“Egyptian cotton,” has become synonymous in recent years with luxury. And it’s widely perceived that Egyptian cotton sheets are the best available.
But what is Egyptian cotton and are Egyptian cotton sheets actually the best out there?
What is Egyptian Cotton Anyway?
We specialist in luxury bedding and even we find this one heck of a difficult question to answer. There’s more than one definition.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Egyptian cotton is simply cotton grown and picked in Egypt. Simple, right?
But, well, no. It isn’t that straightforward unfortunately.
In fact, there are big name High Street retailers selling “Egyptian Cotton Bedding,” that then states the country of origin as India.
Look at this:
“Egyptian cotton bedding.”
But when you delve into the product specification, it says:
India?! But we thought it was Egyptian?
In some cases, this labelling is seriously confusing, but generally could apply because Egyptian cotton has been exported to India where the sheets have been manufactured.
And in other cases, it appears “Egyptian cotton,” is simply a term applied to a certain type of fine, long staple cotton (which is used to make high thread count bed linen) which is now grown in other parts of the world.
Confusing, isn’t it?
We DON”T label our bedding as Egyptian cotton because our products originate in India. However, we do use fine, long staple and hand picked cotton to produce impressive 500 thread count luxurious sheets that can rival anything labelled “Egyptian.”
But we won’t call them Egyptian because they’re not produced in Egypt and we think it’s misleading for consumers.
In fact, back in 2016, some big US chains pulled lines of Egyptian cotton sheets after establishing they weren’t Egyptian at all! We don’t want to confuse our customers so we certainly won’t be making any such claims here.
But Why is Egyptian Cotton Considered the Best?
This is all down to thread count. The cotton grown in Egypt is renowned for being fine, long staple cotton that is well suited for weaving into very high thread count sheets. It’s this thread count that really determines how rich and luxurious a product is.
Typically, Egyptian cotton is hand picked to protect the fibres and prevent any damage caused by machinery, again making the cotton much more suitable for weaving into high thread count linens.
So the quality of a product like this isn’t determined by country or origin, but by the picking process and the quality of thread.
Other thing to look out for when buying luxury bed linen
We’ve already established that the country of origin really is secondary when it comes to determining how luxurious your bed sheets will be. But do look out for:
- Thread count: As a rule, the higher the thread count the more luxurious and rich the feel.
- Percentage of cotton in the product: Don’t be fooled by products labelled as Egyptian cotton but that are really 20% Egyptian cotton and 80% polyester. Check the label and product details. 100% cotton is a far softer feeling and more luxury product. Terms like “cotton rich,” mean that, while there is cotton in the product, there are other materials too (generally synthetic ones).
Ok, so back to the first question. Is Egyptian cotton the best?
It’s subject to opinion. But no. We don’t think it is. There’s incredibly high quality cotton grown in multiple countries and things like thread count matter much more than country of origin in terms of the quality in luxury bed sheets.