Belgian linen is NOT the finest linen. The finest linen is hands down, Irish. if you can afford Thomas Ferguson, or Givan’s (only Irish linen companies that produce extra wide fabrics for bedding), you would see a gigantic difference relative to any linen belgium produces.
Personally after sampling hundreds of linen from all over the world I found belgian linen to be very overrated, especially comparing to its high price point. It’s not so different from quality Italian linen with much higher price, and just a little bit better than Baltic that you can find more readily available and cheaper. most of my beddings are handmade—I just search for high quality fabrics and ask a seamstress to make a duvet cover for me, ended up costing about the same price as rough linen and most times cheaper than Libeco. Of course, most of these fabrics don’t come in wide widths but personally I have no issues with a duvet cover sewn in three panels and two seams down (RL’s Orkney line is the same). I haven’t recalled issues with too much lint (if you can’t stand lint at all then linen is probably not your thing). Another option is to buy antique/vintage French linen sheets, and ask somebody to make a duvet cover for you using them. The high quality fine fil de lin ones shouldn’t shed.
if you want to see what REAL quality linen looks like: try Thomas Ferguson premier line (currently out of stock but I’m sure they will be back), Givan’s (they send samples), or check out Baird McNutt Glenariff 270gsm linen. they'll simply blow you away.
btw if you are going to buy libeco the only line worth buying is their Geneva/Victoria line. Their santiago is abysmal for the price point. Linoto Belgian organic is the same as Libeco’s organic heritage line, and they sell with a much cheaper price. but the Geneva/Victoria line is the finest that belgium manages to produce in that weight class, and that’s not saying much because if you just hold Irish linen in your hands, it’s no competition—your world will turn upside down at the amazement that linen could actually be woven so fine that the Irish could do.
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Linen
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