A jewel of a sock, born from the rarest cotton

The Rarity of Sea Island Cotton

• 
  It is also the rarest cotton in the world.
  Of all the cotton produced globally,
  Sea Island Cotton accounts for just one in several hundred thousand.
  Cotton with long fibers is called "extra-long staple" cotton.
  This cotton is but a mere fraction even within that category.
• 
  The difference in Sea Island Cotton lies in the length of its fibers.
  The standard for "extra-long staple" is 34mm.
  The fibers of this cotton reach up to 40mm.
  Yarn is made by twisting fibers together.
  The longer the fibers, the fewer ends poke out from the surface of the yarn.
  That is why it creates a fabric that is smooth and durable.
  Its smoothness was once so remarkable that Queen Victoria mistook it for silk.
• 
  Sea Island Cotton is harvested only once a year.
  It takes 6 to 7 months from sowing to the final harvest.
  The bolls burst open in sequence from the bottom to the top.
  Rather than harvesting everything at once,
  one must wait for the cotton to fully mature.
  And then, each piece is picked by hand.
  The trees are tall, and the yield from the same area is only about 40% of regular cotton.
  Hand-picking remains the standard in Caribbean fields today.
• 
  Handling Sea Island Cotton yarn requires registration with the association.
  Yarn is provided only to businesses that have applied and passed the screening.
  There is only one company in Japan that spins this cotton.
  Everything from the import of the raw cotton to the production of the yarn is managed in a single, continuous flow.
  It is a system that allows one to trace the cotton back to the very field it came from.