It is full steam ahead at the perfect t-shirt project this month. Sarah has finished on the project and the next phase is now being run by our new intern Clara Vuletich, a textiles graduate, who has begun to look into the different fibre options for our t-shirt.

We started by looking again at recycled yarn. A fibre researcher working for a large American clothing retailer contacted us and explained how they were currently developing recycled yarn for a new range of garments. This was so exciting as we had previously thought that using recycled yarn would be too expensive and technically difficult. How about a t-shirt made locally with reclaimed cotton yarn from old t shirts collected from around London! However, our excitement was swiftly dampened. While the US boasts several recycled yarn manufacturers, there are currently none operating in the UK who can produce fine recycled cotton jersey and so our idea of a locally produced t-shirt with no “garment miles” was put on hold.

	Recycled Sweater

Next we looked into bamboo and other cellulose fibres such as Tencel, which is a fibre made from wood pulp. Cellulose fibres, being completely biodegradable and often created through very high-tech but low impact processes, are an appealing alternative. We discovered some amazing textile factories in Switzerland and Austria who are leading the way in closed-loop manufacturing methods where, for example, all the water used in the production is filtered and reused. But, we realised that this type of fibre production lacks the human element of traditional textile production such as cotton farming, and we’d much rather work with a fibre producer who has a positive impacts on people’s lives and their local environment.

So we’re now back on the path of organic cotton, having discovered some new, more professionally run projects than the ones we were liaising with before. The crop is more sustainable than your average cotton, they’re supporting the local farmers, and the whole process is being overseen by a highly professional organic association based in Europe, making our lives a lot easier in terms of getting hold of samples, placing orders and so on – something which was sorely missing from our earlier potential suppliers.

Click here to read more about the how Better Thinking are creating the Perfect T-Shirt >>