Nicholas Daley Beach Shirt

Tie-dye has a bad reputation in this country, earned in the 1960s and never really shaken off, and it obscures the fact that resist dyeing is one of the oldest and most widespread textile techniques there is. Binding, folding, or stitching cloth before it goes into the dye so that some parts take the colour and others do not is practised in Japan as shibori, in Indonesia and West Africa as batik and adire, in India as bandhani, and in Peru and Nigeria under other names entirely. Daley draws on that tradition rather than on the American one, which is why this reads as a dyed garment rather than as a souvenir.

The blue is uneven by design. The pattern was made by the cloth resisting the dye at the folds, so it belongs to this specific piece of fabric and cannot be reproduced exactly. Under it is a plain short-sleeved shirt with oversized pockets set low and one at the chest, made in Japan, and the cut is deliberately simple because the dye is doing everything.

Why we selected it

We chose this for the dye and for the fact that no two pieces are the same, which is a real distinction and not a marketing one. It also belongs to the Japanese and hand-processed side of his work, which is the side of this house we buy most consistently.

Hand dyeing recurs across Daley’s work, from this shirt to the tie-dyed Military Overshirt and the batik waffle knits, and it is where his Japanese production sits most comfortably.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton, made in Japan. Short sleeve, oversized lower pockets, single chest pocket. Colour: Blue.

Fit notes

A relaxed short-sleeved shirt meant to hang loose and be worn untucked. Cotton of this weight softens noticeably over the first season. Take your usual size, or the larger if you are between and want the pockets to sit where they were drawn.

Styling

Over a plain tee with the Wide Short. With the Pleated Trouser in black, where the dye against a flat black reads much better than it sounds. Nothing else patterned.

Care

Wash it cold, alone, and inside out for the first several washes, because hand-dyed cotton can release colour. Do not bleach it and do not dry it in direct sun, which is what flattens the contrast between the dyed and resisted areas. Our fabric care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Military Overshirt is the tie-dyed cloth at the outerwear end, and the Waffle Crew Neck in red and ivory is the dyed knit. The Aloha Shirt is the woven jacquard in the same summer register. Everything we carry from Nicholas Daley is listed together.