.5 tog duvet, or buying an all seasons duvet instead. This combines a set of matching 4.5 and 9 tog duvets, which you can use individually for summer (4.5 tog) and spring / autumn (9 tog), and then fasten them together for winter. For those exceptionally cold nights, grab yourself an 20 tog, Arctic duvet.

Choosing your Duvet Fill

When choosing a duvet, examine details about the filling. It’s what makes a duvet incredible… or inferior. If the manufacturer has skimped on stuffing, you’ll soon know about it.

If naturalness is important to you, look first at feather and down – it’s warm, soft, and breathable. A duvet with a high ratio of down is lighter and loftier. Why? Because a down cluster is spherical to trap a lot of heat (a bit like a dandelion head), while a feather is long, flat, and heavy. A light duvet doesn’t mean a cool duvet; down retains your body heat, keeping you at just the right temperature. Where the down comes from can also be important. Hungarian down and Siberian down are often used because they're evolved to keep warm in cold weather. We also source some of the best down from Canada, where it gets really cold!

In the mood to indulge? Look at natural silk…a real luxury choice. Silk has similar properties to wool: it’s breathable, hypoallergenic and surprisingly strong. Silk worms spin their cocoons with a fibre stronger than steel! This is great for a duvet filling as it means it survives washing and even tumble drying (although it does begin to lose its natural properties when it’s washed too much). Top with real silk sheets for a luxury finish!

If you want a synthetic duvet, microfibre’s popular – but it’s not all equal. We sourced the loveliest microfibre strands (they’re a fine denier and good quality) which are very soft – in fact, to the touch they could be mistaken for silk fibres. When stuffed into a duvet, fine denier microfibre does a good job at mimicking the feeling of a down duvet but it will get flattened a bit more quickly.

Essential Hollowfibre is your other synthetic choice. It’s thicker and more wirey than microfibre and its strands are hollow. This provides greater loft and structure in the duvet. It is a really hardwearing product and excellent value for money.