Showroom

Sferra

Bed, bath, and table linens by Italian artisanal methods, including the Giza 45 line. Over 130 years.

SFERRA sells from a townhouse at 11 East 20th Street in the Flatiron, which is the company's own store rather than a concession, and it has been in linens since Gennaro Sferra arrived from Italy in 1891 selling handmade lace. Table linens followed in the 1930s, under his sons Enrico and Albert.

The cloth is woven in the Alpine foothills of northern Italy, and the fibres are the part a designer needs to see rather than read. Giza 45 is the long staple Egyptian cotton the house introduced in 2008 and the one most often specified by name. Celeste is the percale that has carried the range for two decades, and SFERRA puts the first 1,020 thread count linens at 2001. Beyond those the floor runs to sateen, jacquard, pure linen, alpaca and eider down, and the difference between percale and sateen in the same colour is a hand and a drape that no photograph transmits.

Bed, bath and table are all shown, along with loungewear and fragrance. Monogramming is done to order, and the house publishes a monogram guide, which is the document to settle thread colour and letter style against before an order goes in.

The store is open Monday to Saturday from 9 to 5 and anybody can walk in. SFERRA runs a separate trade programme for designers, and registering for it before a first specification is worth doing, because the terms and the custom table sizes sit behind it.

The reason to go in person is weight. Bedding is specified from a swatch card more often than it is handled, and a client who wanted crisp and received fluid will say so after the bed is made. Take the client, or take the swatches out of the box and put two weights side by side on the same sheet before choosing.