Founder of GoodBed, Leading Mattress Expert
If you're shopping the luxury end of the mattress spectrum at Bloomingdale's, there's a good chance you'll come across SFERRA, the storied Italian linen house (founded in 1891) that also lends its design sensibilities to a small collection of ultra-premium mattresses. In this overview, we focus on the Bienno Plush Pillow Top, the most popular of SFERRA's four current models.
While many characteristics we discuss here show up elsewhere in the SFERRA collection, our assessments of feel and performance apply specifically to the Bienno. And if you're looking elsewhere you won't find it; the SFERRA Bienno is an ultra-luxury mattress available exclusively at Bloomingdales.
Notable Features
Damask Fabric
The SFERRA Bienno is made with an incredibly smooth damask fabric. If you’re unfamiliar, damask refers to a particular style of woven fabric that typically has a smooth and satin-like feel to the touch. If you can recall an older mattress with a smooth or silky cover, this was likely a damask fabric.
In the case of the Bienno, this is an exceptionally high-quality damask that is both is silky to the touch and visually refined. From a few steps back, it has the elegance of formalwear with clean lines, luminous fabric, and a "finished” look that reads premium even before you lie down.
Natural Fibers
The SFERRA uses a blend of natural fibers, including Merino and Joma wool, cashmere, and horse hair, in it's comfort layers. These natural materials add both comfort and temperature regulation to a mattress. In particular, we’d call attention to the use of horse hair in the Bienno. This is an ultra-luxury material often used in the highest-quality mattresses in the world. It’s extremely durable, allows for significant amounts of airflow, and is all-natural and renewable material.
That said, the SFERRA Bienno uses wool and cashmere in its comfort layers as well. All of these create a sense of natural luxury that adds softness and support while improving overall temperature regulation.
Functional-Tufting
Additionally, the Bienno is functionally-tufted.This is a style of construction that uses thick nylon cords to compress the mattress and create peaks and valleys at the mattress surface. These peaks and valleys can help match your body’s contours (and are comfortable in and of themselves), but they also add to the mattress’s overall durability.
This method effectively pre-compresses the natural fibers and materials within the mattress and helps limit body impressions that might otherwise occur. This construction method also reduces the need for synthetic glues that some consumers might be trying to avoid, and creates a more uniform and consistent overall sleep surface.
Other Materials
Finally, the SFERRA Bienno uses a blended construction that mixes microcoils, memory foam, and natural latex. In practice, we think this combines the strengths of all of these materials and creates a sleep surface that is soft and pressure-relieving, but that remains extremely supportive overall. At the core of the mattress the SFERRA uses a high-quality pocket spring unit with a very high coil count at 1,014 coils in a Queen size.
Cooling & Temperature Regulation
It would be easy to slap a "cooling cover” on a mattress and call it innovative. The SFERRA, however, takes a different route; it avoid heat-trapping components and instead packs the surface with naturally breathable fibers. Wool (including cashmere-blend fibers), horsehair, and latex all allow air to move freely through the comfort layers. The result is a bed that is able to sleep neutral not through gimmicks, but through the absence of overall heat sinks.
Support & Edge Performance
The Bienno's pocket spring support unit runs edge to edge, reinforced at the border with rigid edge coils rather than a foam rail. In practice, that perimeter feels secure and upright. It creates a stable and reassuring surface that's perfect for sitting on the edge of the bed and tying one's shoes or getting in or out of bed. The pocket springs also contribute to motion control, so a partner's movement is less likely to be felt.
The tufted, pre-loaded build further helps the bed keep its shape under load. Together, these features create a sense of pleasant and consistent support.
GoodBed Assessments
We put the Bienno Plush Pillow Top through some of our standard feel and performance tests. Here's where it landed for us:
- Softness: 8 (Very Soft)
The surface presents as genuinely plush, with obvious billow and yielding fibers in the pillow-top package. It's a classic luxury-plush presentation. - Cushioning Depth (Sleeping "In" vs. "On"): 7–8 (Deep)
You settle into the comfort layers more than you float above them. That said, the latex and micro-coils add substructure and buoyancy, so it doesn't feel mushy or bottomless. - Memory Feel: Little to none
Although there may be a small amount of memory foam in the stack for pressure tuning, the overall sensation is not the typical one you'd expect from memory foam. Response is quicker and more elastic, thanks to latex, coils, and natural fibers. - Bounce/Response: More than average
Between latex, micro-coils, pocketed springs, and even the subtle spring of horsehair, the Bienno has lively response. It's easy to reposition, and the bed regains shape quickly. - Pressure Relief: Very good
The plush quilt, resilient latex, and fiber pack work together to diffuse sharp pressure at the shoulder and hip, a hallmark of high-end pillow-tops. - Motion Isolation: Good
Individual coils help keep partner movement in check. The feel is not "dead” (by design), but we found motion transfer acceptably low for a spring-forward luxury bed. - Edge Support: Excellent
The coil edge delivers a solid perimeter without the spongy feeling you often get from foam rails.
Who We Think Will Like the Bienno
- Side Sleepers seeking plush relief: The deep surface comfort, plus latex buoyancy, creates a cocooned feel without the stickiness of dense memory foam.
- Back Sleepers who enjoy a soft surface but need underlying support: You'll get initial plushness with a well-held mid-section underneath, thanks to tufting and the coil core.
- Luxury Shoppers who value natural materials: If your checklist includes wool, latex, horsehair, and hand-tufting, the Bienno hits those marks.
- Hot-or-Neutral Sleepers who prefer breathable builds: Natural fibers and no foam encasement help air move toward the edges and out.
Who Might Prefer Something Else
- Strict Stomach Sleepers or those who want a very flat, firm surface may be better served by a firmer model in the SFERRA line or another ultra-luxury mattress with a tauter top.
- Fans of deep, slow sink memory foam may find the Bienno's buoyant responsiveness different from what they're used to; look for a design with thicker memory foam if that's your priority.
How This Relates to the Rest of the SFERRA Line
SFERRA offers four models, with the Bienno as the plush pillow-top option we examined. Based on the brand's overarching approach, we'd expect shared elements (namely, the use of natural fibers, latex, tufting, and premium textiles) to exist across the entire line. We'd just the expect the other models to be tuned slightly differently to create softer or firmer surfaces.
In other words, if you love the materials story and craft quality here, but want a firmer or slightly flatter surface, it's worth trying the other SFERRA variants on the same floor.
Our Take on the SFERRA Bienno Mattress
The SFERRA Bienno Plush Pillow Top looks like luxury, but more importantly, it's built like luxury. The compression-set tufting is the sort of old-world technique you almost never see outside of top-tier brands, and it meaningfully influences how the bed feels and ages. We also think it uses a smart blend of modern and old-school materials. It's got latex, memory foam, and the highest-quality natural fibers, including wool, cashmere, and horsehair. We think it checks all the boxes for a soft mattress in the ultra-premium category.
We also expect it to be extremely durable and to sleep much cooler than a mattress that's made without the inclusion of natural fibers.
Availability: SFERRA mattresses, including the Bienno, are sold exclusively at Bloomingdale's.
SFERRA Bienno Price
Other Factors
Returns and Exchanges
Bloomingdales offers a 365-day return policy for preference-based returns or exchanges on mattresses.
Note - some fees related to returns or re-selection may apply.
Warranty
- 20-year non-prorated
Warranty information for each mattress is included on the mattress "Law Label" at the store, and vary depending on the model. Be sure to talk to your salesperson about warranty terms, and particularly about the body impression warranty, which will tell you how much of a permanent depression may form to be covered under warranty.
