Fashion
I Found Peace at a Sound Bath for Brad Pitt’s $2,250 Cashmere Shirts
I hate meditations, mostly because I am not a quiet person. It is hard to sit with your thoughts when you would rather spit them out at anyone who will listen, as I do. And yet, I recently put all that aside for Brad Pitt.
Well, more specifically, it was for his cashmere line, God’s True Cashmere, which he co-founded with friend Sat Hari. In honor of their holiday collection, Pitt and Hari decided to host a sound bath instead of a traional preview. I have been to only a handful of sound baths in my life (which I am now realizing is maybe a lot?), but never in the name of Brad Pitt and cashmere, so I, of course, decided to go.
I walked into it blind—quite literally—because I had run out of contact lenses earlier in the week. Once everything came into a blurry focus, I was able to make out around 15 yoga mats laid out, each with a plaid cashmere blanket by the brand on top as well as a small plaid pouch, which contained an array of crystals. A standing bell and crystal bowl sat in front of the sound therapist, sitting cross-legged at the front of the room, who would be leading the session. Pitt was not in attendance, but I presume he was present in spirit, coming through to us with each passing gong.
Hari took a moment to talk about the brand’s origin story. It was Pitt’s idea, even if he didn’t know it, she said. He had come to Hari in a dream and asked her for some “softness” in his life. When she approached Pitt about it in person, he said he actually was in the market for some really great cashmere. And when Hari couldn’t find any, she decided to make it. “Our touch is our love made more palpable,” she said to all of us ahead of a meditation that required us to set an intention.
After a couple of deep breaths, we all lay down and the sound of a ringing gong filled the room. My head was nestled into the cashmere blanket and I held the pouch, my fingers grasping at the sharp amethyst inside. Thoughts circled through my mind which I felt the need to share with the person next to me, despite not knowing who they were. I silenced my internal monologue after I remembered where we were and started to think about what I could do with this quiet time to better my mental health, my well-being, and my anxiety. And then suddenly, I was asleep.
Unfortunately, Brad Pitt did not come to me in my dreams. Actually, nothing did. I hadn’t even noticed I was asleep until I heard a loud gong and a set of soft exhalations. I realized everyone in the room was in a different position I hadn’t been aware we were supposed to shift into. I’ve never once gone through with a meditation or ever fallen asleep at a sound bath, so I will attribute this rare moment of sleepy peace to the cashmere that was wrapped around my head and hands.
Once I got up, Hari asked me to let the cashmere on the racks behind us embrace me. And so I reached for a bright orange shirt with an amethyst button. (Each shirt had seven buttons, representing the body’s seven chakras, and 11 buttons total, the number of mastery in numerology.) “It will hold you,” Hari said. And it did. As I slipped my arms into its soft sleeves, I could feel myself drifting back to a state of peace, as if I were able to fall asleep again right there, swaddled in cashmere.
Tara Gonzalez is the Senior Fashion Editor at Harper’s Bazaar. Previously, she was the style writer at InStyle, founding commerce editor at Glamour, and fashion editor at Coveteur.