The perfect t-shirt forum was home to a lot of heated debate for a good few months. The project's moved on since then, but we've summarised our learnings below. To add your opinion to the latest stages of the project, click here.

There was a lot of support for keeping things local, either in terms of making it all in the UK or using spinning and weaving factories that are near to the site of the farm. Petz pointed out this would mean less transport, less energy, less pollution, less packaging, less waste and better community. She felt supporting the developing world in ‘an ethical and eco way’ came close second. Simon in Bromley felt it’s more important to make it in developing countries as it gives work to those who need it most. He said the extra emissions generated by the extra transportation distance should be offset by planting trees.

In fact, I think wherever we make it, we should make the entire process carbon neutral – not that buying trees is the ultimate solution to generating carbon, but it does provide a good mid-term solution.

As for what to make it from, people didn’t naturally think of cotton as the first solution. There was a need for it to be soft though! Dru at THTC pointed out that organic cotton is still massively thirsty when water is becoming scarcer and scarcer. He believes we need to bring new fabrics into the mainstream such as hemp, bamboo and soy. We were told about an advanced hi-count microfiber nylon from Japan that is extra wicking and soft. JP had an interesting point though: ‘I vote for reusing t-shirts... and buying them from charity shops.’ This seems an excellent solution whilst pesticide-soaked, fossil-fuel powered t-shirts are still being made, but it doesn’t encourage the learning and infrastructure needed for completely sustainable t-shirts to be produced.

The workers were not forgotten either. Trina from Musicians Against Sweatshops believes workers should have enough voice to negotiate with their employers, as if they have a say in how things are done, working conditions will be improved and environmental impacts will be addressed.

Something to keep at the forefront of our minds whilst we design the t-shirt is that 85% of the garment’s impact comes from washing it. There were many suggested solutions that could be designed into the shirt, such as making it from bamboo, which has antibacterial qualities (although Mike said his organic 'antibacterial' test t-shirt, made from bamboo, still smelt pretty much the same at the end of the day as a normal t-shirt). Becks in Bristol came up with a piece of genius: a 'spilt food' design on the front as camouflage to life's inevitable mishaps. Specific, removable panels for problem areas were also suggested, though perhaps Anita in Sydney’s idea that it shouldn’t hug areas that get grimy was the most feasible. Chemical coatings that make the fabric wipe clean were also suggested, though this is obviously a tradeoff.

Or maybe the solution to washing the t-shirt lies not in the design of the shirt itself, but in the design of the washing method. It was suggested we provide environmentally sound cleaning products with the t-shirt, or that we actually design the perfect washing machine instead. Another idea is an eco washing service, that could reduce the impact of everyone in the land owning their own washing machine. A t-shirt and washing machine or service designed to work together would provide the most ecologically sound option, though to make everything perfect, the project would become infinitely more complicated. A simple but effective idea is to reduce the impact of the shirt by using labelling and promotional material to ensure people wash it only when absolutely necessary.

And finally, Jennifer in Chicago came up with a radical suggestion: avoid washing altogether. We’d make a cheap, throw-away shirt, designed to be worn new or nearly new, then thrown into the garden where it decomposes quickly, fertilising the soil in the process. ‘If they are eco-friendly and look good on, I think I would rather wear a new perfect shirt every day!’

By thinking about the end of the t-shirt’s life as much as the beginning, we’ll be able to make the design much more environmentally sound. We should build in possibilities that encourage its repair, either by professionals or by the user, in order to extend its life as much as possible. When the user feels he is bored with it he could exchange it. And when the t-shirt is completely and utterly knackered, it should be recycled or composted.

Petz didn’t want its life to be extended too much as an everlasting t-shirt ‘would be like getting a tattoo’. An ever-evolving t-shirt with opportunities to be restyled would be one way of tackling this problem. This would also provide revenue for fashion houses that were making less money due to selling longer-lasting t-shirts. Jennifer in Chicago gave us an excellent piece of advice: to find out how long people wear their favourite clothes before they cease to be favourite, and then design the shirt to last that long.

Composting was an option, and Jennifer pointed out it could be used to benefit the environment where this happened, for example containing seeds to plant a garden or to fertilise a lawn. It also makes it supremely simple for the customer to finish with it responsibly: what could be easier than chucking something in your back yard, and feeling good about it in the process?

Mentioned frequently but in some ways more complex was the possibility of a recyclable shirt. To ensure most shirts were returned, we’d have to make it really easy, hopefully even fun, for the consumer to take part. We’d have to make sure the infrastructure and energy used by the system to take back and process the t-shirts was ethically sound. I drew people’s attention to the recycled yarn t-shirt from Muji, which is very cool, although it has a unique aesthetic that may not be to everyone's tastes.

Some people wanted bright colours, some people wanted natural colours. Some people wanted designs on the front, some people wanted nothing at all. Some people wanted the shirt to be fitted, some wanted it to be baggy. After reading through everyone’s comments, all I wanted was a cup of tea.

Some general trends did emerge though. The general consensus can be summed up in Gail’s statement that ‘the perfect t-shirt transcends fashion’. People wanted comfortable clothing that could be dressed up or down, that didn’t age, lose its colour or shape or go bobbly. Although organic cotton was mentioned, softness was mentioned much, much more, to the point where it has to be one of our top priorities. The comment that most people agreed with was that it ‘mustn’t have an itchy tag’. Some people agreed with David in Outer Appalachia when he said ‘must-have-a-pocket!’, but then some disagreed. Those people who did mention something that kept up with fashion generally wanted a design they could change, or one that read their mind and morphed accordingly. As Jill put it, we’ll have to ‘offer variety... it is the spice of life.’ But how? Do we bring out a range of sizes and cuts or do we make it should be customisable, either by the user or by a better thinking tailor?

The problem is, somewhat understandably, everyone wanted the t-shirt to fit them perfectly. We had an in-depth description of Jaime in Manchester’s body (‘I’m slim with boobs so I either end up with something too big and baggy around the waist or too small and straining at the bust’) and an emotional request from Veronica: ‘Older, fatter women have consciences too!’

Some people incorporated social and environmental concerns into their perfect t-shirt description, others did not. Although this is reasonable, if people who know they’re posting to a site clearly dedicating itself to these issues do not concern themselves with them, how are we going to engage with the common man on the street, who is blissfully ignorant of all of the horrible things happening in the clothing industry?

Some people wanted wonderfully impossible clothing, that would change to suit any occasion or situation life might throw at them. Heather in Melbourne: ‘the colours would have an intensity control so I could vary the depth and brightness to match my outfit or mood.’ Paul in Edinburgh: ‘I would like a T-shirt that changed its appearance so it is appropriate for every social occasion; from a black tie ball, to a beach party, to a rock gig.’ And Kerry in London: ‘Would not end up stinking of fags when I come home from the pub!’ People want to be lazy with their shirts, requesting ones that drip dry quickly, don’t need ironing, don’t fade nor go out of fashion, avoiding the inconvenience of going out to buy another one.

Mark in London had one of the simplest requests: ‘A zero impact t-shirt is my only desire. I can live without cut, colour and logos.’ Ironically, he may be the most difficult person to create a perfect t-shirt for.

Subtlety was the general consensus here, with many people put off by (in Jill’s words) ‘the "eco" shirts already out there [that] have some hippy mandala or freakin' hemp plant’ on them. Really, it should be so gorgeous people should want to buy it whether they know that's it's ethically sound or not. However, whether this is possible is another matter.

I liked Mike’s idea a lot: ‘a simple, cool and distinctive symbol that indicated the ethical provenance of the t-shirt… not a normal corporate logo but a small sign for those in the know’. And after this, leave it to word of mouth: ‘the spoken story is going to be much more powerful than a logo in terms of influencing others to change their behaviour’, according to David in London. Wearing the world’s most sustainable t-shirt will make many people feel incredibly proud; we should let them tell the story themselves.

A problem may arise on the shop floor, when subtle logos cannot help the user differentiate between ethical and unethical clothing. But if we communicate the ethics of the t-shirt through media other than the shirt itself, and use the internet as our main sales platform, this shouldn’t be an issue.

We began by debating whether the perfect t-shirt is actually possible; although I agreed with Mike that ‘if it doesn't cut it as a desirable garment then no-one is going to buy it’, I wondered whether something that’s ethically robust will be able to provide comparable comfort and aesthetics to a mainstream t-shirt at a non-prohibitive cost. We ended up figuring we all need to learn more, ‘bit by bit, so we really understand the issues and the implications of our choices. So that what may appear to be worse quality by traditional measures is actually appreciated as a far better outcome by new, more enlightened measures.’

The question of dyeing the t-shirt came up in this forum: Jill told us she ‘I heard somewhere that bamboo actually absorbs and holds dyes really well,’ and that the tradeoff of using some dye to make a better looking garment would be okay, because this makes it more appealing, more successful, thus ultimately helping the cause. And Sam’s opinion, sent in from New Zealand, backs this up. He sensibly pointed out that we can’t demand too much too soon. ‘Change takes time and perhaps while its occurring new technology will come about for eco friendly bright colours.’ It may be worth using some mildly impactful dye to ensure the success of this pioneering project.

Paco in Texas provided some excellent technical information too: ‘considering the trade off of using organic cotton which relies on using caustic soda... The caustic soda is nasty stuff, but it could be "recycled" for other purposes. Of course, any secondary use would need to be evaluated for its own ecological impacts. Recovering wastes from one process to feed another process (or another two, or three...) also provides great reduction in energy consumption.’ Thank goodness we have these people’s email addresses: we’ll probably write many question-filled emails before we’re done.

Naji began with some nice, hard facts, informing us that incorporating ethical values into your t-shirt only increases its wholesale price by £2-3. And if the customer can afford to pay more than £15 for the shirt, they won’t be put off by the extra margin needed to cover the cost of being more ethical. In fact, the benefits of the t-shirt can be far greater than the marginal increase of the cost to the consumer. I found out that making a shirt from organic cotton increases the end price of a t-shirt by 1% but increases the farmer’s revenue by 50%. And as well as boosting their income, the eco system and their health is also much more protected.

Naji wrote that brand affects price much more than ethics, adding a premium ‘from £5 to anything over £20’. Mike began to think about how shoppers’ habits might evolve, writing that using a brand as the primary reason to charge a premium price seems ‘a very 20th Century way of promoting something’. He then went on to wonder whether people to begin to shop for clothes the way they do for food, valuing ‘the provenance and story of how, where and by whom it was made’ over more conventional purchase criteria.

It seems you can judge how unethical a t-shirt is by its price. According to Naji, ‘anything under £10-15 must be viewed as suspicious.’ I knew we had a challenge on our hands when I read the description of Alex’s perfect t-shirt: ‘it doesn't cost more than £15!’ It seems some education is needed. I’d like to add a tag to the shirt that contains a price breakdown, telling customers exactly where their money is going.

We gained some information about what more ethical t-shirts are going for at the moment: it seems people are willing to pay around £30 for one. What’s interesting is that many brands who don’t focus on ethics are charging the same or more. If we can make the shirt desirable and make the user feel good, not earnest and boring for behaving more ethically, we should be able to compete with more expensive conventional brands.

Although we want to make the price as small as possible to encourage as many people as we can to use the shirt and find out why it’s so much better than what you’d normally find on the high street, there are a few reasons for not driving the price down. The first one’s pretty basic: the more we charge for it, the more ethical we can make it. But Dan in London also made a very good point: ‘What we need is more expensive t-shirts, that way we'll all become conscious consumers, more mindful of the waste in our world. The higher the price, the more focused the decision.’

We really weren’t sure what to expect from this part of the forum, but we were always entertained. Quito and Mr Farquois, eco bloggers of the highest standard, began a discussion on whether the perfect t-shirt is in stores now or whether we’re just raising awareness. I replied saying ‘you can't buy the t-shirt now but you will be able to buy it in the next year or so’. My favourite bit of this exchange was Farquois writing ‘I AM IN NEED OF A PERFECT T-SHIRT!!! I NEED A PERFECT T-SHIRT!!!’ We’ll bring this product to market, if only to make one desperate man happy.

Quito pointed out that the even though nothing has been produced yet, the project’s already worthwhile: ‘Simple solutions to complex problems… will come if a broad range of people will be attracted to a project, and The Perfect T-Shirt is a good platform to begin that process. How many sites do you know that try to tackle the problem in such a comprehensive form?’

And, of course, we had the interesting suggestions: such as Catherine Pope’s ‘dynamic slogans’ t-shirt, which would ‘display appropriate messages given the circumstances - eg: ‘I'm drunk, so please prevent me from phoning my ex’ or ‘No, I don't have 5 minutes to spare for Amnesty International or to tell you where I get my sodding hair done.’’ And then, of course, we had the bonkers suggestions, of which Robin in Boston’s comment stood out: ‘Why are people concerned on how much energy is required making a t-shirt? Those people should not wear shirts, and they should just get hair growth formula and grow a hide.’

The experts and specialists category came in quite handy, we’ve had some leads and found out some good, specific information from this part of the site. Anita got in touch, telling us she was really enjoying the blog and describing her areas of interest: ‘at transformable textile environments, hand-crafts, product ethics, therapy, disaster/aid situations, and gift culture’ – cool. Dru at THTC got in touch to respond to Mike’s ‘hemp is for hippies’ post, saying hemp ‘is an awesome plant, and the fabric seems to suit your requirements ideally. Our Ts are 55% organic hemp, 45% organic cotton, and just including this percentage of hemp fibre saves about 9 gallons of water in the cultivation. The fabric is very soft, it is 4 times stronger than cotton, requires no pesticides or fertilisers, and the plant is great for the soil and environment.’ The jury’s still out.

Linda, an apparel design student keen to create sustainable, sexy woven clothing, told us about Of the Earth's Edamame wrap shirt, a soy and organic cotton blend that’s ‘like cashmere’. Joanna told us that the least polluting printing ink that T-shirt & Sons, the ethical t-shirt manufacturer, could find was from a company called Sericol. Thanks to Robin for the following practical advice: ‘Learn about the import and export taxes for the country you want to sell in and buy from.’ There’s so much to think about! And we found Jill, the fiftyrx3 eco-clothing blogger from New York, realistic but positive: ‘sourcing fabrics for small independent designers is tough. It is hard to have the capital for any design venture, let alone getting a mill to blend you up a special bamboo fabric. But hang in there.’