Difference between Egyptian Cotton and Sea-Island Cotton?

[lsquare]

Which one would you choose for your dress shirts? What are the differences and are the differences enough to justify the price difference?

 

[SoCal2NYC]

Sea Island Cotton has a limited amount of production each year.

 

[Kent Wang]

Kabbaz has a bit of explanation of both regions. Sea Island production is probably more limited than Egyptian but that doesn't mean that the finest Egyptian will be any worse than the finest Sea Island. There are a lot more factors such as weaving, ply, etc. that determine quality than just place of origin.

 

[GQgeek]

The Sea Island trademark has also been purchased, if I'm not mistaken.

I'm not sure about sea island, but you have to be careful with egyptian. There are a lot of goods out there that claim to be egyptian cotton, but are really just made from low quality fibers. Although they may share the same country of origin, they do not share the quality with that we typically associate with Egyptian cotton. So you should always go by feel and not purchase something just because it has that label.

 

[HomerJ]

I just bought a Carstarphen sea island cotton sweater. Don't have it in my hands yet. I think they're the ones that buy up most of the supply (and have trademarked it GQgeek). They have some Carstarphen sea island socks on eBay and these socks come with a fricking hologram

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-mens-CARSTAR...QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Will]

Originally Posted by jessygray83

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All shirtings are defined by thread count. Egyptian and Sea Island get their reputation from the quality of the thread itself.

 

[coogie]

Interesting..

How do some shirts companies offer £25 'sea-island' shirts? Is there a play no words as to it's the same style or so, but not sea island thread? No way sea island can be so cheap??? i'm thinking specifically of CT shirts

 

[MTM]

According to a recently published, exhaustively researched book called The Story of Sea Island Cotton, there is no such thing as authentic “sea island cotton” anymore. And there hasn’t been for over 80 years. http://supimacotton.blogspot.com/200...hy-it-was.html

 

[speedster.8]

Originally Posted by MTM

According to a recently published, exhaustively researched book called The Story of Sea Island Cotton, there is no such thing as authentic "sea island cotton" anymore. And there hasn't been for over 80 years. http://supimacotton.blogspot.com/200...hy-it-was.html
+1 Mind you the blog is by a cotton "interest" group.

 

[Kent Wang]

And by a rival group, Pima.

I recall reading Kabbaz saying that the Sea Island group now has control of the name again, and therefore should have meaning.

 

[FidelCashflow]

Originally Posted by coogie

How do some shirts companies offer £25 'sea-island' shirts?

If you read closely enough, somewhere in the details it will inevitably say "sea island quality" as they can create comparable quality fabrics in other parts of the world much cheaper... but it's not actual sea-island cotton which is incredibly rare.

Egyptian cotton is a pretty meaningless term, they do produce some exquisite cottons, like a pair of baldessarini pants I have, but egypt also churns out thousands of tons of crappy quality cotton every year too, every textile mill in egypt labels it "Egyptian Cotton" nowadays to cash in on the name which has really lost its value.

Pima cotton is nice stuff.

Judge each cotton for yourself based on its qualities as they appear to you, and ignore the labels and marketing gimmicks.

 

[cardboardbox]

The jist of this message shall be about China taking control of Sea Island Cotton production.

It is interesting to read that Egyptian Cotton has no "regulation/quality", some being high quality and some, like bed sheets available on the island of Jamaica, invoking complaints of short life and desirable quality/feel.

The August 2009 Jamaica Information Service newsletter touts of agreements being reached for China to assume all production of the raw product.
http://jis.gov.jm/commerce_science/h...RTNERSHIPS.asp

With counterfitting rampent in China, reportedly, it poses a question of what will happen to the quality of Sea Island Cotton, as well as the industry as a whole.

I make reference to countries in Africa which no longer produce their own products (local industry dead) due to imports of new and "donated clothing". See "t-shirt travels", an excellent one hour documentary of donated clothing sold for 15 cents a pound by firms in Brooklyn NY.)

With China now purchasing Bauxite (raw material for aluminum) from Jamaica, and making inroads globally for raw materials, one wonders what will happen to many industries.
Related, if you think about it, recent news has that China wants to determine the price of steel purchased, so much so that they, a communist government, has threatened to deny imports of steel purchased by small companies on the "spot market"

If China assumes control of production, then IMO Sea Island Cotton may follow Egyptian cotton and the valuelessness of the name.

Another reference to sea island cotton, a product of only certain areas of the US? and the Carribean, is:
http://supimacotton.blogspot.com/200...hy-it-was.html

I have not researched the results of the 5 year plan, 2003-2008, on the product, but give this URL in the interest of potentially aiding anyones research:
http://www.cbetmodel.org/documents/W...ve-Summary.pdf

 

[Gruto]

Originally Posted by Will

All shirtings are defined by thread count. Egyptian and Sea Island get their reputation from the quality of the thread itself.
Will, maybe I misunderstand what you write, but shirt numbers like 120 and 140 are related to the number of threads of 840 yards that can be spun from a pund of cotton. In other words, shirt numbers are a measure of cotton fiber fineness.

 

[cardboardbox]

Thread count (200 tpi for bed sheets, for example) is valid in some respects, but I wonder if the above post (august 2009 in a posting ending in 2008) was mis-directed.