Cool Hunting

Two years in the making and finally available this coming spring, John Smedley , the U.K. designer who's renowned for sourcing the finest garments with an eco and socially conscious approach, worked with Better Thinking Ltd. to make the perfect tee. In the process they reassessed their definition of luxurious garments and came up with the Luxury Redefined t-shirt. The fact is, you'll be hard pressed to find a more well-made garment.

For Smedley, luxury is far more than just the quality of the garment but also the story of how it came to be. Using only sustainable organic cotton grown in the Peruvian Highlands, fair-labor workers handpick each puff, singling out the longest fibers. The mounds of cotton (pictured below left) are then ginned and spun close to the farm in Peru and transported to Smedley's pre-industrial revolution factories in Derbyshire, England. Then they're handcrafted (pictured below right) and finished helping to keep waste to an absolute minimum.

Using over 35 hand-finish operations, the result is a perfectly-cut crew long sleeve crew neck containing around 1,206,000 knitted stitches with linked seams which eliminates unsightly ribbed seams. The involved process makes for a material that's so soft that it doesn't even feel like cotton but more like a cashmere blend. They're available in different cuts for men, women and children, but only come in a natural cream color (they don't use any dyes). Visit Luxury Redefined to purchase yours come this spring. No word on price yet, but learn more on the website.

John Smedley has a full Autumn/Winter line available now. If you are particularly picky about fit and comfort be sure to check out Smedley's One line that's produced by using whole garment machines that knit the garment all in one piece.