Alexandrian cotton for sweet dreams

Softness begins with five little white balls, snowballs in the land of black soil. Egyptian cotton owes its secret to a particular climate and a thousand-year-old tradition. These are qualities that a young Swiss company set out to showcase, offering bath towels and bed sets made by a small factory near Alexandria. The towels are tender and enveloping; the bed sets soft and luminous, in a white that shines in the morning sun and sets off shimmering embroidery: sky blue, leaf green, sand ochre.

“I wanted to do work related to my country. One day I thought of cotton, our national pride. It was an opportunity to support people in Egypt by offering a unique product from there,” explains Monika Arafa. Her husband, Yann Politi, also deeply attached to his country of origin, joined the adventure. They launched My Cotton Dream in 2013: “It is a real pleasure to introduce people to something we love so much, and to make this beauty accessible. We want to change the idea that a quality product has to cost a fortune.”

Confident and in love with their ranges, Monika and Yann are not intimidated by competition from famous brands. “Our cotton grew in Egyptian soil, and it was harvested, spun and woven locally, in Alexandria.” Its strength lies in the fibre, the longest and most resistant in the world, which gives it its extreme softness and other qualities: the fabric breathes well and has an antibacterial effect.

“The longer the fibre, the more even the fabric. It is the same principle as with clothing: the fewer the seams, the less roughness and the softer it is,” Monika explains. For bedding, different weaving methods produce either percale, very silky to the touch, or cotton sateen, with a glossy finish. For bath towels, it is all about thickness, which depends on the amount of yarn used per square metre: up to 650 grams for those who like them thick.

“Each piece is made to order, and we sometimes adapt the basic model to a customer’s request, made to measure,” say Monika and Yann. They admit the brand is still working to make itself known: they do not want to open a shop, in order to keep prices affordable, and the website has only one weakness: you cannot touch the fabric. But those who have tried it recommend it, Monika says with an energetic smile.

The good news of the month: the children’s range will be offered in a large specialist store. Monika and Yann can begin to look forward to fulfilling their humanitarian dream: giving part of the profit from sales to children in Egypt, especially for education, “because it is important, and it makes people better.”

— Olga Yurkina