The Sailor Top
Off-white golden stripe
79 €
In stock
- Weighty 100% organic cotton
- Straight non-twist cut made in Portugal
- Hard-wearing details
Off-white golden stripe
A modern take on a maritime classic. We gave these problems you’d had with your other sailor tops wide berth:
1
They didn’tlast long
2
The fabric was too thin
3
The cut was less hit than miss
4
They twisted and lost their shape
Now, for our sails pitch…
A tribute with a twist
You can’t make a sailor top without paying tribute to the past. The style’s origins lie with Breton sailors and seafaring merchants, but the French Navy quickly got in on the act, adopting the famed nautical stripes to differentiate its men from other seamen. Well, we’ve followed suit: paying homage to an icon while differentiating our Sailor Top from the flotsam out there. A historic heavyweight, tweaked for modern life.
Weight for it…
And when we say heavyweight, we mean it. This cotton weighs in at a reassuringly hefty 350g/m2. To give you some comparison, our T-Shirt’s cotton weighs in at 220 grams. If you’re one of the 65,000 people who own one, you’ll know that our tee’s no lightweight. So, long story short, the Sailor Top really means business.
Turns out, they do make ‘em like they used to
For something like this Breton-style jersey, an authentic feel is important, so a flimsy, overly smooth fabric wasn’t going to cut the mustard. That’s why we opted for a cotton jersey that has a dense, resilient, textured feel to it. The sort you tend to find with vintage tops and tees. Comfy, but characterful.
Straight down the middle
Judging by your feedback, a lot of you have experienced some dodgy fits in your time. To avoid the Sailor Top being added to this list of shame, we kept things classic and simple with a spot-on straight cut. But don’t fret, we kept the iconic, slightly dropped shoulders seen on vintage sailors’ tops.
The long and the short of it
The little triangular side vents are a key detail of authentic sailor jerseys, so it would have been remiss of us not to include them, but we weren’t overly tied to tradition. You lot told us you’d rather a full-length sleeve over the historically accurate 7/8 length that sailors favoured. Naturally, we took the feedback on board.
No fair-weather friend
Workwear that’s not up to the task’s a bugbear of ours, so we weren’t about to make a sailor’s shirt that came to pieces at just the thought of a day’s hard work. We went overboard on the hardwearing details with reinforced cotton bands and bartacks built into stress points and vents.
Collar calculations
When it came to the collar, we took our time. Traditional sailor jerseys have a broad, open neckline, which can look great but maybe aren’t to everyone’s taste… To keep things fair we split the difference between that vintage collar shape and a more modern, rounded style.
…and don’t forget the hem
You probably don’t spend as much time thinking about hemlines as us, but we do it so you don’t have to. Another feature that gives the original Breton shirts their charm is the dead-straight hemline, a nod to tradition we couldn’t pass up.
Stripes ahoy
Whenever we’re making a jersey item like a tee or a sweatshirt, we call up our pals at Eigui in Portugal. They knitted, dyed, and finished each Sailor Top, working to the high standards they’re renowned for. On the subject of dyes, we’ve introduced two new colour combos to join the tried and tested off-white navy stripe: electric blue navy stripe and off-white golden stripe.
All hands on deck for a recap:
Organic cotton jersey? Check. A thick knit for a great fit and characterful feel? Check. Robust finishing for maximum durability? Check. A neckline that nods to tradition? Check. Sleeves that go the distance? Check. Shipshape, to say the least.
The nautical mileage
What goes into making your Sailor Top. The materials have travelled a total of 6,496 km (4,036 miles) from field to doormat.
Raw material
Farming cooperatives Turkey
Spinning
Marteks Maras Turkey
Dyeing
J.F. Almeida Portugal
Knitting
Eigui Portugal
Finish
Gravotêxtil Sociedade de Acabamentos Têxteis S.A. Portugal
Garment make
Eigui Portugal
Washing
Eigui Portugal
Transport
Road haulage
Environmental Impact
Our aim is to always give you as much information as possible on the clothes we make so you can make an informed decision before preordering. This includes the environmental impact of each Sailor Top we produce expressed in simple terms that we can all easily understand. There’s no point hiding from it:
3 kg
of CO2 emitted
The equivalent of 40 kms (25 miles) by car.
0 g
of phosphor released in the water
The equivalent of growing 4 kg of potatoes.
43 MJ
energy depletion
The equivalent of 15h of heating (in average flat).
NO SWEAT
Delivery costs
We deliver worldwide. For orders in selected European countries* including the UK, we charge a flat fee of 9€ irrespective of how many pieces of the same item you order. For deliveries in the rest of Europe and outside of the EU, the cost is 15€.
Easy to change sizes
If you get the wrong size, fear not, we accept returns and exchanges. For orders in Europe these are free, and for countries, in the rest of the world we ask you to pay the return and we will take care of the cost of sending out an exchange. Just log into your Asphalte account and we’ll get that sorted.
IT’S A RISK-FREE INVESTMENT
Sure, we work hard on our products, but we won’t take it personally if, for whatever reason, you change your mind about the item you’ve preordered. We’re all friends here, you can be honest with us. So long as the item is in its original condition, with tags and packaging intact, you can send it back to us for a full refund. No worries.