Our Ultra Dry Mattress
Our Ultra Dry mattress has a unique padding made up of fibers extracted from the leaves of several palm trees, mainly Chamaerops humilis. It grows on he shores of the Mediterranean, in southern Italy and Sicily where it is known as the palm of Saint Peter.
The palm leaves are collected, dried and curled. They are then braided into tight ropes, in a manner similar to horsehair, in order to preserve their characteristics in storage over time. Before being used for your mattress the braided leaves pass through a carder, process that cancels the twist and makes the fibers parallel and elastic.
We are using fibers only form the best plants, the softest and most resilient, which are practically indestructible over time.
One of the most surprising properties of our "vegetable horsehair", as of all the natural products we use, is its very high durability over the years.
"I like to tell an anecdote" says Chiara Mennini, the founder of Midsummer. “When I met one of my craftsmen for the first time he had a set of Louis XVI chairs in the laboratory. He was re-doing the stringing under the chairs and to my surprise he reused the original padding, dating from 1750 or about. He said to me: 'this vegetable horsehair never degrades, it lasts your whole life and much longer than your life.’”
Midsummer builds on the properties of vegetable horsehair which has been used over the centuries, to create a contemporary mattress. With this fresh and breathable material we create the best mattress possible for damp or warm environments and for boating.
Our Ultra Dry mattress has a inner layer of pocket springs of various firmness, a hand-stretched vegetable horsehair padding, an external layer in fresh linen supported by IngeoTM (a corn derivative). It is hand-crafted and completed with matching rosettes.
When the mattresses are made for boating, we will use a Trevira satin fabric in lieu of the linen so that the mattresses is fire resistant.
In creating this new and innovative mattress we took inspiration from the Italian tradition.
Wealthy people in the past used to sleep on two mattresses, one for summer and one for winter, piled one on top of the other. Two mattresses are more insulating than one and each one is the right one for the season.
Extra Dry can be combined for the winter season with a warm structured wool and silk topper (10cm height) or with a thin wool, silk and cashmere winter mattress (15cm height).
A simple and logical solution. A masterpiece to ensure your best sleep in every season of the year.