Buzzwords

Plied Yarn

Another way bed linen companies have cleverly and carefully been able to market their products as a higher thread count, is by weaving fabrics with plied yarns.
A plied yarn is a yarn made up of two or more finer yarns. Rope is a good example. Although oversized compared to fine yarn, it uses the same principle. Weaker yarns are combined together to create one stronger yarn. Companies then count each yarn inside the plied yarn to create a higher and misleading thread count.

Here’s an example..

If a warp has 100 yarns (2 ply) it should be considered as 100 yarns, however it may be marketed as 200 yarns (2 x 100),
If the same is true in the weft, it could result in a 200 thread count being touted as a 400 thread count. No wonder the poor consumers are confused!
Unfortunately there are currently no Australian (or worldwide) standards to regulate this misleading marketing, so it’s buyer beware.