Since thread count gained popularity as the most widely recognized quality factor for fine bedding, it has been used wildly as the main marketing tool for advertising luxury linens.
The rush to the highest thread count took the whole industry by storm with figures climbing rapidly from 600 to 1000 to 1200, 1500 up to an astonishing 1800 thread count !
An excellent 300 TC bed sheets of a few years ago will almost sound ridiculous compared to the sky high thread count available today.
Has really quality improved that much in just a few years?
Not at all !
First and foremost the highest thread count that can be technically achieved for sheeting fabrics is 1.000. Period!
Secondly, such an high thread count can only be produced out of premium quality extra long staple Egyptian Cotton fibers spun into super fine gauge yarns, twisted and woven into the finest fabrics with advanced textile machinery and state of the art technology only developed at a few top rated mills located in Italy, France or Germany. As a result those fine fabrics , produced in limited quantities, have very high production costs and become very expensive, retailing for $1.000 and more for a plain sheets set.
So what about all the 1.000’s and more thread count sheets we can see advertised anywhere at any sort of low to medium price? Well, it’s most likely one of the two options below:
- The thread count is true but it has been achieved using poor quality raw cotton fibers, thus giving thick uneven yarns that are woven into heavy fabrics manufactured into blanket-weight sheets. Not nice to sleep in! Moreover this kind of inexpensive sheets tend to pill, showing those annoying little balls on the fabric surface after a few washings.
- The thread count is somehow misrepresented referring to a metric system figure rather than to the actual number of threads woven into an American square inch or even worse it’s fraudulently listed a thread count that is not true and honest. Scam!
Last but not least I have to say out of my experience on the field that even an expert would barely notice any difference between a 600-700TC and a 1.000TC. Overall fabric quality and performance upon usage are about the same while price can be double, triple or even quadruple for a real 1.000TC.
Personally, I wouldn’t break the bank for a true 1.000TC sheets. It’s not really worth all that money!
