Bed Linen Nirvana

January 1, 2010 9:22 PM

Is it possible to replace my Royal Velvet by Fieldcrest 100% Pima Cotton sheets?

I have a set of sheets that I ADORE. They are soft and light and snuggly and warm all at the same time.They are perfect but my set is getting threadbare and I can't figure out how to get more.

The tag says they are Royal Velvet by Fieldcrest 100% Pima Cotton and has the number 275 (thread count?) on it. They were probably bought about 10 years ago but I can't be sure where or when. I can't quite follow all of the mergers and takeovers, but it seems that the parent company no longer exists. There's a post here that suggests that Kohl's bought the RV brand but I can't find the sheets on their website. This article is slightly contradictory saying that Kohl's bought RV but only plans to sell towels while Target bought Fieldcrest but I don't think that includes the RV line.This company appears to have taken over some of their brands but not the RV line?

There are a couple of sets of the King size sheets on eBay (those of you with King size beds should buy them!) but I need Full size or maybe Queen.

So if I can't have the real deal, what should I look for? Is the "pima" part of the cotton significant? How can I best figure out what kind of sheets will approximate the perfection of the Royal Velvet line apart from buying lots of sheets and sleeping on them?

posted by otherwordlyglow to Shopping (5 answers total)

Former Kohl's employee here (it feels so nice to put "former" in there, but anyway...):

If Kohl's bought a part of the brand, it's very possible they re-branded it as one of their house brands in bedding: Sonoma life+style, Apt. 9 or The Big One (I think that's all of them).

From my own experiences, the "pima" isn't really that important.

Best approximations, from your description:

Sonoma 500 TC, The Big One 275 TC.

Don't go for Martex. The ones I bought didn't hold up well at all. I own two sets of The Big One, though, and they're durable, lightweight, and fit my very deep mattress.

Good luck!
posted by Verdandi at 10:16 PM on January 1, 2010

Royal Velvet is a brand that has been bought and sold a few times, as you've noted. Kohl's only bought the rights to the towels after JCP let it go (I think).

Now Bed Bath and Beyond has some of the rights to the brand name and sells 250 thread count sheets under the Royal Velvet name. They're on the website here. They should have these in-store if you have one near you.

I would expect that anything with the RV name from ten years ago is going to be a completely different manufacturer than today.

Pima is a type of cotton. Kohl's carries a few sheets, in-store, made of pima cotton that are 500 and 1000 thread counts. But there are other cotton sheets in lower thread counts.
posted by tommccabe at 10:17 PM on January 1, 2010

I don't know about your sheets per se, but the pima cotton IS important. I grew up in Pima county Arizona (USA) where "pima" cotton is grown and I learned as a child that the cotton grown there is the best in the world. I think it is the geographic area that it is grown and not the species of cotton that gives it this designation, but don't know for sure.
Good luck!
posted by bebrave! at 10:29 PM on January 1, 2010

Bedding is very personal, but I'm fussy and I've been very happy with sheets from Target's Fieldcrest line. I'd actually be surprised if there's anything the same in the supply chain from the Fieldcrest of 10 years ago, but the linens I have are soft and have held up for 3 years or so very well. I think they're at least worth a try.
posted by crabintheocean at 6:36 PM on January 3, 2010

Also, Pima is a species of cotton, and it does matter, although there are so many factors in play that its presence or absence doesn't tell you if you're looking at good sheets or not.
posted by crabintheocean at 6:38 PM on January 3, 2010