How to tell if something really is pure cotton

How to tell if something really is pure cotton

These days as awareness of our clothing brand is growing, and our profile in cyber space and on social media is increasing, every now and then we get someone comment that we have sold them something that is NOT PURE COTTON.  Although we do sell a few items that are not pure cotton (2 sarongs out of 24 are polyester chiffon & we have several clothing items in viscose, modal, or cotton blends) we are alway transparent about what we make.

The whole PURE COTTON thing  is very important to us, because we are a clothing line that is designed to be worn in the tropical island heat... and once you are living there, or visiting on vacation - there is definitely NO FOOLING anyone with a garment that is not what it says it.  You will definitely know if you are wearing synthetic fabrics in the tropics.  They don't breath, they are hotter to wear, you will sweat more and you could even get rashes....UGH !

The above photo shows our one tunic style that we sell that is made of pure polyester georgette.  Our WHISPER SHELL TUNIC is lovely but I am always telling people "this is what you wear out to dinner, as this is too hot to wear to the beach".

The problem is that the only way to really test if a fabric is pure cotton or not, is to do a BURN TEST.... and that is not something I would recommend that you do with your new favorite item of island clothing.  We have actually also had a couple of instances where the factory has accidentally stitched a care label that says 100% viscose into a garment that is actually 100% cotton.  So it would look like we were telling lies, if you got one of those garments.  Here is a photo of a branch from a cotton tree, with the balls of cotton bulging out of what was the flowers.

So cotton really is grown on a tree, it is completely natural.... The process of turning that ball of cotton into a fabric is really just to comb it out into a fibre and then weave or knit that fibre into fabric.  Because cotton started off as a tree, it burns like a tree, or a dry leaf, or a piece of paper.  It actually catches alight and burns.  Here is what remains of our cotton fabric after it was burnt.

Synthetic fibers are man made, they are like plastic.... so they will usually melt just like plastic.  Imagine putting a match up to a plastic bag, it wont burst into flames, it will melt and pull away from the flame... the same happens to synthetic (plastic) fabrics.  Here is how our polyester chiffon sarong looked after it's close call with a flame...

Since I have a design studio full of cuttings of all of our fabrics, I am the crazy one who gets to experiment with burn tests.  So in the name of you guys keeping your resort wear pristine, I have made a video of my burn test experiments.  Click here to watch the video on youtube.  

I can personally assure you that if we say it is cotton, it will be.  If you are still in doubt, please email me directly and let me know what style it is and what the care label says.... if it is a production error, I sincerely apologize, but I would never deliberately trick you guys into buying something that is not what I say it is.  

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