We use them every single day, but how much do we actually know about what makes a great towel? Canadian brand Everlayer has obsessed over everything from fibre and yarn to stitching, weight and colour to create its new Janus collection—and it turns out we’ve been judging towels all wrong.

There are certain household objects we spend an extraordinary amount of time with while giving almost no thought to how they’re made. Towels might be near the top of that list.

Soft? Check. Fluffy? Great. Heavy? Must be luxurious, right?

Not necessarily, according to Sanjay Agarwal, founder and president of Canadian home brand Everlayer, which has spent the past few years reconsidering the humble bath towel from the fibre up.

The result is Janus, Everlayer’s latest collection of Portuguese-made, 600 GSM towels crafted from long-staple combed cotton. Completely reversible and offered in the new Cadence, Edge and Composition design series, the collection approaches towels less like anonymous bathroom basics and more like pieces of textile design.

And Agarwal will happily tell you that making a truly great towel is far more complicated than picking the fluffiest one on the shelf.

It Starts With The Fibre

Walk down a bath aisle and you’ll encounter plenty of shorthand for quality: thread counts, GSM numbers and cotton provenance among them. Agarwal says those descriptors don’t tell the whole story.

“What surprised us was how much of towel-making had become about shorthand,” he says. “People talk about GSM or ‘Egyptian cotton’ or Turkish towels, but those things on their own do not tell you very much.”

Instead, Everlayer went right back to the beginning.

“We started with the fibre because that is where everything begins,” Agarwal explains. “Longer-staple cotton can be spun into smoother, stronger yarns, and combing removes shorter, coarser fibres before weaving. That creates a better foundation for softness, absorbency and durability.”

The bigger lesson? A towel that feels fabulous straight out of its packaging isn’t necessarily one that will still feel fabulous months—or 50 washes—later.

“What we felt was often overlooked was the relationship between fibre, yarn, weave and finishing,” he says. “A towel can feel impressive on day one and still not age well.”

The Tiny Details Are Actually The Big Details

Everlayer’s development process became something of an obsession, moving through yarn compactness, weave, weight, hand feel and construction details.

The seemingly small thing that made one of the biggest differences? Yarn quality and compactness.

“It sounds very technical, but it changes almost everything: how smooth the towel feels, how evenly the loops form, how much lint it sheds and how well it holds its structure over time,” Agarwal says.

Then come the details you may never consciously notice: corners, hems, stitching, loop density and even how the towel hangs.

“Those small decisions collectively determine whether something feels ordinary or exceptionally well made.”

Suddenly, we’re looking at the towels in our linen closet very differently.

Bigger And Heavier Isn’t Always Better

Here comes perhaps the biggest bath-towel myth of all: more weight does not automatically equal more luxury.

“Not at all,” Agarwal says. “There is a point where more weight simply becomes more weight.”

An ultra-dense towel may feel wonderfully substantial in your hand, but it can also be cumbersome, require more storage space and take longer to dry.

“For us, luxury is about balance: softness, absorbency, recovery after washing, durability and how the towel feels against the skin,” he says.

Everlayer ultimately landed at 600 GSM for Janus—a weight Agarwal says provides plushness without tipping into excessive heaviness.

“I would tell people not to judge a towel by GSM alone. Feel the yarn, look at the construction, notice the finish and think about how you actually live with it.”

Why Portugal?

Everlayer chose Portugal to manufacture Janus, tapping into the country’s long textile tradition and technical expertise in weaving and finishing.

“What we valued was the ability to have very detailed conversations with the mill about yarn, weave, weight, colour, stitching and finishing—and to keep refining those decisions together,” says Agarwal.

There is a human element involved, too.

“Our towels are not simply produced to a specification; there is a great deal of human judgment involved in making sure the finished product feels and performs the way we want it to.”

For a company equally interested in aesthetics and performance, he says, “Portugal was a natural fit.”

Towels, But Make Them Décor

Perhaps the most immediately noticeable change with Janus is visual.

Everlayer wanted to move the towel out of the background of the bathroom and make it part of the room itself. The new Edge, Cadence and Composition series experiment with proportion, asymmetry, rhythm and contrast, while the reversible construction allows each side to have its own personality.

“We look at interiors, architecture, fashion and colour relationships, but we are not interested in chasing trends for the sake of it,” Agarwal says.

Instead, he describes each towel as “almost like a small piece of textile design that happens to be highly functional.”

It’s a compelling idea, particularly as bathrooms increasingly become design statements of their own. Why painstakingly select the tile, hardware, paint and lighting only to finish the room with a towel you barely thought about?

The Goal: Better At Wash 50 Than Wash One

Of course, no amount of beautiful colour blocking matters if a towel doesn’t survive real life.

Cotton naturally changes as it’s used and laundered. According to Agarwal, “The loops relax, the fibres open up and a well-made towel can actually become softer and more comfortable over time.”

Poor materials and construction can reveal themselves just as readily through linting, distortion, loose seams and loss of shape.

Everlayer’s answer includes long-staple combed cotton, closed corners, strong edge construction, double-needle stitching and a sturdy hanging loop.

“Those details are not glamorous, but they matter enormously in a product that is washed constantly,” Agarwal says. “We wanted Janus to be something that gets better through use, rather than simply looking good when it is new.”

Are You Washing Your Towels Wrong?

Possibly.

Agarwal says one of the most common mistakes is using too much detergent or fabric softener. Fabric softener can coat cotton fibres, reducing their absorbency over time, while excessive heat can be hard on the material.

Everlayer recommends mild detergent, gentle washing and tumble drying on low.

And that annoying pulled loop? Put it down.

“If a loop catches, trim it carefully at the base rather than pulling it, because pulling can damage the weave,” Agarwal advises.

Most importantly, stop buying a towel based solely on that seductive first squeeze in the store.

“Ask what fibre is being used, how the yarn has been prepared, how the towel is constructed and how it is likely to perform after fifty washes, not just the first one,” he says. “That is where you really begin to understand quality.”

Everlayer’s approach appears to be resonating. The brand says its towels have received recognition from Oprah Daily and The Globe and Mail, something Agarwal sees less as a reason to expand indiscriminately and more as validation for obsessing over everyday objects.

“People are paying more attention to the everyday objects they live with,” he says. “They want to know how something is made, what it is made from and whether it brings something meaningful to their home.”

And after this deep dive, we may never look at a plain old bath towel quite the same way again. —Noa Nichol