Fibre encyclopedia
Kapok
Also called kapok · kapuk · randu · silk cotton · KP
Hollow seed-hair fibre with a waxy skin. It floats, it does not take water in, and it is too slippery to spin on its own.
Class
Natural
Comes from
From a plant
Where it comes from
Kapok is the floss around the seed of Ceiba pentandra, the randu tree. It is collected from the pod rather than harvested from a field, and it needs no spinning because it is used loose.
How it feels to wear
Air
Air moves through the fibre easily
Water
Water stays on the surface
Heat
Holds body heat
Stretch
No stretch of its own
Wear
Wears down sooner under rubbing
Each kapok fibre is a hollow tube with a wax coating, so it traps air, holds heat and floats. The same wall that traps the air is thin and brittle, so the fibre breaks down under compression: a kapok pillow flattens and is refilled rather than restored.
Care
- Sun and beat the filling rather than washing it.
- Wash the cover, not the fill.
Kapok is a filling material, so care instructions on a kapok pillow describe the cover.
End of life
Recycling route
No route running at scale
Spent kapok is refilled into new covers where that trade exists, and there is no collection route beyond it.
In a blend
Kapok is often extended with polyester fill, and once mixed the two cannot be separated by hand.
Skin notes
Mechanical
Loose kapok releases fine broken fibre and dust as it compacts, which is why it sits inside a tight cover rather than against skin.
Chemical
The wax on the fibre is the plant's own. Nothing about the cover it sits inside is declared by the fill.
If your skin reacts to a garment, a dermatologist and patch testing are what can answer it. A label cannot, and neither can this page.
What the label cannot tell you
The label says kapok. It does not say whether the fill is kapok alone or kapok extended with polyester, and the two feel similar on the first night.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 on textile fibre names and related labelling, Annex I. Checked 22 August 2026
Written from primary sources and in our own words. Where a figure could not be traced to a source anyone can open, it is not printed here.
Read the label you are holding
The scan surface reads one care label and names which questions it answers and which it leaves out. A passport says for one specific piece what a label cannot: the composition with its percentages, where the cloth came from, who worked on it, how to repair it and where it goes next.