THOMAS LEE 500 Thread-Count Percale, US-Grown Pima Cotton, Classic Ivory, Bed Sheets & Pillowcases Set - Ivory King Sheet Set for Bed

Holy moly these are expensive sheets! When I first saw the price I nearly went blind. I've never purchased a 3-figure sheet set before, and honestly I never thought I would. But as I've aged, so apparently has my internal body temperature, because I've been sleeping much hotter than usual.If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that high thread count does not necessarily equal high comfort or even high quality. Generally speaking, the higher the thread count, the tighter the weave, and that means more heat retention. If you're a hot sleeper, then natural fabrics at a low thread count (between 300-500) is your best friend. Percale is by far the best cotton weave for hot sleepers (in my opinion) as it is crisp and cool. Other types of sheets, like bamboo or sateen also feel cool but it's usually short-lived; I find that they get hot quickly unlike percale which tends to remain cooler, longer.The best percale sheets I had prior to purchasing this set by Thomas Lee were by Pinzon. A 300TC sheet set which, to be honest, feels very similar to these. The Thomas Lee sheets are a little softer, likely due to the higher thread count and the use of pima cotton. But the overall thickness of the sheets, durability, and comfort are nearly identical. Except one costs 5x more than the other. I'm struggling at this point to justify the more expensive cost for a little extra softness.There's no doubt about it though. These sheets are quality. They're also the most similar to hotel sheets I've ever tried. Maybe even better than. The most impressive aspect of these sheets to me is the generous sizing. When they say "deep pocket", they MEAN IT. In fact, they are the deepest pocket fitted sheet I've ever had; it easily fits over my 16" mattress with room to spare - most other sheets either just barely fit or aren't quite deep enough.What I don't like about these sheets are honestly not deal breakers for me, but at this price point I do expect a bit more. For example, the pillowcases should have an envelope closure. They are a generous size, and I haven't had issues with my pillow coming out, but I still would have liked to see an envelope closure. Also, the color selection is awful. White or whiter, you choose. There's no excuse not to have, at the very least, 2 more neutral color options like gray and beige. I love white sheets, but then how will I hide all the stains? Especially on pillowcases. I'm basically a human stain machine - stains just appear for seemingly no reason on whatever fabric I touch.Speaking of which, if you decide to invest in these sheets, then I highly recommend investing in a high quality linen detergent like Le Blanc. These sheets are too good for Tide, and don't even THINK about using fabric softener! Add baking soda to the drum and white vinegar to the fabric softener compartment instead if you are trying to speed up the softening process. Percale is often best dried outside on a line, but if this isn't a possibility then tumble dry on the lowest heat setting.Will these sheets wrinkle? Obviously they will, and do. In fact mine were wrinkled right out of the package. But guess what? That's what percale does! Percale that doesn't wrinkle isn't real percale. It's not a big deal, and honestly everything smooths out when I make the bed anyway. I still find my biggest issue with these sheets are the price, because they just aren't overwhelmingly better than my other percale set at 1/5th the cost. I was truly hoping to have my mind blown but it just didn't happen.

UPDATE JUNE 2021 - I've been rotating through two sets of these for FOUR years washing every two weeks minimum and after all that time I am finally back for another couple sets. There are no tears or holes in them - just that after all those nights and washes they're sort of petered out a bit on heaviness and crispness, totally to be expected. Below is my original review which still holds -Another example of getting what you pay for. i've had a hard time buying sheets on Amazon. The cheaper ones I've ordered are cheaply made with crappy material. One set was almost TRANSPARENT - I could see through them, and they felt awful. those got tossed. So i took a chance on these by spending more money, and I am delighted to report that they are very, very high quality. i like the feel of the surface -- like the percale sheets of yesteryear before everything got so cheaply made overseas. Yes they cost a lot relative to the cheaper sets. But I'm spending a third of my life asleep so its worth the investment. The last set of sheets I got from Amazon before this set, for cheap money of course, were almost worthless and became terribly uncomfortable after a few washes, which produced little irritating balled up bunches of material over the whole surface (that's "pilling" right?). I used that set for a few months but I replaced them with these, and said so long to the POS shees as soon as these new luxurious ones arrived. They are truly excellent quality and they will last a while, i can tell. They are sumptiously thick and they are a heavy weight compared to the cheap ones i've bought. They were easy to get onto a 15 inch Saatva mattress. I sleep well in them. I will probably save money in the long run. i highly recommend them. i'm ordering a second set today for the guest bedroom. BTW, I think most of what i've been reading about "long-staple" and "Egyptian" cotton used in sheets sold on Amazon are lies. And I think Amazon has at least some obligation to its customers to do more to ensure honesty in product descriptions. The category of sheets would be a good place to start You don't have to worry about these brand though. They are what they say they are, and they are worth the price.UPDATE ONE YEAR LATER, MARCH 2018 - so I've been using the same set constantly for one year now, washing them every week or ten days and putting them back on the bed, and they remain just like new!

I ordered these as I go through fitted percale sheets very quickly and I am extremely picky about my choice in sheets. I ordered two different sets to try different brands and when I opened up the box, I can immediately see that this brand had a Ivory/yellow color compared to the other brand white sheet set. I kept taking all of them to different lightings in my house, and then decided to wash it, maybe it'll get whiter/brighter? Unfortunately, this was not the case and I returned this as it did not match my bed ensemble. I will say that when washed, it was a true percale and softened immediately with that immaculate percale crispness. It did wrinkle a bit more than some other percale I'm used to.