FAQs

Egyptian Cotton: Regarded as the finest cotton in the world with long fine fibers. It is used to make very fine yarns and expensive, high quality fabric. The fertile soil of the Nile delta and warm climate provide excellent conditions for growing long staple cotton.

Sea Island Cotton: The temperamental aristocrat of cottons. The very white, lustrous fiber is strong, fine and remarkably uniform. The extra-long staple ranges from 1 ½ to 2 ½ inches long. It is usually combed, sometimes two or three times, before being spun into the finest of yarns and made into expensive fabrics.

Ply: Ply yarns indicate quality. In a 2x1 broadcloth, the warp is two ply and the filling is singles. In a 2x2, the warp and fill yarns are both two-ply. If a yarn is not ply, it is not referred to as single ply, but as singles. When speaking of fabrics, the term “2 ply” actually refers to the cotton yarns themselves and not to the fabric as many consumers think. You may ask, “Does 2 ply mean thicker?” No, not necessarily, since two-ply just refers to the cotton yarns and not the fabric itself.

Basic Fabric Types:

• Broadcloth – this is the smoothest of all cotton fabrics, but not necessarily the softest. Broadcloth comes in 4 basic weaves:
  • Single Ply – the most basic version of broadcloth, this is the least expensive. These are typically made up of 50 threads or less per inch and because of the lower thread count these shirts wrinkle very easily
  • 2x1 Weave – this fabric combines the inexpensive single ply with the better 2 ply fabrics. This fabric will generally have 80-100 thread count per inch.
  • 2 Ply – this is our preferred broadcloth fabric. 2 Ply fabric is made by stretching the cotton fiber and wrapping a 2nd thread around it. This causes the cloth to want to drape itself versus wrinkling. Cloth manufacturers need to use the more expensive, longer staple cotton such as Egyptian or Japanese Pima cotton.
  • End-on-End – broadcloth fabrics with a randomly dropped stitch, which normally appears as a white thread in the cloth. This is a very traditional fabric and many customers believe this drop stitch causes the fabric to wrinkle less. This is an optical illusion caused by the drop stitch, since this shirt is a broadcloth, it will wrinkle the same as any other fabric in this category.
• Sea Island cotton – this is the most expensive cotton you can buy, and is considered a luxury fabric. These fabrics will feel lighter than any of the other types of broadcloths.
• Rugby Oxford – this is the fabric you will usually find in department stores and is traditionally considered a preppy or prep school type fabric. Typically this cloth is very coarse and has a thick texture.
• Pinpoint Oxford – this is the preferred version of oxford cloth and is usually used for suiting, you will see a majority of Mid-Atlantic and New England business men wearing this fabric. Pinpoint oxford uses a longer stem cotton in order to form a tighter weave, and generally in white cloth is hard to distinguish from broadcloth. In other colors this fabric will show the white thread as little pin dots, hence the name.
• Royal Oxford – this is made from a much finer cotton fiber. General this fabric will seam to have an open type looping weave, similar to a pique polo shirt, but much softer in texture. Also because of the better grad cotton fiber this shirt also has a slightly shiny texture. This is also made from a 2 ply process, and will have a thread count between 80-110 threads per inch. This fabric will also hold a press much better than a broadcloth or even a pinpoint oxford.
• Jacquard – generally are white and are often called white-on-white shirts. A jacquard weave is basically a fabric woven on more than one level, to provide a raised texture.
• Herringbone – basically a jacquard fabric, and has a slightly raised “V” pattern stacked on top of itself aligned in rows.
• Twills – one of the most durable fabrics available. Twill is the pattern you see when you look up close to jeans of Khaki’s, the lines run at an angle in parallel lines.