There’s a “French” Way of Covering a Duvet, and I Honestly Don’t Know How to Feel About It

A duvet cover is a wonderful and occasionally infuriating thing. It can feel like a battle to get your duvet covered in the first place — it’s probably the one thing I dread most about laundry day. And even once the duvet and cover are properly married, there’s always the chance it slides around while you sleep, detaches from the cover, or falls off the bed entirely. If you’re seeking more duvet stability in your life or just love the feeling of being tucked in, you may want to take some advice from the French.

“I have never seen this in America,” announces Jennifer Planiol, the woman behind the Instagram account @marriedtoafrenchie. She’s crouched next to what looks like a standard bed with a duvet and duvet cover on it. However, as she points out, the duvet cover actually has a lot more fabric to it than you can see initially, but much of it is tucked underneath the mattress, including a small section of fabric that extends beyond the actual duvet. 

“The duvet ends here,” she points out, “and then it’s got this little tongue part that you tuck under the mattress so it stays.” Bedding brand London & Avalon has an entire website page dedicated to this design element, calling it a “French tail” or “fishtail,” and noting it can give your bed a “sleek hotel finish.” On a practical level, it also doubles as the opening for the duvet to go in the cover; and if you share a bed, it could potentially prevent one person from becoming a blanket hog.

Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about this duvet design. I don’t love how it looks when it’s untucked, and I’m not sure I want to deal with even more bedding fabric to wrangle, but I can see how it could be cozy or useful for some — especially if you like being tucked in like a burrito.

The comment section was a bit all over the place, too. “I’m French but I buy everything from IKEA so I didn’t know about this thing either,” one person admitted. “Norwegian here, that sounds horrendous 😂 I don’t want to be trapped under the duvet; we need to roam free,” another European commenter writes, adding that they’ve actually only seen this design in Ireland.

“Some people say ‘foot prison.’ I say ‘protection against the monster under the bed,’” one commenter says. “And if you are hot, you just put your feet to the side, or you can pull it easily with your legs, it’s not hard.” Okay, fair enough.

If you love the idea of an extra-snug duvet, you don’t have to shell out for bedding made in France; several commenters say you can sew a spare pillowcase to the duvet cover you already have for a similar effect. And no matter how you personally feel about this French duvet cover design, you can probably appreciate this quip by commenter stl_jh: “It’s like a little duvet-mullet (pronounced moo-lay)!!!!!!”