Why Many Premium Brands Continue to Choose Cotton Turkish Towels

Why Many Premium Brands Continue to Choose Cotton Turkish Towels

Published by Towel Age — Technical Insights

Image: Pixabay / CC0 License

The peshtemal category has grown significantly over the past decade. What was once a niche product — known primarily within Turkish hammam culture — now appears in boutique hotel minibars, sailing clubs, upscale resort gift shops, and corporate gifting catalogues across Europe and North America.

With that growth came an inevitable wave of product variation: blended fibers, printed synthetics, "eco" labels, and recycled content claims. For procurement professionals sourcing at volume, the choices have multiplied — and so have the risks.

This article explains why a significant segment of premium buyers continue to specify 100% cotton for their peshtemal orders, and what the current scientific literature says about the material trade-offs involved.

The Performance Case for Cotton

Cotton's functional advantages in towel applications are not a marketing claim — they are a direct consequence of fiber chemistry.

Cotton is hydrophilic: the cellulose structure of the fiber actively attracts and retains water molecules. This is why a well-constructed cotton peshtemal absorbs efficiently after a single wash and improves with each subsequent wash cycle as residual manufacturing finishes are removed.

Polyester, by contrast, is hydrophobic. It repels water at the fiber level. A polyester-blend peshtemal may feel soft in a showroom sample, but in actual-use conditions — poolside, post-sauna, post-swim — it moves water across its surface rather than absorbing it. For hospitality and wellness applications, this is a functional failure, not a preference difference.

For buyers specifying towels for:

  • Spa and hammam environments
  • Swimming and watersports clubs
  • Hotel and resort amenity programs
  • Sailing and marine vessels

...absorbency is a procurement specification, not an aesthetic preference. Cotton meets it. Blended synthetics do not.

The Microfiber Pollution Question

This is where material choice connects to a documented environmental problem — and where the science is clear enough to state plainly.

Synthetic textiles shed microscopic plastic fibers during washing. This is well-established in the peer-reviewed literature. A study published in PLOS One (2021) quantified microfiber release across 37 consumer textile samples and found that mechanically-treated polyester released significantly more microfibers per wash cycle than woven constructions. A 2024 systematic review published in Environmental Science & Technology confirmed that polyester textiles remain a primary source of microplastic fiber pollution entering aquatic environments through domestic and industrial laundry.

The critical difference between synthetic and natural fiber shedding is not volume alone — it is persistence. Cotton fibers that enter waterways biodegrade under aerobic conditions. A 2025 study published in ACS Omega confirmed this distinction directly: cotton and rayon microfibers degraded in controlled aquatic biodegradation experiments, while polyester microfibers showed no measurable degradation and were expected to persist in the environment for long periods.

In practice, a hotel or spa that washes peshtemals at commercial laundry scale is washing hundreds or thousands of units per week. Over a product lifecycle of several years, the cumulative microfiber load from a synthetic or blended inventory is meaningful — and increasingly visible to regulators, certification bodies, and environmentally-aware wholesale buyers.

A Note on "Recycled" Polyester

The recycled polyester narrative has become standard positioning in sustainable textile marketing. The claim is that diverting plastic waste from landfill and ocean environments and converting it into fiber reduces environmental impact.

The problem is that this framing addresses upstream inputs while ignoring downstream outputs.

A 2024 study commissioned by the Changing Markets Foundation and conducted by the Microplastic Research Group at Çukurova University tested 51 garments from major international brands. The finding was counterintuitive: recycled polyester shed more microfibers than virgin polyester — both in total fiber count and in the fineness of the particles released. The reason is structural: the mechanical recycling process degrades fiber integrity, producing a material that sheds more readily under wash stress.

There is a second, separate issue: supply chain verification. Global recycling infrastructure does not collect and process enough post-consumer plastic to support the volume of "recycled polyester" currently marketed. Independent audits have repeatedly documented gaps between recycled content claims and actual recycled content in certified products. This is not a fringe concern — it is an acknowledged challenge within the certification industry itself.

This does not mean that all recycled content claims are false. It means that recycled polyester, even when accurately described, does not resolve the microfiber shedding problem — and may worsen it.

For buyers whose customers or brand positioning involve environmental commitments, this is a material risk in the sourcing decision, not just a philosophical one.

What the Research Suggests About Synthetic Fiber Exposure

Some researchers have raised questions about the biological effects of long-term synthetic fiber and microplastic exposure. The evidence base here is still developing, and it would be inaccurate to describe scientific consensus where none currently exists.

What can be said accurately: microplastics have been detected in human blood, lung tissue, and placental samples in multiple studies. Research into the potential biological effects of this exposure — including possible endocrine disruption associated with chemical additives in synthetic textiles — is an active area of scientific inquiry.

We have written about this topic in more detail in our earlier piece, Why Natural Fibers Matter: Health, Sustainability, and the Hidden Cost of Synthetics, which includes references to relevant peer-reviewed studies. Readers who want to evaluate that evidence independently will find the sources cited there.

For procurement purposes, the conservative position — and the one increasingly adopted by certification bodies and sustainability-focused buyers — is to prefer natural fibers where functional performance requirements are met. For peshtemal applications, they are.

Cotton Sourcing and Quality Verification

Not all cotton is equivalent, and "100% cotton" on a label does not, by itself, guarantee fiber quality or production transparency.

Buyers should verify:

Fiber origin and certification. OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 certification means the finished product has been tested for harmful substance residues across the supply chain. It does not certify fiber type or GSM accuracy — but it does indicate that the manufacturer operates within an audited quality system. Legitimate manufacturers in Denizli provide these certificates without friction.

GSM consistency. The gram-per-square-meter specification of a peshtemal directly affects its weight, hand-feel, absorbency, and pack efficiency. Ask for a GSM test certificate. If a supplier cannot define their product's exact GSM or declines to provide documentation, treat that as a qualification issue.

Weave construction. Jacquard and Dobby weaves are produced on different loom types and result in different structural properties. Yarn-dyed jacquard — where the design is woven into the fabric using pre-dyed yarn rather than printed onto the surface — produces a product with color permanence, consistent texture, and durability across commercial wash cycles. Printed towels may look similar in photography but perform differently in use.

Quick Field Test: Warp vs. Weft

The burn test above works, but warp and weft threads should be tested separately — a peshtemal can use different materials for each, and testing only one can give a false result.

Warp. Cut a few millimeters from several fringe threads across the width of the towel, not just one. Mixed-color warps sometimes indicate a factory has wound in leftover or regenerated yarn alongside the primary material.

Weft — test every color separately. This is where buyers most often get a false reading. A multi-color weft doesn't mean uniform material across colors: one color may be 100% cotton while another color in the same towel is polyester or a recycled cotton-polyester blend. Testing only one color and extrapolating to the whole product is not reliable.

For bulk orders, sacrifice a sample unit. Rather than pulling single threads from a delivered towel, cut small cross-sections from each distinct weft color and burn them individually. This is the only way to confirm material consistency across a multi-color design before committing to a full production run.

Reading the result. Cotton burns cleanly, curls into gray ash, and smells like burning paper. Polyester melts, beads, and smells like burning plastic. A blend shows both behaviors in the same burn.

This test takes under a minute per sample and requires no equipment beyond a lighter — useful for spot-checking incoming shipments or pre-production samples before committing to volume.

The Procurement Summary

Specification 100% Ring-Spun Cotton Polyester Blend
Absorbency Hydrophilic — improves with wash Hydrophobic — does not improve
Durability Fiber strength increases after initial washes Prone to pilling; fiber degrades over wash cycles
Microfiber persistence Biodegrades in aquatic environments Persists; does not biodegrade
Recycled alternative Not applicable Recycled PET sheds more microfibers than virgin polyester (Çukurova University, 2024)
Commercial laundry suitability High Variable; depends on blend ratio
Certification compatibility OEKO-TEX®, GOTS, organic programs OEKO-TEX® possible; organic certification not applicable

Towel Age Production

We manufacture peshtemals in Denizli using 100% ring-spun Turkish cotton. Our current production includes yarn-dyed jacquard weaves — designs woven directly into the fabric using pre-dyed yarn — which maintain color and texture integrity across high-frequency commercial washing.

S.H.B. custom production — yarn-dyed jacquard, 100% ring-spun cotton. Denizli, Turkey.

We supply hotels, spas, sailing and watersports clubs, cruise lines, and branded product programs. Minimum order quantities, Pantone color matching, private label options, and OEKO-TEX® documentation are available on request.

Request a Production Quote →

Further reading: Why Natural Fibers Matter: Health, Sustainability, and the Hidden Cost of Synthetics

Sources referenced:

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