Whom you allow into your bed at night is a matter of utmost discretion. But when you’ve slept with more than 500 European royal dynasties, countless billionaires on private yachts and high-wattage celebrities, it’s going to get people talking. In certain circles, Frette tends to get around.
This Italian linen house first began seducing illustrious clients in 1860 when Jean Baptiste Edmond Frette opened up shop in Grenoble, France. Moving production to Italy just five years later, Frette and partners were soon outfitting aristocratic beds everywhere with luxurious bedding made on jacquard looms that created intricate patterns in brocade, damask and matelassé.
Photo courtesy of Frette.
In 1880, when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Kingdom of Italy commissioned sheets for all its embassies worldwide—a tradition that continues to today—it only made sense for the venerable bedding brand to start supplying the world’s finest establishments. From Claridge’s in London to the Ritz in Paris, Frette has long put its threads in hotel beds, ultimately leading to Frette retail boutiques so customers everywhere could wake up to that crisp, white-sheet feeling at home too.
But the company isn’t just about hitting the hay. A Frette tablecloth has graced the revered altar at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome for decades, while the luxurious fabric has long been present in discerning dining rooms like the Orient Express’s dining cars and the Peninsula Hotel’s restaurant in Hong Kong.
The company now spans a Frette-to-Wear women’s and menswear lounge line, homewares and, of course, a broad collection of sheets available in more than 100 boutiques worldwide. Whether it’s a clean-lined contemporary set like the Bold range in long-staple cotton sateen or bespoke tailored bedding in linen for private clients, Frette’s sheets are still all crafted in Italy in their original factories.
Photo courtesy of Frette.
One set of sheets that promises to play a little more hard-to-get, however, is this week’s launch of Jewel, a rare collection of only 99 sheet sets in silk. Numbered like works of art, the collection is inspired by ancient Egypt in muted tones with texture and lustre that evoke rare gems.
Considering we drop more on our cars and yet only spend a fraction of our life in them, it makes perfect sense to invest in our beds, where we’ll spend a full third of our life. Whether you spend that life between the sheets, though, is up to you—and Frette.
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