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One of the main problems with being in the luxury comforter and bedding business is the variety of names applied to the same object. Or to slight variations from the same functional item. This is going to be a short blog, since sorting the names out gives me a headache. One source of many sources of delicious headaches in this business. But enough about me.

The other night as we were making our bed with our California King Sateen Sheet Set, my wife said, “Would you put the slips on my pillows?” Aside from the request to do something with her pillows which are big fat pillows and none of the as yet unnamed items we have to put them into are quite large enough to make the task easy, her use of the word, “slips” caught my frayed attention.

“Slips?” I said. “Slips?” I repeated. “We don’t need no filthy slips,” I finished up.

“Of course we have no filthy slips, we’ve just washed them,” she chided.

“No,” I said. “What’s with this ‘slips’ thing. These are pillow cases!”

That’s where the lines of communication started to crumble. She looked across the beautiful comforter we had just floated out across he bed, swiped her hand across it, and, from under carefully plucked eyebrows, gave me that inflected, single word that speaks volumes, and conveys the death penalty if I should disagree—“Slips!” A presumption that the one utterance alone ended the subject. So blasted “wifely”, as those of you who fall on my side of the aisle know so well.

Since most of our Readers are probably from the other side of the aisle, I can sense a ground swell of support for my wife. At least I hope there are enough Readers for a swell.

In any event, a small issue. Then we have “shams”. I’m sure there is a really good reason why a fancy pillow case is called a sham. They do cost more than regular pillow cases. Slips don’t. Shams do. Is there any such thing as a “pillow cover”?

Some Decorative Pillows come with shams . . . not slips or cases. They too cost more, but we have seen some very ornate, intricately woven, beautiful shams for decorative pillows. We anticipate offering Navajo Chief shams for 20” by 20” pillow forms (my wife taught me about “forms”). These shams replicate original Navajo Chief blanket design elements from the mid-1800s. If you are a collector or an appreciator of Native American woven art, stay tuned to this Blog space. There’s quite a story behind Navajo Chief Blankets, serapes, cloaks and the modernization of key design elements on pillow shams.

Well, that about exhausts my knowledge of pillow cases or whatever you prefer. Next blog perhaps we’ll discuss stitching. Or perhaps not. As always, your comments are feared. Cheers!