Why Choose Organic Cotton?

Cotton is the biggest non-food commodity in the world, it’s been used for making cloth (we think) for 7,000 years. Scientists searching caves in Mexico found cloth and bolls of cotton that they estimate to be that old, and that’s a very long time indeed. The world grows a great big fluffy 25.9 million tonnes of cotton every year. Wow.

Cotton has always been an extremely important part of our range here at the Secret Linen Store and, until five years ago, the only fibre that we used for bed linen.

Last year (2022) we introduced our first organic cotton nightwear and our very first organic 100% cotton ranges of bedding. We have Arundel and Petworth in 400 thread count crisp percale, and our Choose Love printed bedding in a 200 thread count organic cotton. We have since added the lovely Yarmouth in 800 thread count cotton percale and all are very welcome here.

Organic cotton is a little more expensive than our normal responsibly sourced cotton, because, believe it or not, growing cotton without the use of pesticides and chemicals is actually more expensive. But we think that it is worth the difference in price, and here’s why.

Top of our list of things to do is to be as good as we can be for our planet.  We’re in the business to make fabulous fabrics, but making them well and  sustainably is as important to us as a good night’s sleep.  We can be sure that by choosing to buy organic cotton we are supporting an industry that is more sustainable and more ethical than normal cotton. Growing cotton without the use of any chemical pesticides or fertilizers is great for many reasons...

First, the soil; healthy soil is better for happy wildlife and those that work in and around the fields. Secondly, water; organic cotton is much less thirsty than regular cotton so it uses 90% less water, of which 80% is rain. These are two excellent things to add to our 'why use organic' list.

We are on a big journey of carbon footprint discovery here, as we make our business as green and sustainable as possible. Organic cotton is approximately 18% less carbon intensive than regular cotton, so as we uncover the carbon footprint of every different pillowcase and PJ top in our collection (which will take some time), adding organic cotton to our range is a jolly good place to start.

We can proudly say that, as well as being organic, this organic cotton is also Oeko-tex 100 certified, which confirms that the fabric is free from any human-harmful chemicals.

So by choosing from our lovely organic cotton ranges, not only are you making your bed and bedtime great, you’re also helping somewhere down the supply chain to make things better in this world.

As always, do get in touch if you have any questions; you can help us be better (we are always learning).

Is it organic cotton bedtime yet?