Q&a / God’s True Cashmere is not just another celebrity brand – Brad Pitt’s label makes shirts designed to last years, explains jewellery designer and co-founder Sat Hari Khalsa
The friends went into business to make plaid shirts good enough to pass on, with real gemstones for buttons
When God’s True Cashmere launched in 2019 with a small collection of overshirts – the kind worn by lumberjacks in the American West and hipster types around the world – it was tempting to dismiss it as yet another “celebrity brand”.
As Khalsa has shared in the past, the idea for the label came to her in a dream in which she gave Pitt a green shirt. It didn’t take long for Pitt to come on board as co-founder of the brand, which since then has developed into a full line of beautifully made separates catering to in-the-know types who appreciate the lasting value of pieces that can be passed down from generation to generation.
We caught up with Khalsa in Paris, where the brand presents all its collections, including the recently released God’s True Linen, made with another fabric that Khalsa believes can be just as nourishing and full of life as cashmere.
God’s True Cashmere has expanded gradually. Was that the plan from day one?
Yes, intentionally, from the very beginning, the whole idea was to very slowly and steadily grow the brand – have a very strong foundation and then slowly start building the walls and the stairs and windows and anything else. The idea was to start with a shirt, make sure we make something that’s quality and sustainable – unisex – and that really has the love that we put into every single piece, that it is translatable to the world, that people touch it and they feel there’s so much intention in the pieces.
Why start with a cashmere shirt instead of a cashmere jumper?
A long time ago, maybe 15 years or so ago, a client of mine gave me a shirt. It was a woven shirt. The shape of the shirt wasn’t very good but the material itself was really interesting. I really loved that shirt and had it for many years. I tried to find somebody else to [make] it. I would constantly be looking online to try and find a shirt that was like that. The manufacturer had stopped making them so I couldn’t buy another one. Years and years had passed, and when I had that dream about Brad, I thought to myself, instead of getting a sweater, a regular jumper, I wanted to make him something that was really special, something that he could wear all the time, that would last, that he would feel really “loved” him.
How did Brad react when you suggested starting a label?