We could go on all night answering your question, but we’ll try to keep it short and sweet here. You can effortlessly craft a distinctive, beautiful bed and bath experience that naturally supports, comforts and rejuvenates you and your family while retaining reverence for people and the planet.

You can choose from merchandised collections or create a beautiful bed, bath or crib set that’s unique to you, since we intend our novel designs and colors to be mixed and matched an infinite number of ways. Plus, we strive to make our products easy to care for, so a luxurious and comforting home is attainable every day.

As the first company to bring organic cotton to the United States, you can count on us to help you keep your family safe from harmful chemicals. All of our cotton is 100% organic and we use only natural fibers, all of which are produced using a nontoxic production process certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS). This means we use none of the toxic dies, bleaches or finishes used to make conventional textiles.

Your purchase is not only good for you and your family, but it’s good for all the farmers, weavers and sewers behind each product. This is because the farms and facilities from which we source are certified to the fair-trade standard, meaning they are paid a fair wage, giving them the ability to afford health care and education for their families.

This is a tough question to answer as different fabrics have different qualities, and we each have individual preferences. Here’s a brief guide to give you some idea of the pros and cons of each fabric:

Percale
A soft, crisp fabric that’s great for warm sleepers as it feels cool against the skin. It’s known to wrinkle a bit more than the other fabrics, but those that love percale love that aspect of its personality.

Sateen
A slightly shiny and very soft fabric that is often described as buttery because of it’s smooth feel. Sateen holds bold colors well while maintaining its softness and is known to resist wrinkling, so it’s easy to care for.

Jacquard
Known as the most opulent of all the sheet fabrics, the Jacquard weave creates beautiful patterns by varying the weave. These gorgeous designs also create a unique weight and feel to the fabric, which is difficult to describe but impossible to mistake.

Jersey
Think of your favorite T–shirt–slightly stretchy, soft and easy to care for–that’s Jersey. It’s a knit fabric, which is why it is able to stretch and why it drapes so effortlessly. Jersey is easy to manufacture, so it’s one of our lowest priced fabrics.

Flannel
Our flannel is double brushed, so the fine hairs of the cotton are whisked up into a soft fuzzy layer surrounding the fabric. This makes Flannel the warmest, softest and coziest fabric. It’s great for cold nights or when you want to sleep with just a sheet that has enough weight and warmth to keep you snuggled in.

Our cotton products are all 100% organic and made using low-impact dyes and a nontoxic production process. This makes us a favorite brand among chemically sensitive groups, who especially love our Ivory colored fabrics. They are the natural color of cotton, and never whitened or dyed.

Those little black flecks are actually in all cotton products and a natural part of the fabric. When fabric is whitened and/or dyed, the small flecks take on the same color of the fabric. Because our Ivory cotton fabrics or not whitened or dyed, the small flecks are more apparent.

100% Cotton, Cotton/Linen, 100% Linen
All of our cotton and linen products are machine washable. We recommend using warm water and non-phosphate soap in the washing cycle, with a cool, tumble or line dry. The use of bleaching agents may diminish the brilliance and depth of the colors, so we don’t recommend using any whiteners.

Cashmere/Cotton
Hand wash cashmere/cotton in cool water, using a mild liquid detergent; do not bleach. Air dry flat out of direct sunlight; do not wring or twist. Use a warm iron if needed.

Wool
Our wool blanket is machine washable in cold water, on a gentle or delicate, low-spin cycle. Use mild liquid detergent; do not bleach. Wool blankets should be air-dried; do not wring or twist. Do not machine dry, since heat can damage wool fibers. Store wool blankets in a tightly sealed bin or heavy plastic bag to protect against pests. Add cedar chips for extra protection.

Please see our store locator. .

We believe in being generous in our fabrications and color options. Here are some of the specifications that make our bedding special:

• Flat sheets are 106" long.
• Fitted sheets have 15" pockets and elastic all around the bottom.
• Duvets have a hidden placket with a button closure.
• Stitching is 12 per inch.
• Natural, or Ivory, is the color of the cotton itself, so colors may vary.
• White is achieved by bleaching with hydrogen peroxide or a GOTS-certified optical whitening process, both benign bleaching processes that are free of harmful chemicals.

Of course! We want you to be completely satisfied with every purchase you make from Coyuchi. If the product you ordered does not meet your expectations, you may return it via insured U.S. mail or UPS within 30 days of purchase. We will be glad to exchange for different size or fabric, or issue a full refund, as long as it is returned in the original packaging and has not been laundered. (Federal law prohibits resale of used bedding.) Postage and handling charges are not refundable on returns unless your purchase arrived damaged, in which case we will refund you in full.

You may return any Coyuchi product as long as it is in its original packaging and has not been laundered. Please fill out the green returns form included with your order, and send via insured mail to:
ATTN: Returns Department
Coyuchi Distribution Center
2531 9th Street
Berkeley, California 94710

Please email us at info@coyuchi.com or call 1.888.418.8847. We are open from 8 am to 5 pm PST, Monday through Friday.

Please email us at wholesale@coyuchi.com or call 1.888.418.8847. We are open from 8 am to 5 pm PST, Monday through Friday.

Thread count refers to the number of horizontal and vertical threads that are in one square inch of woven fabric. Despite popular belief, there is no intrinsic value to a higher thread-count number. Instead, the feel of the fabric depends on the integrity of the yarn used, the weave selected and the quality of the finished product. Thread count is but one element in determining how a finished piece of fabric will feel. As humans, we love numbers and quick, easy ways of quantifying value, so this little fact still plays a large role (too large in our opinion) in determining supposed fabric quality.

Woven fabrics interlace warp yarns, which run the length of the fabric, and weft yarns, which run the width of the fabric.

Percale is a closely woven, medium-weight, plain-weave cotton fabric. It is smooth and firm, with no gloss. Percale is known as a cool, crisp fabric, great for warm nights and hot sleepers.

Sateen is a weave in which many threads are aligned tightly together in the vertical direction, creating a flat, smooth, shiny and very soft surface on one side of the fabric and a slightly matte one on the other. We love sateen for its ability to hold brilliant and beautiful colors while resisting wrinkling.

Flannel is a medium-weight, plain-weave fabric typically made from cotton. It is brushed on both sides to raise the fibers, creating a supple, fuzzy surface and an extremely soft feel. If you look closely, the fuzzy hairs of the cotton resemble mist rising off a pond in the early morning. These fuzzy hairs are what make flannel so cozy.

Jacquard is a fabric that is woven while controlling each of the warp (vertical) yarns, which can result in an endless variety of patterns. Jacquard is known as the weave of kings and queens because it is so labor intensive and results in exquisite patterns–at Coyuchi, we make it just for you!

Damask is a glossy jacquard fabric typically made from cotton, linen, rayon, silk or blends (ours is all cotton). The weave is very flat and the patterns are smooth and reversible. We like to say there is no right side or wrong side to this beautiful fabric.

Twill weave is a basic weave where the fabric is constructed by interlacing and alternating the warp (vertical) and weft (horizontal) yarns progressively. This results in making a diagonal weaving effect on the fabric. Depending on how you start, you can make the diagonal go upwards from left to right or the other way around.

Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. It has a stiffer more textured feel than cotton and is known for providing coolness and freshness in warm weather. It also has a soft brown natural tone, which adds subtle color while matching just about anything.

Flax is one of the oldest plants cultivated for fiber. Its long thin fibers are used produce linen threads that are stronger but less flexible than cotton.

You may be familiar with the word "dobby" in the context of towels, where it refers to a textural, flat-woven band that traverses the terry loops. In fact, dobby weaving is used to create small, repeating geometric patterns on all kinds of textiles. A harness on the dobby loom lifts individual warp threads, creating a space for the weft threads to pass through. After a few passes, with warp threads being raised and lowered, a design emerges. A single loom can create many different patterns across a bolt of fabric. Some of the Coyuchi fabrics that are created on a dobby loom are rippled stripe, rustic dobby and khadi.

All woven fabrics use one of three basic weaves: plain, twill or satin. The plain weave is the simplest, with an over, under, over, under structure. Percale is an example of a plain weave. The twill weave is characterized by diagonal lines across the fabric. Our towels are woven using a twill weave. The satin weave is formed by a series of floating yarns tied down intermittently in the weave. This provides different patterns and a sleek, shiny surface. Our sateen sheets are a good example of the satin weave. All other weaves are combinations of these basic weaves and are classified as complex (or novelty) weaves.

Typically, fabrics are made from fibers that are spun into yarn that is either woven or knitted. Weaving is done on a loom, and knitting on a knitting machine. For more information on the production process, visit the Production Process section of these FAQs.

We strive to produce beautiful, sophisticated, high-quality textiles by harnessing the innate qualities of natural materials and maintaining reverence for people and the planet. This is more than just a statement of corporate responsibility–it’s why Coyuchi exists. It’s why we were the first to bring organic-cotton bedding to the United States 20 years ago and why we continue to source our organic cotton from the same cooperative of family farms. We believe that nature is the essence of home and the source of comfort, support and rejuvenation. That’s why we strive every day to help you bring nature home.

Product Overview:

• Cotton: A natural fiber that is 100% certified organic and fair trade; sourced from India
• Linen: A natural fiber that grows with minimal inputs; sourced from Belgium and France
• Wool: A natural fiber from naturally grazing sheep; sourced from Canada
• Cashmere: A natural fiber from grazing goats; sourced from Mongolia
• Kapok pillow filling: A natural seed from the kapok tree; sourced in India
• All products are produced in facilities certified to the fair-trade standard

We are committed to growing and developing organic and fair-trade textiles. All of our organic cotton growing and processing in India is certified by Control Union Certifiers of the Netherlands, GOTS and ECOCERT of France. The facilities that produce our products are fair-trade certified every step of the way by FLO-CERT of Germany and ECOCERT of France.

We would like nothing more than to provide you with only 100% certified organic products. However, the cost or sourcing process often prevents us from doing so. Below is an overview of the raw materials we use, their source and our reason and goals for choosing this option:

Cotton
Source: India
Production: Certified organic
Sourcing Decision: We have a unique relationship with the Chetna Cooperative, an organization made up 6,500 family-owned farms in India. Because of Chetna, we can provide you with products made from 100% organic and fair-trade cotton.

Linen
Source: France and Belgium
Production: Conventional
Sourcing Decision: Linen is made from flax, a very hearty plant that grows with little to no need of fertilizers and pesticides, making it nearly organic by nature. We source our flax from France and Belgium, countries with a long tradition of growing flax, adhering to all of the strong environmental standards set forth by the European Union.

Wool
Source: Canada
Production: Natural
Sourcing Decision: While we are working on sourcing organic wool, there is currently no existing cost-effective organic wool supply chain from the sheep to spinning, dying and, finally, weaving. However, Canadian sheep are grazed naturally on open fields for much of the year, and we are able to have the yarn spun, dyed and woven in Canada, reducing the price and footprint of the products.

Cashmere
Source: Mongolia
Production: Natural
Sourcing Decision: We chose to source our cashmere from Mongolia, where goats are still herded by nomadic farmers on the mountainous high plains. We continue to search for more information on the Mongolian supply chain and other sourcing options. However, as of today, we’ve found Mongolian cashmere to be the most natural source available to us.

GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) is internationally recognized as the toughest organic-textile standard because it goes far beyond verifying organic-farming process: it includes every step of manufacturing. Below are a few of the key components to GOTS:

• Ensures organic status from harvesting to labeling
• Each phase of production requires certification
• To be "certified organic" requires a minimum of 95% certified organic raw materials (excluding non-textile materials)
• Prohibited inputs include: substances designated as toxic on the international materials safety data sheet, including heavy metals, fluorocarbons, ammonia, bleaches and formaldehyde
• GOTS certifies all dyes are nontoxic
• All dyes and other processing materials must be recycled or disposed of properly

Fair trade empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace.

Fair trade is much more than paying a fair price for products. Fair-trade principles include:

• Fair price: Democratically organized farmer groups receive a guaranteed minimum floor price and an additional premium for certified-organic products. Farmer organizations are also eligible for pre-harvest credit.
• Fair labor conditions: Workers on fair-trade farms enjoy freedom of association, safe working conditions and living wages. Forced child labor is strictly prohibited.
• Direct trade: With fair trade, importers purchase from fair-trade producer groups as directly as possible, eliminating unnecessary middlemen and empowering farmers to develop the business capacity necessary to compete in the global marketplace.
• Democratic and transparent organizations: Fair-trade farmers and farm workers decide democratically how to invest fair-trade revenues.
• Community development: Fair-trade farmers and farm workers invest fair-trade premiums in social and business-development projects like scholarship programs, quality improvement trainings and organic certification.
• Environmental sustainability: Harmful agrochemicals and GMOs are strictly prohibited in favor of environmentally sustainable farming methods that protect farmers’ health and preserve valuable ecosystems for future generations.

The wages and earnings for farmers around the world are tied to the fluctuating price of their crops on commodity exchanges. This means that the price of commodities like cotton can fall below the actual cost of production. Farmers in industrialized countries like the United States have sophisticated ways of tracking commodity prices, adjusting yields, storing harvests and distributing their products year-round to multiple buyers.

Farmers in developing countries are often in remote, rural locations with no ability to adjust their yield, store their crops or distribute them outside the one local buyer. This leaves farmers in developing countries extremely susceptible to financial losses despite their hard work. In addition, loans and lines of credit in developing countries are difficult to obtain and often come with high interest rates upward of 30%.

Fair trade solves this problem in three main ways:

1. The farmers are paid a fair wage, no matter what the commodity price might be. This means that the farmer is not only guaranteed to cover his cost, but to make a profit that can be used to provide shelter, food, education and health care for his family.
2. A portion of the purchase price is paid up front. This provides the farmer with capital at the start of the growing season, so he can purchase the necessary seeds and materials he will need without having to pay exorbitant interest rates. This also ensures purchase of the harvest at the end of the growing season.
3. A portion of the profits is pooled to build a stronger community. This often includes building schools and wells or buying animals and tools that can be shared by the community.

We’ll try to give you a brief overview of our production process. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at info@coyuchi.com.

After the raw material is grown, washed, spun into thread and woven into large sheets of fabric, here are the steps in the production process:

1. Clean: The fabric is processed with a natural amylase enzyme, similar to the natural enzymes found in saliva, to remove the wheat starch that is applied to the textile to minimize fluctuations in sizing during the weaving process.
2. Singe: The starch-free fabric is then passed over and under a very small flame at high speed. This burns off fibers protruding from the fabric surface, leaving it smooth and thus minimizing pilling.
3. Wash: Next the fabric is washed with biodegradable soap.
4. Soften: Before being dyed, sodium hydroxide is applied to the fabric as it is stretched. This powerful cleaning agent makes the yarn rounder and more lustrous, stronger and more receptive to dyes.
5. Whiten: White and dyed fabrics are then whitened with hydrogen peroxide. (Natural-colored fabrics skip the whitening/dying process.)
6. Dye: Dyeing is done with fiber-reactive, low-impact dyes that require less water, heat, energy and dye material than other cotton dyes. The bonding effect is greater with this type of dye and, therefore, more environmentally friendly.
7. Smooth: The fabric is smoothed between highly polished steel rollers. This is a process done mainly to satin-weave fabrics to create sheen on the fabric surface.
8. Preshrink: Finally, the fabric is Sanforized, a mechanical process that uses steam and rubber rollers moving in opposite directions to preshrink the fabric.

India has one of the greatest textile traditions in the world. They have been growing, weaving and sewing cotton textiles for hundreds of years, and now have some of the highest quality production facilities in the world. In addition, we have a long-term working relationship with the Chetna Cooperative, a fair-trade and organic-farming collective that produces some of the best cotton in the world while exceeding our environmental and social justice goals.

There are a few reasons we don’t use U.S.-grown organic cotton. U.S.-grown cotton is extremely expensive, and we lack cut-and-sew facilities here in the United States. This means we would have to ship the cotton overseas for production and then back once completed increasing our footprint. Additionally, the highly mechanized production process in the United States would add few jobs, as compared to the thousands of jobs that are created in India where cotton is grown by hand.

At one time we did cut and sew in the United States. However, all of the large cut-and-sew facilities have closed down, and the remaining boutique facilities would be prohibitively expensive.

There are two kinds of cotton dyes: pigment and reactive dyes. Pigment dyeing is the process by which color is held onto the surface of the fabric by a binding agent. Reactive dyeing is the formulation of a chemical bond between the cotton fibers and the color. We use low-impact, fiber-reactive dyeing in all our Coyuchi products. Our dyes are very safe, GOTS certified and "low impact," which means the chemical bonding and absorption rate are so high that we use less water, less heat and produce less wastewater runoff than regular chemical dyeing processes. Recent advances have created fiber-reactive dyes with colors that are brighter and richer than previously available, and they provide excellent colorfast properties on cotton. Fiber-reactive dyes have become the dye choice for many organic clothing manufacturers who want to be able to offer a diverse palette of vibrant colors. They contain no heavy metals or other known toxic substances, and they meet all European Union criteria for eco-friendly pigments. Unfortunately, the actual dyes in almost all low-impact fiber-reactive dyes are still petrochemical based. Depending upon the nature and degree of their chemical sensitivities, people with mild chemical sensitivities can often wear organic clothing made with fiber-reactive dyes. Un-dyed, natural color or color-grown fabrics are the best choice for people who react to fiber-reactive dyes or who want only 100% natural, virgin fabrics on their skin.

"Coyuchi" is a word used in southern Mexico for naturally colored brown cotton. It is originally derived from the Aztec language and refers to the color of the coyote.

The inspiration for Coyuchi started in a small Oaxaca town where women were weaving beautiful textiles from organic cotton. Our name is a way of connecting us both to our past and to our future. Cotton has a storied history throughout the world, not the least of which is here in the United States. Over time, however, much of the production and true textile capability has been dismantled in this country. This is not the case in India, a country with has a centuries-old tradition of fine textile production, from growing to weaving. India is currently responsible for approximately 50% of the world’s cotton production. We see ourselves as a global company, borrowing and treasuring the ideas and traditions of different communities around the world. We are delighted that this wonderful fabric is indigenous to so many geographies and locations, and it is with this reverence that we design, source and bring our products to market.