The Linen Doctor

A monogram is usually made by combining the initials of an individual or a company and is used as a recognizable symbol or logo. Historically, a monogram was used as a royal signature. Romans and Greeks used them on coins to identify their rulers. Then, in the Middle Ages, artisans began to use them to sign their work. Victorian-period high-class persons adapted the monogram for personal use as a symbol of their place in society. The most common use of monograms in our linen store, Scheuer Linens, is on towels, bedding, and napkins.

In the Victorian era, rules for monograms were quite simple and few. Female monograms had the first initial on the left, middle initial on the right, and the last initial embroidered larger in the middle. A married monogram would use her first name initial on the right, maiden initial on the right, and new last initial larger in the center. However, many modern couples use monograms with the bride’s first name on the left, the grooms first initial on the right, and joint last name initial larger in the center. Rules are now flexible and people can really do what they want.

Monogramming can also be used to add a touch of color to a set of towels or bed linens and typically match another color element in the room.

The monogram of the entire alphabet, shown at the top, is from the Dictionnaire du Chiffre-monogramme, published in 1881, is difficult to read and is typical of fancy monograms from the past.  Other samples of older monogram styles are shown above with the initials S W, M S, and A V M. Monograms today tend to be much simpler, using either a simple block letter or a traditional script. The three most popular styles chosen by our customers are shown below.

The most important factor in selecting a sheet is simple: how does it feel to you? Everyone’s taste in sheeting is different, so think about what really matters to your and how you sleep.

Often people don’t realize that the weight of a sheet can make all the difference. Do you prefer a light, almost-not-there feeling or do you prefer to be draped in softness? Or do you like to switch from season to season.

The finer the fiber, the better the sheet. It’s that simple. The world’s finest cotton is grown on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. Egyptian cotton is renowned because it yields one of the longest-staple cottons in the world, the staple being the individual cotton fiber. The longer the fiber, the better it can be spun into smoother, stronger finer yarn.

Thread count is the number of threads per square inch of fabric. The staple size, weave, yarn type, ply of the yard, and thread count together make up the feel of a fabric.

After a sheet is woven, it goes through the complicated process of fabric “finishing.” This is an important step that determines the final texture, color, and softness. Italian mills that produce SFERRA linens consider fine finishing an art form, and guard the exact process as a secret.

The four types of fabric typically used in bedding are percale, sateen, jacquard, and linen. Each type of fabric has a unique feel and weight. Percale, for example, is a tight uniform weave that results in a smooth, crisp feel and matte look. We feature Grande Hotel (top left) with a 200 thread count as a terrific value and promote Sferra’s Giza 45® (top right) as the very finest percale sheet made.

Sateen is a weave that features long expanses of exposed yarns, creating sheen and exceptional softness. Milos and Millesimo (bottom left) have the highest number of threads per square inch – 1020 – of any sheet made and has a heavier feel than our 590 thread count Diamonte and Giotto (bottom right).

For more information or a free brochure called “Lose Count”, please e-mail us at info@scheuerlinens.com or call us toll free at 800-762-3950.

Customers who purchase organic cotton products often ask about environmentally friendly cleaning, both at home at the local dry cleaners. We recommend Holiday Cleaners, 1820 Polk St., San Francisco since they are one of five GreatEarth® San Francisco dry cleaners listed on the GreenEarth Cleaning website, www.greenearthcleaning.com.

A GreenEarth® Cleaning may be the friendliest dry cleaning process ever. No hazardous chemicals are used, so there’s nothing to dirty the air, contaminate the soil, or pollute the water. And unlike perchloroethylene, which is used by most dry cleaners and can be very hard on fabric, The GreenEarth process cleans with pure liquid silicone, which can be safely disposed of.

Pure liquid silicone is, in essence, liquefied sand. This is the same safe, natural sand the earth has been creating for over six billion years. It is chemically inert, meaning it won’t interact with fabric. It just carries the detergent to your clothes and then carries away the dirt and oil. Whites won’t yellow and colors won’t fade, no matter how often they are cleaned.

For home cleaning of fabrics, we recommend and sell Le Blanc’s® Linen Wash products, which includes: Linen Wash®, DownWash®, Towel Wash, Silk & Lingerie Wash, and Laundry Wash. All of these products are known for removing extremely difficult stains from luxury fabrics without the use of harmful chemicals. They contain no bleach, no caustics, and no phosphates; all are biodegradable and sulphate-free. LinenWash’s neutral pH balance makes it safe to use on linens, cotton, synthetics, and blends. Almost all of our vendors recommend LinenWash® products.

Le Blanc® does not recommend using the same soap for everything. Each of their formulas is different and is made specifically for laundering certain fibers. There are even special formulas that are fragrance-free and allergen-free and some that are made especially for men and children. We have used and tested LinenWash® for years and highly recommend it. The cost is about $1 per load.

Because Egyptian cotton has a luxury cachet, many customers ask if a sheet or duvet cover they are interested in is made from that type of cotton. The Egyptian government is making that information more accessible by recently launching an initiative that would lead to the licensing of 100 percent Egyptian-cotton home fashions to make sure that products labeled 100% Egyptian cotton really are. “Much of the Egyptian cotton used around the world is actually a blend, even though it says only ‘Egyptian cotton’ on the packaging,” according to Cotton Egypt Association executive director Sahar Mounir. “We’re looking to license the name ‘Egyptian cotton,’ and we have created a logo that can be used only on products that are 100 percent Egyptian cotton.” Mounir said Cotton Egypt has established a testing and monitoring program to ensure that a product labeled 100 percent Egyptian cotton really is.

We always educate our customers by pointing out that there are different qualities of Egyptian cotton and that the spinning, weaving, and finishing processes also determine the quality and feel of any cotton sheeting product.

Egyptian cotton is considered the best because it produces the longest, smoothest threads of any of the types of cotton. It is based on a longer fiber and is softer and more durable than other cottons. Blends or derivatives can be any combination of Egyptian cotton and some other cotton not grown in Egypt. According to Fairchild’s Dictionary of Textiles, “the U.S. has crossed Egyptian cotton with American cotton since 1903.”

75 percent of exported Egyptian cotton is inferior to American Pima cotton, according to Matt Laughlin, executive vice president of the Supima Association of America. Laughlin says, “it’s not as long, it’s not as fine, and it doesn’t hold up as well. They dilute the quality.” The Supima Associate licenses their products and has their own logo.

We actually test our competitions high thread count sheets and cases, so we really know what something will feel like after washing and ironing. We invite customers to feel a sheet or duvet cover before they buy it and tell them that we guarantee that it will feel the same after many washings. We do stock sheets with thread counts of up to 1020 and also offer 300-count sheets that feel better than many others with a higher thread count.

Always make sure that you can return a sheet or duvet cover if it does not feel as good or hold up as long as you expected. We are always happy to send you a swatch of any of our sheeting fabrics so you can feel the quality for yourself before buying.

Yesterday Mikhael Romain, a design editor from the magazine California Home + Design, came to the store to interview me on what’s new in table linens for Fall 2008. She wanted to see the newest, latest thing and I explained that fashions in table settings don’t change quite as quickly as clothing styles do. Fewer people set a fancy table these days or even use fabric table linens for every meal. When people do shop for table linens, it is most often for a holiday occasion or for an evening of entertaining.

Twenty or twenty-five years ago, customers would buy sets of coordinating print mats and napkins for the breakfast table and white linen damask or embroidered tablecloths for formal dinners. But lifestyles have changed. Now we sell a lot of hard mats (textured vinyl that resembles leather or straw cloth) in solid colors that can be dressed up or down depending on the choice of napkin.

Combine a hard mat with a striped cotton napkin and it works for casual meals. Dress it up with a linen napkin or a silk like synthetic and a beaded napkin ring, and it will serve for all but the most formal occasions.

That said, what’s new in table linens? Spice tones are always popular for fall and we have hard mats, napkins and cotton damask tablecloths in colors like pumpkin, paprika and topaz. Subtle metallic shades, such as pewter, bronze and antique gold are featured in table linens for the holidays.

Choosing table settings to complement your china or to coordinate with the dining room, rather than following the latest fashion color, is still our recommendation. Stop in the store anytime to see what’s new, and don’t forget to measure your table before you come. Maybe with the growth of the “Slow Food” movement, we will start gathering around the dining table again, instead of eating on the run.

Shelley Rideout
Buyer

The annual New York International Gift Show, held August 16-19, is so much bigger and grander than the comparable show recently held in San Francisco. Not only were the vendor booths in the At Home section held at Pier 94 and the Javits Convention Center much larger in size and more spectacular in presentation, but our main bedding vendors showed here (but not in San Francisco): Sferra, Matouk, Anali, Hamburg House, just to name a few. Many of our vendors, such as Yves Delorme and Home Source, showed in their permanent showrooms at 230 Fifth Ave.

Mai Tai

It was wonderful to be able to sit down with the owners of all of these companies, e.g., Nancy Koltes at Nancy Koltes and Paul Hooker at Sferra, and catch up on both our personal and business lives. Everyone agreed that the last year had been especially challenging and we brainstormed about what would be happening in the coming year, whether it is new display ideas or new merchandising programs.

Visiting other retail stores to see how they were displaying bedding is always interesting. Beds were made with coverlets with folded duvets with duvet covers at the end of the bed. We have always shown our duvet covers completely spread out so the customer can really see what they will look like. I wondered if that was a New York style since duvet covers aren’t really needed there in the warmer summer months.

Palatiane

I specifically went looking for organic sheets and came home with two samples, one from Sferra and another from a new company called Goldie Home, which is based here in San Francisco. We will now do some testing by actually using these samples and seeing how they feel and look after a few washings.

My favorite new bedding prints were Mai Tai from the 1891 Collection by Sferra and Palatiane by Yves Delorme. My favorite high end bedding line was Alanya, a jacquard duvet cover by Sferra, which we will stock shortly. In the home accessory category, I was quite impressed by a number of silk flower lines from Diane James Designs, Immortalis Botanicals, and New Growth Designs. They make such great accents anywhere in the home and look very real.

Alanya

It’s always exciting to go New York for any reason and today I’m off to New York for the annual gift show, which includes a home section. All of our main vendors will be showing either at the Javits, the Piers, in permanent showrooms.

Besides seeing new introductions, it’s always great to see the people you talk to on the phone all year long, as well as comparing notes with other retailers. This year should be especially interesting since most vendors and retailers consider this past year as being a very challenging one and I am curious to see how they handled it.

The number one item on my shopping list is organic sheets that really feel good. I have seen plenty of samples, but none that really compares with usual quality of our stocked cotton sheets, especially in the high thread counts. Sferra has promised a 560-count organic sheet that has me excited. I’m also looking for some geometric prints or patterns rather than the usual florals and anything else that excites me. And anything in bright, cheerful colors.

I’ll also be checking out other retail stores and vendor displays to get see how they merchandise their products. I’ll let you know in a few days while I am actually there the most exciting things I have seen.

When I go to this show a few times every year, it’s more to look for display ideas and see design and color trends that are developing. When Shelley, the home accessory and gift buyer, and I went on July 27, we specifically went looking for things to go with the sheet pattern, “Hera” by Yves Delorme, that we will be featuring in our Christmas window.

We always try to do Christmas windows that are a little different, and had already decided on using “Hera,” which features peacock feathers (see accompanying picture) as the centerpiece. We found some feather trees and peacock feather wreaths as well as other gift items with the peacock theme. It’s always interesting to start planning for and getting enthusiastic about Christmas in July, but retailers must address this early or we won’t get the products we want for that most important selling season.

This gift show was a lot smaller this year, with fewer vendors showing and fewer retailers attending. Fewer vendors meant less selection and what we did see wasn’t all that exciting and fairly conservative and dull. I have heard that this has also been the trend at other gift shows in the U.S. and reflects the troubled economy. We have been told that the next gift show in San Francisco would combine the North and South halls at the Moscone Center, which will hurt attendance even further.

I will be attending the New York Gift Show next week and will be interested to see the trends and attendance there. The New York show is by far the biggest gift show in the United States and includes a huge home section. Hopefully we will see some exciting new merchandise there, especially bedding and linens, the staple of the business in our store.

We get this question all of the time. The main reason is that mattresses are no longer a standard size and most are much thicker now than in the past since the “high profile” mattresses are considered more luxurious. A very common complaint years ago was the fitted sheets were too tight or didn’t have long enough sides to completely cover their mattress. And certainly now long enough to have bit of tuck under to prevent the fitted sheet from riding up the mattress and coming “undone.”

Now because of the wider mattresses, manufacturers are typically making them 15-17” deep, which is fine for some pillow top beds, but way too much for the older mattresses, which used to be a standard 8-9” thick. It’s even too much for some 12” thick mattresses. T here is also a trend to make them oversized and this just adds to the problem.

We have a simple fix. We have our workroom just cut them down, usually after a few washings so we know what the true size is after shrinkage. It’s kind of like getting your pants length altered because it is too long. We are so used to just putting a new sheet on the bed that it seems like a real nuisance to wash it and then return it for altering. But it will fit perfectly. We also make fitted sheets from fabric for odd sized or shaped beds, e.g., a round bed.

A full bed, also called a double bed, measures 54×75. A queen measures 60×80 and so many manufacturers make a full/queen flat sheet that is really a queen flat sheet and a full/queen comforter that is really a queen comforter. It is simply less expensive to produce and stock one sized flat sheet (typically 90” wide) and one sized comforter (also typically 90” wide) for both sizes. They obviously can’t choose the full size because it would be too narrow and since today’s mattresses are so much thicker, the queen will often work for the full without too much complaint.

When I first started in the business in the 70’s, full was a much more common size, but not so much anymore. People now want a wider mattress so they have the luxury of more width and now spend more time in their bedrooms since so many have either a television or even a whole entertainment center in their bedrooms. I’ve never seen a statistic on which rooms people watch the 10 o’clock news or Leno or Letterman, but I have a hunch a fair number are watching from their beds.

But the good news is fitted sheets and mattress pads still have to measure a true 54×75 or they simply won’t fit.