Ani Cotton Linen Towel

A quiet multicolour stripe on a cream ground — narrow enough to read as texture from across a room, but with enough blue and burgundy in it to stop the towel looking plain. Ani is the pattern people buy when they want something that is not white but is not loud either.

Why a flat-woven towel instead of terry

• It dries in a fraction of the time. There are no loops to hold water, so it dries on the hook instead of sitting damp in a bathroom or a bag.
• It packs almost flat. One peshtemal takes the space of a folded shirt — the reason these travel rather than stay in a cupboard.
• It gets softer, not thinner. Cotton and linen relax with every wash; a terry towel goes matted, this goes supple.
• It does more than one job. Beach towel, bath towel, sarong, picnic blanket, throw over a chair — the same cloth covers all of them.

Sizes

Two sizes. The bath / beach towel at 37" x 73" is long enough to lie on and wide enough to wrap; the hand / hair towel at 23" x 30" is the one that lives by the sink or gets wrapped round wet hair. The set pairs them in the same weave.

Care

Machine wash cool. No bleach. Tumble dry low. Iron on low heat. Do not dry clean. Fabric softener is the one thing that genuinely ruins these — it coats the fibres and kills the absorbency you bought the towel for. The fringe is knotted by hand; if a tassel loosens, work it back with your fingers rather than pulling it.

Handwoven on traditional looms in Antioch, Turkey.