My wife gave me a polo shirt-the brand is the one that has a little alligator on the front. I saw from the label that it is 100% cotton (peruvian cotton). Why is Peru-grown cotton considered the nst? I thought Georgia (Sea Island) or Egyptian cottons were the premium types.
in any event, the shirt is of high quality-the fabric is soft and comfortable.
But is this cotton any better than the two varieties I mentioned?
It’s a marketing gimmick.
All those types of cotton are basically the same, but you can point to an attribute, such as it origin, and just pass it off as a feature by calling special attention to it. Most consumers will, as you sort of did, assume that if attention is being called to it, it must be something special.
I never heard of Peruvian cotton being the best but had heard that Egyptian or Sea Island cotton were the best because they were “long staple”, meaning, as I understand, that the fibers are long. But according to Wikipedia, Sea Island or Egyptian cotton originated in Peru as Pima cotton. So that’s probably the origin of the idea.
I think perhaps the Peruvian cotton is Tanguis cotton, which has a longer staple length than Pima, leading it to feel silkier (and shed/pill less, in textiles where that’s an issue).