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Luxury sheets, naturally

High thread count is just one element of fabulous sheets. Look for high-quality cotton with no additives.

By Judy Stark, Times Homes and Garden Editor
Published February 9, 2008

If organic roses and fair-trade chocolates are on your mind this Valentine’s Day — carried home in your fabric shopping bag while you sip water from a reusable bottle — it follows as the night the day that all-natural, organic, luxury bedding will be your sheets of choice.  

Thread count isn’t enough, the purveyors of luxury linens say. “It’s the quality of the cotton, long-staple, soft to the touch, soothing to the skin. That’s what makes the difference,” says Diane Lyle, owner of Good Night Moon, a fine bedding store on Beach Drive NE in St. Petersburg.  

Like the bed that stands in her window: no chemical bleaches, dyes or finishing, no formaldehyde, just relaxing layers of Egyptian cotton, silk, cashmere and linen.  

At the other end of the financial spectrum, the big-box linen stores also are stocked with organic cotton, bamboo and a fiber called modal made from beech trees. Bed Bath & Beyond stores have posted signs and fabric samples in the linen department explaining different weaves, cottons and sheet depth. “If eco-friendly is the way you want to go, we’ve got some options for our customers,” said spokeswoman Catherine Gentile. 

"Absolutely, we do get people coming in and asking" for natural, organic bedding, said Cathy Louis, the manager of Villa Rosa Distinctive Linens on Bay-to-Bay in Tampa. "Everything in our store is going to be 100 percent Egyptian cotton."

That's for the sheets. "When it comes to the coverlet and the top of the bed, they go toward things like washable silks," also natural, "with a luxury feel and color."

Don't be surprised to learn that the push to natural luxury is largely driven by men. At Villa Rosa, where the majority of customers are women, "their husbands or partners have very strong opinions about what they want in their room," Louis said. "Of the men who do come in, the majority have a sense of style and appreciation for color and pattern - and definitely for the feel of a sheet."

Travel may be responsible for raising the consciousness of male sheet-shoppers. Men who stay in well-appointed hotels with high thread-count linens, featherbeds under the bottom sheet, luxurious pillows and handsome spreads quickly get used to them and want the same thing at home.

"They come in and say, 'Can I get a hotel sheet? What can you show me that would be close?'" Louis said. The term "hotel sheet" refers to a high thread-count sheet in white or cream, often with a tailored narrow double border in a discreetly contrasting color, and a pillowcase or sham with a square colored border. It's sophisticated, unfrilly and classic.

A few years back, men wanted bedding in menswear colors and patterns: gray, deep blue, stone green, brown, herringbones, tailored stripes. Now, across the board, the colors of choice are white and ivory. "We never did well with brown and blue," Good Night Moon's Lyle said. White and cream are "crisp and clean and make you feel good."

Judy Stark can be reached at jstark@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8446.

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Bedside manners

Shopping for sheets? Luxury linen retailers pass on these suggestions:

- Make up a bed with a solid white bottom sheet and a top sheet edged in a border of ecru or tan with a little embroidery. When you turn the sheet back, the embellishment adds an extra touch of luxury.

- Forget about satin sheets. They're heavy, they don't breathe and they're slippery.

- Good bedding, properly cared for, will last for years. "We have customers who bring in sheets their mothers gave them," Villa Rosa's Cathy Louis said.

- What might this cost? Louis estimated that for a queen-size bed, two sheets of at least 400 thread count, 100 percent Egyptian cotton, three or four Euro (square) shams and a couple of standard shams might cost $1,000. A washable silk coverlet is $450. Add a few decorative pillows at $200 apiece.

- Girly floral chintz is giving way to a more tailored botanical look that appeals to men and women.

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The nature of cotton

Shoppers have long identified cotton as a natural, renewable and sustainable fiber - which it is. But critics say conventional cotton production has historically required huge amounts of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and water. The Organic Trade Association claims that cotton uses about 25 percent of the world's insecticides and more than 10 percent of the pesticides.

The industry has responded by developing varieties that are resistant to pesticides and drought. The industry association, Cotton Inc., says that in the last 25 years pesticide use has been cut in half; that U.S. farmers use 45 percent less water now to grow a pound of cotton; and that only 35 percent of U.S. cotton acreage requires irrigation.

Last year about 7,473 acres of organic cotton were planted in the United States, a fraction of the overall 14-million acres planted in cotton. The United States and Turkey are the largest organic cotton producers.

Organic production systems "replenish and maintain soil fertility, reduce the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers, and build biologically diverse agriculture," the Organic Trade Association says.

[Last modified February 8, 2008, 14:27:49]