Hi!
I am writing this blog post to help customers become familiar with the materials used in our textiles. These are the secret agents, as I call them, defining the underlying quality of the end product. As our brand name suggests, we love cotton yarns at ‘Cotton and Olive’.
Cotton
Cotton is our default must-have yarn. We love cotton so much that we use it at varying percentages in every single product we sell.
Cotton is a natural fibre grown extensively in Turkey. We have strong business and sentimental relations with Turkey, our motherland. We source our entire product range from Turkey and prefer to use locally grown materials. Cotton is also gentle for sensitive skin prone to itching and fantastically soft and pleasant to touch. This makes our textiles very tactile, oozing with charm and quality. And finally, Cotton’s best-known property is its absorbency. This property makes it a great choice for products like towels and robes.
All our hammam beach & bath towels, robes, and blankets are made of 100% cotton yarn. The only exceptions to this are the Chelsea Beach Towel in the beach towels category and Myrtle Blanket in the Blankets and Bedspreads category. These two contain 85% Cotton and 15% recycled plastic.
Linen
Our second most-rated yarn is linen. We love the roughness and strength of the linen yarns. And the rustic look of linen, thanks to its texture, is something we wouldn’t change for the world.
Linen-like cotton yarns are fantastic for absorbency and breathability. In terms of breathability, Linen helps reduce cotton’s drying time. So what we have here are two main materials, both having a great capacity to absorb and also a great power to dry fast. Turna Tunic and Marl Kaftan are both made of 100% linen.
The rest of our linen products are all blended with cotton yarn. Some products like Marl Linen Robe and Marl Hand Towels are 70% linen and 30% cotton. Others are 70% cotton and 30% linen, such as Chimera and Katre Blankets; Alya hand towel.
We prefer cotton-and-linen blends to give the fabric a subtle softness and natural flow. It is great to add the softness of cotton to the strength of linen.
Not all products are of the same quality, even when they look similar or identical. It’s important to know how they are made and what they are made of. The best clue is hidden in the tassels. Always check the tassels to understand the quality of the material you are looking at.
For those wondering where ‘Olive’ in our brand name comes from, it comes from the olive oil used in our handcrafted soap bars. They are the local produce of my home town, Antioch, where there is a long-established traditional soap-making using only the local ingredients, and it is still a vibrant part of the city’s culture.
Hope this blog explains why we call ourselves ‘Cotton and Olive’ and how we enhance and incorporate natural, eco-friendly materials into the products we create for your everyday comfort.
Ilgen
