The age of bed fashion has arrived

Fashion is so pervasive that it dominates not only our closets; it’s entered our bedrooms as well. In fact, it can take center stage if you let it, as the glossy armor sheathing the monolithic escape hatch that is your bed.

Yes, bed linens are no longer just bed linens — and comfort is no longer the sole consideration when picking out your sheets. The age of “bed fashion” has arrived, and the new criteria to consider include style, color and, of course, thread count.

This was brought home to me by a recent bout with insomnia. Over the holidays in Baguio I’d gotten used to turning in early and waking up at the crack of dawn, which is ideal in the wholesome, rustic environment of the mountains but not so great once you’re back in the city, nodding off in front of the TV at 2 a.m. and then opening your eyes again at 5:30, dismally certain that three and a half hours of sleep is all you’ll have to function on today.

I have a duvet that’s as soft as a cloud and a bed and pillows that are reasonably ergonomic, so I deduced that the problem might lie in my sheets, which were inherited from my parents almost 10 years ago. A decade of hard use has worn them down to a faded softness, but design-wise they could best be described as “’70s Laura Ashley” and thread count? The concept didn’t even exist back then.

So meeting someone like Eman Pineda is akin to having a lifeline thrown to a drowning woman. Eman, the brilliant mastermind behind a new breed of department store — also known as Adora — knows the value of a good night’s sleep. Heck, he would promote a “culture of sleeping” if he could (finally, a concept I can wholeheartedly get behind).

Significant floor space at Adora is devoted to all things bed-related, and don’t call the section the “home department,” please: “We call it the ‘bed department,’ though we don’t sell an actual bed or mattress,” Eman laughs. “Bed linens and everything for the bed are extremely important for Adora,” he says. “We want to be of service to customers in the specific category of the bed, as we spend 1/3 of our lives on and in it!”

From his enthusiasm on the subject, I gather that beds are very serious business at Adora: “We don’t even sell the sheets as sets because we see a bed like a person who buys clothes.”

Eman, who keeps his eyes open and ears to the ground for the best the world has to offer (“If we want the best cashmere, then we drop ourselves in the middle of India in search of it”), stumbled upon Thai bed-linen brand Jaspal Home while on a trip to Bangkok. Like Goldilocks comparing the merits of the three bears’ beds, he immediately noticed that Jaspal’s array of designs had an aesthetic that would match Adora’s; that the texture felt right (“you can have a 300 thread count with a touch of sateen, or go 600 thread count, which can be smoother, or a textured mix of 1,000 thread count, which some people like as it doesn’t cling to the body”); and that the quality was unparalleled (“they have been doing bed linens for more than 60 years, so they know what they are doing and at the right price and quality ratio that fits Adora”).

Best of all, Jaspal was the very definition of bed fashion, and since Adora is about all things fashionable and fashion-forward, it was the perfect match.

“In our opinion, bed fashion is an extension of apparel fashion,” says Tarun Puri, marketing and commercial director of Jaspal Home. “The choices of style of fabrics and color tones follow very closely with fashion trends of the world. Linens can even be mixed and matched, that’s why Adora sells them separately and not as sets only. More so, the decision maker is a fashionable, discerning person who is in the age group of 25 to 50.”

What sets Jaspal apart from plain bed linen is an attention to design and embellishment. The brand’s intricate motifs are derived from inspirations as diverse as architectural murals, furniture and the fabrics used in fashion. “The linen, along with the bedspread, actually becomes a part of the room décor since the bed is a very prominent feature in the bedroom,” Puri says.

Then, of course, there’s that all-important thread count. Many of the styles available in the Jaspal Home Collection (JHC) are made of Egyptian cotton (e.g. the Chardonnay, Makayla and Softouch), but other fabrics of the finest standards are also used, like elongated staple-yarn fabrics in plain weave, jacquard and silk blends, though Puri is quick to point out that Jaspal is less Thai and more European in style.

According to him, the ideal thread count for the best sleep would be 400 for 100-percent cotton and 500 for cotton sateen. “But it will all depend on the customer,” he says. “The customer must touch. Bed linens are sensory — visual and touch.”

Jaspal keeps pace with the ever-cycling trends in bed fashion with three ranges: Simple & Classic, comprised of plain solids with strategic detailing and embroidery; Elegant & Exotic, which offers better fabrics and thread counts combined with good yarn, like Egyptian cotton, sateen and silk; and Sophisticated, which boasts Italian fabrics and design under the JHC Italian Couture range. “People are seeking lightweight but exotic fabrics in high thread counts of sateen luxury,” observes Puri.

So confident is Jaspal in the high grade of its linens that there are no garish prints or flashy colors to distract from the pristine quality of its offerings. Instead they concentrate on white and soft natural shades in an act that declares they have nothing to hide.

Eager to plumb Puri’s expertise, I asked him how to create the dreamiest of beds — one that would promote an excellent night’s sleep and give me a full eight hours instead of a measly three-and-a-half.

“A good selection of bed linen and fiberfill,” he replied. “A well-coordinated bed combining natural colors in cotton sateen linen with an intricate jacquard duvet cover. The bed should include a full range of accessories that are fully embellished. In Adora, their tip is, get two duvet comforters. Place one below your flat sheet right above the bed mattress, and the second one to be used as a real duvet.”

Eman says that while quite a few of their customers are already savvy about the science of sleep, Adora staff are always on hand to help the newlywed or newbie who wants to revamp their bed-linen situation, like me. “We get to explain the choices we have and see if they like it or not, or if that is what they need or not,” he says. “Sort of like if a woman is going to a party, then we try to see what dress will match the shoes and bag and earrings.”

There’s that emphasis on fashion again. At Adora it’s apparent that wherever fashion goes, bed couture will soon follow.

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Jaspal Home Collection is exclusively available at Adora Department Store in Greenbelt 5, Makati City.