Wheat Loom Shirt

The Wheat Loom Shirt is a handwoven khadi striped shirt made from 100% handspun cotton, left in its natural undyed colour and marked with a single line of honey gold every seven centimetres. It is the quietest cloth in the range: from across a room it reads as a plain natural shirt, and only close up do the gold lines resolve.

Handspun, handwoven khadi

Every metre begins as yarn spun by hand and is woven on a handloom. The ground is unbleached cotton in the colour it comes off the plant, so the cloth carries its own faint slubs and flecks rather than a mill-flat face. 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 instead of wearing thin.

What makes this khadi striped shirt different

Most striped shirts repeat every centimetre or two. This one leaves seven centimetres of plain cloth between lines, so over nine tenths of the shirt is undyed ground. That restraint is harder to weave than a busy stripe, because a single misplaced thread has nowhere to hide. The gold is a soft wheat tone from a plant dye, warm rather than brassy, and there is no second colour anywhere. Six coconut-shell buttons run down a centre placket, each cut from a shell and no two 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 line of the stripe runs unbroken down the front. The hem is gently curved, so it sits properly untucked over trousers or jeans and tucks cleanly when you want it to. It is the easiest shirt in the range to wear with anything, because it is very nearly plain. If you want the same cut with more pattern in it, the Dune Sage Shirt carries two colours, and the Terra Stripe Shirt runs warmer.

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 dye is drawn from plants 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 and will yellow an undyed ground. Warm iron. Expect the cloth to soften over the first season; that is the cloth behaving as it should.