Natural fibres

Long-staple cotton

Also known as: Long-staple Cotton, ELS Cotton

Cotton with especially long individual fibres (staple length) — the basis for premium types such as Pima and Sea Island.

~1 min read By Christian Habert Fact-checked by Clubmartin Textile EditorialAI-assisted Last reviewed: Sources (2)

Description

The term “staple” describes the characteristic length of individual fibres. Long-staple cotton lies around 30–36 mm, extra-long staple (ELS) above 36 mm. ELS varieties include Egyptian Giza cottons, US Pima/Supima, Peruvian Pima and the extremely rare Sea Island cotton from the Caribbean.

Fabrics made from long-staple cotton are exceptionally soft, smooth, lustrous and strong. They are standard for premium shirts, high-thread-count bed linen (percale, sateen) and luxury terry towels. Prices are significantly above regular cotton.

  • Staple >30 mm (long) or >36 mm (ELS)
  • Very smooth, lustrous surface
  • Basis for Pima, Supima, Giza, Sea Island
  • Higher price, smaller market share

Properties

Staple length>30 mm (long) / >36 mm (ELS)
VarietiesPima, Supima, Giza, Sea Island
PropertyVery smooth, lustrous, strong
ApplicationShirts, bed linen, towels

Related product categories

Sources & references

2
  1. Supima Cotton supima.com https://supima.com/
  2. Wikipedia: Baumwolle Wikipedia — Freie Enzyklopädie https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumwolle

Related terms

We respect your privacy

We use cookies to provide you with the best shopping experience. Some are technically necessary, others help us improve our services. You can adjust your settings at any time. Learn more in our Privacy Policy.

100 % hosted in Germany Own infrastructure, no SaaS

Cookie Settings

Here you can choose which cookies you want to allow. Essential cookies are required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.

Essential
These cookies are strictly necessary for the website to operate (e.g. shopping cart, login, language settings).
Always on
Functional
Enable enhanced features such as price display (net/gross), wishlists, and personalised settings.
Analytics
Help us understand how visitors use our website so we can continuously improve our services.
Marketing
Used to show you relevant ads and offers on other platforms.

Support Chat

We reply as soon as possible
We reply as soon as possible
Hi! How can we help you? Just describe your question — we'll reply here in the chat.
You can close this window anytime — once we reply, it will open again automatically.
Leave your email above so we can reach you even if you close the chat.
No need to sign in — we reply right here in the chat.