SUPPLY CHAIN STORY: COTTON
On the Cotton Field
Last fall, Yvonne – our Head of CSR – got to see up close how cotton is turned into yarn. On-site in Türkiye, she followed the process from harvest to ginning to spinning. She returned with a lot of impressions and the certainity that the system behind a seemingly simple “100% cotton” piece is massive – powered by high-end technology, tough business, and real people.
The Cotton Plant
Cotton is part of the mallow family. Similar to a dandelion, the plant first forms a flower. Once the flower fades, a capsule (boll) develops in the same spot. As it ripens, it bursts open—and a soft cloud of cotton fibers spills out. Originally, those light, long fibers had one job: like the dandelion’s little parachute, they helped carry the seeds on the wind to fertile ground. Through selective breeding of the longest-staple cotton plants, humans turned that natural feature into something essential – because those long fibers are the foundation for yarn production.
FLOWER POWER
From Farm to Yarn
The fields stretch far and wide, and most of the plants have already been harvested. Machines collect the ripe bolls and roll them into large modules, which are then transported to the gin. Depending on the country, cotton is still sometimes picked by hand. In Türkiye, it’s fully mechanized. Merely the weeding in the initial weeks of the cotton plants’ growth is done by hand. Working migrants from other parts of Turkey travel to the fields, where local initiatives – sometimes backed by state support – provide mobile creches and education programs for the children of the workers.
At the ginning facility, the cotton fibers are separated from seeds and plant residues. The fibers are then cleaned, sorted and pressed into compact bales – the starting point for yarn. The bales are moved to the spinning mill – a huge, spotless industrial facility. First, they’re logged and quality-checked. Then, fibers from different bales are blended in large machines using air pressure to ensure consistent quality and to balance out natural variations in fiber properties. In the same enclosed system, the blended fibers are then settled and combed (known as carding), drawn, and twisted – creating a thick, loose roving that you might know from pictures like the one above. In several additional steps, the roving is drawn, twisted, and refined until it becomes an even, thin yarn, ready to be turned into fabrics.
Even though we don’t produce yarn ourselves at DRYKORN, this journey made one thing clear: it takes a lot of steps to go from a cotton boll to the yarn that’s later woven or knitted into the fabrics that make your DRYKORN piece.
FOR BEAUTIFUL PRODUCTS.
01/2026