Tibi Sheer Wool Gauze Oversized Shirt

Gauze is a weave rather than a fibre. The yarns are set far apart and locked so they cannot slip, which is what allows a cloth to be open enough to see through without falling apart in the hand. Almost all gauze is cotton, and cotton gauze is a summer fabric with nothing much to say. Wool gauze is a different proposition entirely. Wool has crimp, so even at this openness the cloth has loft, quiet warmth, and a subtle texture that catches light unevenly, which is why a sheer wool reads as substantial while weighing almost nothing. Cut oversized with a dropped shoulder, it becomes a layering garment first: worn open over a tank it is barely there, and worn closed it is a shirt with real presence for how little it weighs. Oatmeal is the right colour for it, warm enough not to go grey against skin and neutral enough to sit over anything.

Why we selected it

We were after a layer that solves the shoulder seasons, which in Santa Fe are most of the year. Something that works over a tank in June and under a jacket in October, and that does not look like it is doing either job reluctantly.

Materials and construction

Eighty-nine percent wool and eleven percent polyamide, in a sheer wool gauze. Made in China. Oatmeal. Oversized cut with dropped shoulders and a button front.

Fit notes

Cut deliberately large with the shoulder seam sitting down the arm, so it is meant to read as volume rather than as a size up. Sheer means sheer: this is a layer over something, or an open layer, rather than a shirt worn alone and buttoned. Wool gauze has almost no weight and no give, so it moves rather than stretches.

Styling

Open over the Pebble Sable Square Neck Cross Back Tank with the Alec Jean. Over the Compact Stretch Cashmere Mini Dress, which is the pairing that makes the dress a daytime garment. Under the Tropical Wool Liam Blazer when it turns.

Care

An open weave is fragile in a way a dense one is not, since there is nothing holding a snagged yarn in place, and wool gauze will distort if it is handled wet. Dry clean, or cool hand wash with great care and dry flat, never hung. Our care guidance covers wool in more detail.

Related pieces

For a crisper layer in cotton, the Eco Poplin Bubble Hem Shirt Jacket, and for something structured underneath, the Sculpted Cotton Long Sleeve Top or the Pebble Sable Square Neck Cross Back Tank. For the same wool worked close to the body, the Compact Stretch Cashmere Mini Dress. More on the house is on the Tibi designer page, Layering With Tibi is the Library post that puts these together, and everything we currently hold from Tibi is listed together.