Dune Sage Shirt

The Dune Sage Shirt is a handwoven khadi striped shirt made from 100% handspun cotton and coloured with natural plant dyes. Fine stripes in dusty olive and warm sand-grey run down a clean white ground, spaced wide enough that the shirt reads as white from across a room and only resolves into two colours when you are close to it.

Handspun, handwoven khadi

Every metre begins as yarn spun by hand and is woven on a handloom. The slubs in the thread and the slight waver along each stripe are the loom’s signature, not a flaw — no two lengths of this cloth are identical. Khadi is woven loosely enough to move air through it, which is why it stays cool in heat that defeats mill cotton, and it softens with every wash rather than wearing thin.

What makes this khadi striped shirt different

Most striped shirts carry one colour. This cloth alternates two quiet naturals — a dusty olive like dried grass and a warm grey the colour of sand — so a different colour meets the eye every few millimetres. Both are muted enough to sit under a jacket without competing with it, and the white between them is left undyed. Six coconut-shell buttons run down a centre placket, each one cut from a shell and no two quite the same shade of brown.

How it wears

A relaxed straight cut with a point collar, full sleeves and two-button barrel cuffs. There is no chest pocket, so the stripe runs unbroken across the front. The hem is gently curved, which means it sits properly untucked over trousers or jeans and tucks cleanly when you want it to. Roll the sleeves in summer; layer it under a koti when the weather turns. If you prefer a warmer palette, the Terra Stripe Shirt uses the same cut in earth tones, and the Green Check Khadi Shirt swaps the stripe for a woven check.

Why khadi

Khadi is spun and woven without electricity, by artisans paid for the hours the cloth actually takes. Buying a khadi striped shirt keeps handloom households working and keeps alive a craft that industrial weaving came close to ending. The dyes are drawn from plants and flowers rather than petrochemicals, so the cloth is gentle on skin and on the water it leaves behind.

Specification

Care

Hand wash separately in cold water for the first few washes, as natural dyes may bleed a little at first. Machine wash gentle thereafter. Do not bleach. Dry in shade — direct sun fades plant dyes. Warm iron. Expect the cloth to soften and the colours to settle over the first season; that is the cloth behaving as it should.