Every Ministry of Sauce tee starts life bio-washed, hand-finished, and printed to last — but a hand-finished garment only stays that way if it's treated like one. The prints on our tees, from the Archives series to the Serpent Plate graphic, are applied with care, and the fabric is chosen for that broken-in, lived-in feel from the first wear. Washing it wrong is the fastest way to undo both. Here's exactly how to care for it.

Wash inside out, always

Before it goes anywhere near a machine, turn the tee inside out. This single habit does more to protect a printed graphic than almost anything else — it keeps the front-facing print from rubbing directly against zippers, buttons, or other fabric mid-cycle, which is usually what causes cracking and fading over time.

Machine wash cold — 30°C or lower

Heat is the enemy of both the mineral wash and the print. Wash on a cold cycle, 30 degrees Celsius or lower. Cold water keeps the wash's natural mottled variation intact and prevents the kind of shrinkage that quietly turns an oversized fit into a regular one after three washes.

Skip the bleach entirely

No bleach, ever — not even a diluted "color-safe" version. The mineral wash on our fabric is a controlled, uneven fade by design; bleach strips that unevenness out and leaves you with a flat, lifeless grey instead of the textured charcoal or cream you started with.

Dry clean is a hard no

These are everyday tees, not tailoring — dry cleaning solvents are unnecessary and can actually degrade the print adhesion over repeated cycles. A cold machine wash does the job better and gentler.

Tumble dry inside out, or better, hang dry

If you tumble dry, keep the tee inside out and use a low heat setting. Heat is what causes prints to crack and cotton to shrink out of its original cut. For the best long-term outcome, hang dry — it's slower, but it's the single best thing you can do to keep the drape and fit exactly as intended.

Never iron directly over the print

If your tee needs a touch-up, iron it inside out, or place a thin cloth between the iron and any printed graphic. Direct heat on a print — especially the textured, distressed-style graphics we use across the line — will flatten or melt the surface texture that gives it depth.