{"id":20856,"title":"How we designed the BEWT (Best Ever Women's Tee)","description":"More than half of the women in our factory were wearing our men\u2019s t-shirts instead of our women\u2019s, and neither group felt comfortable in either. So we assembled an all-female team to design the BEWT - Best Ever Women's Tee - designed by women, for women.","content":"

Somewhere along the way in its evolution of more than 120 years, the t-shirt forgot half of the world. Sure, men have had the luxury of enjoying the perfect t-shirt for generations. But what about the other 50-ish%? It\u2019s perfectly reasonable that women might want the same comfort and convenience as men when it comes to tees, but are we really there yet? Until recently, we don\u2019t think we were.\u00a0<\/p>

Here at Rapanui, we\u2019re a data-driven company, so we conducted a test in our t-shirt factory to find out how many women were wearing our women\u2019s t-shirts. The answer? More than half were wearing our men\u2019s t-shirt instead, and neither group felt comfortable in either.<\/p>

So we assembled an all-female team to design the BEWT - Best Ever Women\u2019s Tee<\/u><\/a> - the t-shirt designed by women, for women.<\/p><\/blockquote>

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When it comes to product design, there\u2019s a difference between function and fashion. Functional design is about removing things and optimising the usefulness of the item; that difficult-to-explain aesthetic follows. Fashion design on the other hand, is more often about aesthetics first and the design follows simply as a way to make and sell the stuff. For whatever reason, it\u2019s long been assumed that women place fashion over function more than men do. But increasingly women are prioritising function over fashion, whether that\u2019s because of living more frugally and needing our clothes to work harder and longer for us, or the pandemic and WFH making us realise that comfort is everything.<\/p>

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- <\/em>discover the BEWT in sage<\/u><\/em><\/a><\/p>

Take trainers, for example. Most women will be able to relate to that pair of shoes that looked amazing in the shop but it turned out you couldn\u2019t walk more than five minutes in them. They languished at the back of your wardrobe, always playing second fiddle to some smart sneakers that let you run for the bus<\/em>, as well as dance all night,<\/em> or just get to and from work without any blisters. You know, your pretty basic, functional, everyday life stuff. That\u2019s why so many women now wear trainers all the time<\/em>: Designed to literally walk\/run\/jump in and they just so happen to look great with everything too. So to be functional, comfortable and durable first, the fashion follows. It is possible to\u00a0 design them to be circular or compostable these days, but that\u2019s another story.<\/p>

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- our <\/em>BEWT <\/u><\/em><\/a>also comes in sand and stone blue (top image)<\/em><\/p>

We applied this function logic to the BEWT because designing with a purpose makes it worth us producing the stuff in the first place. We make products to make a difference, and when it comes to sustainability, the concept of natural materials, renewable energy, longevity and circularity are important, but before all of that comes into play, we must justify why the product even needs to exist to begin with.\u00a0<\/p>

And that\u2019s why the BEWT is so important. In order for the circular economy to work, everyone needs to be able to wear what we make and to take part in the story.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Half of the world is not a whole solution. So why has the BEWT taken so long? Speaking as a designer who also happens to be a woman, designing anything means balancing lots of different factors and, put simply, women have a wider variety of body shapes, which adds more complexity to upstream design considerations. Women also, generally speaking, tend to have a more dynamic range of pieces in their wardrobes, so we needed to think downstream about versatile styling and different occasions that the product could be worn for.\u00a0
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- the <\/em>perfect tee<\/u><\/em><\/a> in the most classic colour: white<\/em><\/p>

Our process was simple and quite brutal. We needed to catch up to all the development investment that has gone into menswear. And perhaps most importantly, we needed to invest time and energy into creating lots of variations until every woman in our team, and every woman in our wider group of friends, really really wanted the BEWT. Like our jacket<\/a> project (it took five years to perfect designing out plastic toggles, poppers and zippers for our sustainable water-repellent jackets) it wasn\u2019t a quick fix, but it was worth it. We love it.<\/p>

In womenswear, shape has nowhere to hide, but we\u2019ve put up with being convinced to buy men\u2019s items and call them boyfriend tees, or being duped when fashion mags and brands use clips and sticky tape out of shot to try and get things to \u201cfit better\u201d, making us feel like it was a problem with our shape rather than the garment. Perhaps that\u2019s because not as much effort has been invested in women\u2019s t-shirt shapes as men\u2019s. Perhaps that\u2019s because fashion companies are run by them.<\/u><\/a><\/p>

Not this product team. Enjoy x\u00a0<\/p>","urlTitle":"best-womens-t-shirt","url":"\/blog\/best-womens-t-shirt\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/best-womens-t-shirt\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/rapanuiclothing.com\/blog\/best-womens-t-shirt\/","featured":false,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":false,"visibility":null,"createdAt":1662538850,"updatedAt":1690896581,"publishedAt":1690896581,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":14,"name":"Rapanui"},"tags":[{"id":413,"code":"behindthescenes","name":"behindthescenes","url":"\/blog\/tagged\/behindthescenes\/"}],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/i8bor8lw23pielvpqsonotpkkwa0e34ok1nrkxxfhbth8lm6.jpeg","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/i8bor8lw23pielvpqsonotpkkwa0e34ok1nrkxxfhbth8lm6.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/i8bor8lw23pielvpqsonotpkkwa0e34ok1nrkxxfhbth8lm6.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"metaTitle":"How we designed the BEWT (Best Ever Women's Tee)","metaDescription":"We assembled an all-female team to design the BEWT - Best Ever Women's Tee - designed by women, for women.","keyPhraseCampaignId":86,"series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":3302,"title":"Sustainability and Automation: Quite good friends, actually","url":"\/blog\/how-sustainability-and-tech-automation-helps-climate-change\/","urlTitle":"how-sustainability-and-tech-automation-helps-climate-change","division":14,"description":"Lots of people talk about the threat of automation and robotics on jobs, and the threat of climate change. We like talking about solutions. And when we decided to start making products from natural materials, using renewable energy, we realised that the system has a fundamental issue.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5e7f5930375d97.68026262.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/5e7f5930375d97.68026262.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":21251,"title":"In pursuit of the perfect Breton tee","url":"\/blog\/perfect-breton-top\/","urlTitle":"perfect-breton-top","division":14,"description":"To find the best things in life, it's often worth going back to the start. For this ex-fashion editor, that means the Breton stripes she wore as a kid... and now she's found her favourite of all time.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/xx8weituplnlucjlhsof6qqqcaunfzmavkpwsqcncoeksbxh.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855&z=1.4&fx=0.52255639097744&fy=0.36124401913876","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/xx8weituplnlucjlhsof6qqqcaunfzmavkpwsqcncoeksbxh.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440&z=1.4&fx=0.52255639097744&fy=0.36124401913876"},"hidden":0},{"id":22175,"title":"Why do we actually need raincoats? (spoiler: probably not to climb Everest)","url":"\/blog\/why-do-we-actually-need-raincoats-spoiler-probably-not-to-climb-everest\/","urlTitle":"why-do-we-actually-need-raincoats-spoiler-probably-not-to-climb-everest","division":14,"description":"Why it took us 5 years to perfect our organic cotton, PFC-free, circular rain jackets and ponchos. No forever chemicals here.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/b4ggcs1absl1wivydbqulb7wccfd6owupxo1qmbkwynzpiyp.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/b4ggcs1absl1wivydbqulb7wccfd6owupxo1qmbkwynzpiyp.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0}],"labels":[]}