Percale or Sateen?
The only question that really matters in bed linen - and almost nobody gives you a straight answer to it.
It is the question we are asked more than any other. Thread count labels say 300 or 500 and you are left to assume that the higher number is the more superior fabric. Unfortunately, it is not that simple, and once you have all the information and know what the words percale and sateen actually mean, the choice becomes so much easier.
Firstly, it is a weave, not a grade.
Percale and sateen are not two qualities of linen. They are two ways of crossing thread, and they produce entirely different fabrics from the same cotton.
Percale: one over one
Percale is a plain weave. Every thread passes over one and under one, evenly, with the same count running in both directions - which is why it is sometimes called a square weave, or a basket weave. Hold a piece up to a window and you can see it: very fine graph paper.
Those crossings do three things. They lock the cloth so it holds a pressed edge, which is the crispness you can hear as much as feel. They leave air paths between the yarns, which is why percale cotton breathes so well and is better for those of you who are hot sleepers. And they interrupt the surface, so light scatters rather than reflects, giving a matte finish rather than a sheen.
If you sleep warm, or if you love the particular crispness of a good hotel bed, you should be choosing percale. Ours is called Island: made from a 300 thread count 100% Egyptian cotton.
Sateen: floating over four
Sateen is a satin weave, also made in cotton. Confusion often comes from the fact satin has the same structure woven in filament silk, and the two words are used interchangeably far more often than they should be. Instead of crossing one over one like percale, each thread floats over three or four others before dipping under one.
Those 'floats' are what you can feel: longer unbroken lengths of yarn rather than a grid of intersections, and that is what provides the softness. They also catch the light along their length, which is how we get the quiet sheen effect. Fewer crossings of thread make a closer, denser surface, so sateen is naturally a little more warm.
A thread can snag, which is why the fibre matters more in a sateen than in a percale. We use a super fine Pima cotton - a long-staple cotton spun into a smoother, stronger yarn with fewer loose ends to catch. We call ours Heritage: made from a 500 thread count 100% Pima cotton.
Why our cottons are 300 and 500 thread count
In a confusing world of ever increasing thread counts, we aim to keep it simple, because we don't need to over complicate things. Both the 300 and the 500 thread counts are just the right number for their weave, and that is the part nobody explains.
Thread count is measured by how many individual fibres are held in a square inch. A percale can only hold so much yarn. Every thread crosses every other thread, so beyond a certain point the cloth stops breathing and begins to feel heavy and board-like. Add yarn for the sake of it and you have made a worse percale, not a better one. A sateen’s floats leave room, so more yarn genuinely improves it - which is why you can see a genuine sateen with a higher thread count than a percale.
Comparing the two thread counts is like comparing the weight of a linen jacket with a tweed one. The right number depends entirely on what you are making. We always try and focus on the quality of the cottons and how they feel against your skin, rather than a thread count.
We chose 300 thread count percale and 500 thread count sateen because, after years of supplying luxury hotels such as the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, and working with some of the world’s most exacting interior designers, that is where the best feel and value meet.
How they age, which is the part that matters most
Both cottons are tested by independent laundry engineers and hold their condition and feel for at least two hundred washes. That's not to say they don't last longer than that - they do - we still take sets to client meetings that have been in rotation for twenty years.
Those are the ones that win the meeting. They look pristine and feel better than anything new we could put beside them. We call this patina: the yarns bloom, the weave settles, the hand relaxes, and on sateen the sheen deepens rather than dulling. Properly made cloth improves. Cheaply made fabric only ever declines, turning grey, bobbling or pilling.
One thing you must never do
Never use fabric softener. It works by leaving a fine chemical film on the fibre, and that film fills the very spaces that let percale breathe and a towel absorb. It builds with every wash, and over time it does more harm to the cloth than the washing ever would. You are paying to spoil the very product you invested in.
Cotton has never needed it. Forty degrees, with the occasional sixty. Water and time are the only softeners it has ever wanted.
Still unsure?
Most people are, until they have felt both for themselves - and at a country show this summer our visitors were split almost exactly down the middle. So we will post you a fabric swatch of each, and a little more besides, for you to test for yourselves. Slide one under your pillowcase for a night. You will know by the morning.
ORDER YOUR FABRIC SAMPLES HERE.