![DNA cotton field](https://certaint.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/cotton-dna-field-sm.png)
By Leslie Josephs
Jesse Curlee is on a mission to stamp out textile trickery, one strand of DNA at a time.
As president of Supima, the three-decade veteran of the textile industry is tasked with ensuring that the brand of premium U.S.-grown cotton touted on labels, such as those on Brooks Brothers and L.L. Bean shirts, is legit.
When a textile mill in Hong Kong flagged substandard yarn from a spinner in India, Mr. Curlee shipped a sample of the fiber off to Long Island for a genetic test. Supima canceled the Indian supplier’s license after the results showed the fabric misleadingly was of a cheaper cotton.
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