Sferra sells its high-end Italian-made linens throughout the world.
The Sferra customer can choose from among a range of thread counts and 'finishes' as well as colors and patterns, from crisp 400-thread-per-inch-count cotton percale to 650-count damask, from palest pink to a rich peach with a silken scroll one can scarcely see.
There is a whole new awareness of high-quality bedding in US and sheets are part of it.
Among the selections from Sferra this fall is a set of 1,020-thread count sheets with insets of handmade lace.
The Burano Lace sheets are available for US $15,000 per set. Only eight sets are available this year and three have already been reserved.
Labrazel Home in West Hartford (Connecticut) Centre offers an array of luxury linens, custom embroidered sheets and even high-end linens for cribs and children's beds.
Most of the linens available in the store are from Europe, particularly Italy and France, where there is a long tradition of fabric weaving like silky, crisp or sateen.
In Europe, customers don't obsess about thread count but in the US they talk about hand.
The final finished surface and how it feels to the human hand is called, appropriately, the 'hand'.
A high-thread-count sheet woven of inferior thread won't be as soft as a lower-count sheet of quality thread.
They want their linens to be livable, not too delicate, yet luxurious and quality linens not only feel better against one's skin, they also last longer.
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