If you want lovely, fluffy, absorbent towels, you don't have to go to Portugal. I really love my combed cotton/bamboo towels from Lands' End. Search for "bamboo towel" on landsend.com. These are the most luxurious towels I have ever experienced, and the price is moderate. They smell a bit funky when you first get them, but a couple of trips through the washer takes care of that.

Restoration Hardware towels are fabulous. restorationhardware.com

Restoration Hardware towels are fabulous. restorationhardware.com

NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!!

I bought into that idea too. I will never buy anything from RH or Pottery Barn or like stores after my towel experience. My towels were beautiful for about 6 months. After 2 years, though, the dye is running and they are literally falling apart. I had a similar experience with Land's End towels. The dyes they use are not high quality. Towels I bought at a department store 10 years ago look gorgeous still (I think they were SpringMaid?).

I have used Lands' End Supima cotton towels for years and never had a problem with fading or premature wearing out - and my towels hang in direct western sunlight. My LE bamboo-blend towels are new, so time will tell if they wear well and retain their color. All I can say is that they sure feel good now! Buy a pair of washcloths and check them out.

Another point: I previously bought Kassatex bamboo-blend towels (available at Brookstone and EXPO) and was pleased until I got the set from Lands' End. The LE towels are much larger and considerably fluffier, even though the percentage of bamboo rayon is smaller in the LE set.

You can get towels made in Portugal here. Abyss Super Pile is what you want - for sure the best towels. They are also $60 each (here locally - I just saw them last Saturday). Other luxury brand names to look for are Habidecor, which are the softest rugs you'll ever put your bare feet on. Yves DeLorme is another good name - French. I did a web search not long ago and found and found a bunch of sites selling these names for a few dollars less. The link below is to Lavender Creek Trading Company (I've not used it), and the super pile is $56. This is just one example.

Enjoy...they'll last a long time, and the cost is small vis a vis a bathroom remodel. Think about how much you pay the tile guy per hour, and you can have lots of soft towels. I think these luxuries make a difference.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lavender Creek Trading Company

I love all the towels I have ever purchased from Waterworks. I purchased the linen blend towels, Gotham and Turkish towels. I love all of them and they serve different purposes. The gothams are light weight and dry very quickly. The linen blend towels are also fabulous. I had some Abyss towels, Macys used to carry them and I don't know if they still do, and I did not like them. The loops started to unravel after a year of use.

PS: I prefer white towels overall but I have a few light colored towels. Waterworks has sales about three times a year and the towels are usually 20% off.
Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Waterworks Towels

Pottery Barn towels are a complete waste of time. Ours "run" and faded in the first couple of washes. Restoration wasn't any better either.

Thanks for starting this topic. I too would spend whatever it takes to get top quality towels.

Mari

Bloomingdale's Home Store has towels on sale all the time. They have a after Christmas sale starting Dec.26th with a 20% off coupon for credit card holders. They have a good variety of choices.
Donna

fielcrest royal velvet hold their color, are thick and fluffy, and mine still look great after ten years!!! they are not the thickest, but I think they are the best! also, check out scheurs linens...they are a store in s.f., but i think they have a catalog...they carry very high end linens...also, check out schweitzer linens out of n.y....they also carry beautiful high end linens...good luck! rachel

It seems like most of the complaints here are about poor dye. We're buying white towels, so we don't really care about how good the dye job is. And, frankly, we're willing to give up some longevity for comfort and absorbency. I'd rather have something that looks nice and works great for two years than something that is mediocre for ten years.

With that in mind, where do the Restoration Hardware and similar towels stack up?

If you want luxury, have I got the towels for you!
Rhapsody Royale by Chortex. They are Egyptian cotton, imported from England. I started buying them 15 yrs. ago for my guest bath. I am gradually replacing my Fieldcrest Royal Velvet with them. They are soft, aborbent and wear well. You can buy them online, I got mine originally at Stroud's in CA, which I think is out of business.
Renaissance by Christy looks very similar , is carried by Bloomingdales and various places online. That line is also Epyptian cotton and imported from England and a little cheaper.
Pam

Here is a link that might be useful: The Linen Place

I stumbled across the Pinzon Luxury 820-gram towels on Amazon. Pinzon is actually an Amazon brand name. I at first just bought one bath size and one hand size to try, but found them so great, I then bought multiple sets. Ohmigosh, are these a steal! For one thing, they are 820 grams. Most of the time you are lucky if you can find 700 grams. Many towel manufacturers don't want even to tell you the number of grams, cause then you could truly make an apples-to-apples comparison. The closest in weight I have seen is Restoration Hardware at 802, but I have heard that RH's towel quality is not what it once was. Another thing I like about the Pinzon towels is size. One manufacturer's "bath" size towel could be significantly smaller than another's. The Pinzon's are generously sized. I can't vouch for the Pinzons' color-fastness, cause I always buy white, since it goes with everything, and I can wash it in very hot water without concern for the color fading or running.

However, I have just looked on Amazon, and it looks like they are out of stock of all the Pinzon 820-gram white towels. Probably due to the holiday shopping. The website says you can order now, and they'll ship it when they get it in, if you are willing to wait. Or just bookmark for future reference.

You may find this article reviewing towels to be interesting. It likes DeWoolfson which sells the Abyss that has been mentioned on this thread. I have bought other things from DeWoolfson--they are a high-end retailer, with only top luxury items. I've never tried those towels.

Thanks for the info. I ordered samples of:

• Pinzon

• Three types from Lands' End (Bamboo, Supima Zip Dry and Egyptian)

• Abyss Super Pile

• 2-3 (I forget exactly, and I can't find my order confirmation now) types of Yves DeLorme

I just ordered one white hand towel of each type; getting a full bath towel would make comparison easier, but that starts getting expensive (this exercise is already fairly expensive). So far I've only received the Lands' End and Pinzon towels, and I haven't tested them at all yet. I'm waiting until I receive them all before doing any comparisons. I'm not going to do a full Consumer Reports-style test, but I'll try to remember to post back here about which I decide on anyway. Hopefully I'll have them all by the end of the week (some of the small merchants don't have very good order tracking).

Ok, I know it's been a long time, but I still wanted to follow-up on this. In the end, we tried out nine types of towels:

* Abyss Super Pile
* Lands End Combed Cottom/Bamboo
* Lands End Supima Zip-dry
* Lands End Ultimate Zip Dry Egyptian
* Matouk Milagro
* Pinzon Luxury 820-gram Cotton
* Restoration Hardware Ultimate Turkish
* Yves Delorme Etoile
* Yves Delorme Olympe

The winner for us was the Matouk Milagro. I wrote up some more details on my blog.

I can't guarantee that our tastes match anyone else's, but I hope this will be of use to someone :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Towel test

Holy COW, that is an amazing review of towels! Thanks for doing the footwork for the rest of us. I think that I'm more of a Pinzon towel person since I like dense, somewhat soft but affordable towels.

Thanks again!

Abyss Towels are AMAZINGLY soft on your skin and much better for drying your hair - Fine Linen and Bath has Abyss towels including the Super Pile and Abyss Corail Towels.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fine Linen Bath

Sferra towels are fabulous. White towels now on sale on their web site under CLEARANCE So soft and absorbent. I'll never use another brand of towel. I'm hooked!!

If anyone is looking for a good variety of quality towels go to this site;
http://elegantlinenspc.com/towelssc.htm. This is my favorite on line store for linens and towels. They carry the Abyss towels you were asking about and yes they are fabulous! But they also carry bamboo towels, organic towels and for course the ever perfect 100% Egyptian cotton towels and all from name brand manufacturers. If you have any questions call their store and a sales person is available to help you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Elegant Linens