Sea Island Cotton and Linen: Why We Combined Two Very Different Fibres
Sea Island cotton and linen are quite different fibres. Sea Island cotton is exceptionally fine, smooth and soft. Linen is drier, more irregular and tends to become better the more it is worn. One feels polished. The other feels relaxed. So we thought it would be interesting to put them together.
Our new shirting combines 68% Sea Island cotton with 32% linen to create a very light summer fabric that sits somewhere between traditional cotton shirting and pure linen.
Sunspel has worked with Sea Island cotton for well over a century. We have used it for underwear, shirts, and T-shirts and, over time, have learnt quite a lot about what makes it unusual.
What is Sea Island cotton?
The first thing to know about Sea Island cotton is that there is very little of it.
Only around 150 bales are produced each year compared with roughly 117 million bales of cotton globally. That is around 0.0001% of global cotton production. But rarity alone would not make it worth using.
Its fibres are extraordinarily long. They can reach around 50mm, or 2 inches, which means they can be spun into particularly fine, smooth yarns. The resulting cloth is remarkably soft and strong with a slight lustre that ordinary cotton does not have.
Its history is unusual too.
Sea Island cotton belongs to the species Gossypium barbadense, which was first cultivated in northern Peru thousands of years ago. It later travelled through the Caribbean and in the late eighteenth century began to be grown on the Sea Islands off South Carolina. The name stuck.
By the nineteenth century it had become one of the most prized cottons in Britain. Sunspel was using it by 1890.
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Sunspel Advertisement c.1950s
There is also a direct connection between Sea Island cotton and the Sunspel name. Thomas A. Hill Ltd became Sea Island Textiles Ltd in 1935, reflecting the importance of the fibre to the business. Sea Island cotton carried a stamp of authentication showing the sun rising behind clouds, a reference to the Caribbean climate of sunny spells between rain showers that was ideal for growing cotton. Inspired by this, Thomas Hill’s grandson created the name Sunspel for the company’s premium underwear line before changing the company name to Sunspel in 1937.
An original Sunspel underwear with a Sea Island Cotton stamp from the Sunspel Archive
We still use Sea Island cotton today. The cotton we select is grown in the Caribbean and spun in Switzerland by specialists who know how to work with its unusually fine fibres.
But knowing a material well does not mean always using it in the same way.
Why combine Sea Island cotton and linen?
Linen behaves very differently from Sea Island cotton.
Linen has natural irregularities that give the cloth texture. It absorbs moisture readily and conducts heat away from the body, helping it feel cool in warm weather. Unlike very fine cotton shirting, which tends to look best when it is pristine, linen can crease a little and look slightly crumpled. In fact, that is rather the point.
We wanted some of that character without losing what makes Sea Island cotton so good.
The Sea Island cotton softens the linen and gives it a smoother handle. The linen works in the other direction: it makes the cotton less formal and gives the surface a little more texture. Neither fibre dominates.
Instead, each changes the character of the other. The fabric has some of the polish of fine cotton and some of the informality of linen.
And it is very light. For a summer shirt, that matters more than almost anything else.
How does the fabric feel?
There is a slight slub through the surface, and the cloth has a softer, easier drape than conventional shirting. The linen gives it a little dryness and texture. The Sea Island cotton keeps it smooth and soft against the skin.
The result feels relaxed rather than crisp but still refined enough to wear with tailoring. It also has a slight coolness to the touch, which makes it particularly comfortable in warm weather.
Sea Island Cotton Linen Shirt
The shirt
We have deliberately kept the shirt itself fairly simple so the fabric can do most of the work.
Worn with a linen suit, it feels less formal than a conventional cotton shirt without becoming too casual. Worn with drawstring trousers or shorts, the texture becomes more noticeable and the overall effect more relaxed.
The idea itself is quite simple. We know Sea Island cotton very well and wanted to see what would happen if we combined it with a fibre that behaves quite differently.
In this case, the answer turned out to be a very good summer shirt.
Care
Wash gently at 40°C with similar colours and allow the shirt to dry naturally rather than tumble drying. It can also be professionally dry cleaned.
Like most linen fabrics, it will develop a little more character with wear. The Sea Island cotton helps it remain soft.
