Kuon Aizome Sashiko Shirt

Sashiko means little stabs, and it is the most practical decorative stitch there is. It is a simple running stitch worked in rows through layered cloth, and it came out of the north of Japan for the same reason boro did: cotton was scarce and winter was not, so thin cloth was doubled and stitched to make it warm and to make it last. The stitching does two things at once and both are structural. It quilts, trapping air between the layers, and it distributes wear across an entire panel instead of letting it concentrate at a single fold or seam, which is why a sashiko garment fails slowly and evenly rather than suddenly at one point. The visual effect is a consequence rather than the aim. Every stitch is a small interruption in the surface, so a sashiko cloth catches light at thousands of tiny angles, and the color is never flat. On a dark indigo that matters more than on anything else, because aizome, Japanese indigo dyeing, gets to a deep navy only by repeated dipping and oxidising, and a very dark indigo is otherwise the flattest surface in a wardrobe. The stitching is what gives it something to do.

Why we selected it

Sashiko is easy to imitate with a machine and hard to do in a way that means anything. A dark indigo with real stitching in it is a garment we would still be selling in ten years.

Two of this house’s techniques meet on this garment, the dye and the stitch, and it is the only piece where both are in the name.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton, made in Japan. Sashiko stitching. Workwear-inspired. Color: Dark Navy.

Fit notes

We hold no cut description, no fastening, and no pocket layout for this one, so we are not going to characterize how it runs. Sashiko stitching adds a small amount of stiffness and weight wherever it is worked, so a stitched panel sits differently from an unstitched one and the garment softens unevenly, which is correct rather than a fault.

Styling

With the 13.5oz Indigo Selvedge Denim Trousers, which is the deepest indigo against the freshest and the combination we would argue for. With the Hakama Trouser in olive. Over the Suminagashi Tee, worn open. With the Selvedge Denim Trousers in dark brown, if you want two dye processes rather than two depths of one.

Care

Wash cool, inside out, and hang to dry. A dark indigo transfers, and it transfers most when damp, so treat pale cloth and pale seating with suspicion for the first several wearings. Press from the reverse if at all and never directly onto the stitching, which flattens it. Our care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Aizome Slub Wide Trouser is aizome on a cotton slub, and the Zip-Up Cotton Shirt is the plain cotton shirt beside it. Everything we carry from Kuon is listed together.