Casamance | Chaland

Chaland is a natural-looking wide-width voile with a pronounced slub and a gentle shift of tone across the cloth. It is a sheer with some body: the cotton and linen content give it a dry, papery hand and a slightly uneven surface, so light coming through it breaks up softly. In the Beige colourway the weft yarn is space-dyed, so one yarn carries several closely related colours along its length, and the result is a faint mottling that reads as depth from across the room.

The composition is 45 per cent cotton, 33 per cent recycled polyester and 22 per cent linen, woven in Turkey at 405 grams per square metre. It is 298 centimetres wide and is meant to be railroaded, with the width used as the drop so that a wide window is dressed from one seamless length. It is a free match. There are two colourways: Naturel, an undyed-looking off white, and Beige, the space-dyed version, which is a little warmer and a little more textured in appearance.

We use Chaland where we want a sheer that looks like linen but behaves more predictably: full-width across a wall of glazing in a living room, as a single layer at a sunny kitchen window, or as the inner layer behind a heavier curtain in a bedroom. It sits well with oak, limestone and plaster, and against a plain wool curtain in deeper stone or olive. Sold by the half metre; order a sample to see it in your own light.

Railroaded sheers are ordered by track length, not by drop, so measure the finished track, multiply by 2 to 2.2 for fullness and add side hems and returns. With a 298 centimetre width you have a usable drop of roughly 280 centimetres after a generous hem; if your ceilings are taller, talk to us before ordering. The cotton and linen will move slightly with humidity, so let the hem settle for a week before final adjustment.

• Composition: 45% cotton, 33% recycled polyester, 22% linen
• Width: 298 cm (117 in)
• Weight: 405 g per square metre
• Match: Free match
• Care: Dry clean recommended
• Origin: Made in Turkey
• Collection: Les Bateliers, Casamance
• Colourways: 2 (Beige, Naturel)