Miss Tahiti 2008 - Hinatea Boosie

(Tahitipresse) - Twenty-year-old Hinatea Boosie, a psychology student who believes Tahiti's women today are "intelligent, active and becoming more and more independent", is the new Miss Tahiti, winner of the largest and most prestigious of the annual beauty contests.

Originally from Tahiti, Ms. Boosie was crowned Miss Tahiti in front of an audience at the Sheraton Hotel Tahiti. The event was also broadcast live throughout French Polynesia. Ms. Boosie, along with 11 other contestants reminded us once again of why Tahiti has always been envisioned as one of the most romantic places in the world.

As the 48th Annual Miss Tahiti, Ms. Boosie "embodies the grace, beauty and values of the Polynesian woman." Not only was she chosen by the competition's judges, but she was also the favorite of voters throughout French Polynesia as well. Twenty percent of the total points were alloted to the open vote. The other 80% was made up from the judges at the event.

Ms. Boosie will next compete in the Miss France competition in Paris. Ms Taoahere Richmond, last year's Miss Tahiti, crowned Ms. Boosie before a hotel audience that also included the very first Miss Tahiti - Teura Bauwens.

Vaihere Merpaut, 19, was elected first runner-up, and Manavarii Ravetupu, 21, was elected second runner-up. Vahinetua Flaccadori, 18, was elected Miss Heiva 2008, the "queen" of Tahiti's annual festival, known as the Heiva, which is held in July.

The Tehani Pareo - Tahitian Design Beachwear and More

After months of design work and production, our Tehani design is finally here. Putting together a Tahitian Pareo has paid off. We've got a great design and I think our customers, old and new, will love it. We're offering it in our classic pareo, mini pareo, pareo set, and fabric by-the-yard. It's a soft fabric - 100% cotton broadcloth. This is a change from our Heiva Hibiscus fabric. It's lighter and drapes more freely. The weight is lighter and softer. It has a feel between the high end rayon and our heavy duty cotton sheeting.

The Tehani Pareo is being offered in five great colors - Arii Red, Mango Orange, Yellow Bounty, Green Tiare, and Poehere Blue. Full size pareos are $14, mini pareos are $7.50, pareo sets (one each of full size and mini pareos) are $21 and fabric by-the-yard is $6 and up.

The timing is perfect. With summer rapidly approaching, it's easy to see that this pareo will fit in perfectly with your beach activities, casual get togethers and those lazy days in the house, yard and wherever comfort is a priority.

The new Tahitian pareo - Tehani will be available starting Monday, April 7, 2008 exclusively online at our website - Black Pearl Designs. Pre orders will be available shortly online.

Putting together a Tahitian pareo design, Part VI

Tweaking... twiddling my thumbs... yawning. That's what I feel like when I think about our new pareo design. This entry is going to be more thoughts than straight information. It's been 3, count them, 3 months since our manufacturer got our design and put in motion our product (6 months total). It's somewhat nerve racking to think of a sizeable portion of our budget going into the production of this single pareo design and waiting so long for it to become a reality.

After getting the first strike off, we were a bit nervous. The colors were all off (except the blue colorway). The red colorway was the worst. Yellow and orange were also bad. As this is our first experience with Japanese manufacturers, we expected it to go much more smoothly. When we asked for a second strike off, the company initially said no. I couldn't accept this and said so. Eventually, they grudgingly agreed to do the second strike off. Interesting, since they obviously saw my dissatisfaction and I had been a frequent customer. Colors are so important on this product.

One way they could have avoided this problem is to use pantone colors. It seems so unimaginable that the company would not use this proven color management system. But after meeting in their offices many times, it's not so surprising, though disappointing, that they don't use this standard. If it weren't that they only have one other competitor, they would probably be in trouble by now for not updating their operations.

But I digress. In 3 weeks (cross your fingers) we will introducing our new Tehani Pareo and fabric. After looking at it so many times this past 6 months (that's how long we've been working on this with the manufacturer) there are so many other things we've worked on in between and ideas for the motif elements we've planned. The appeal is great and the color variety is very welcome.

If everything goes well (or at least close) we're looking to reprint in new colors or create a new Maori print (just thinking out loud) later this year.

Marquesas Arts Festival

A Marquesas Arts Festival will continue until Dec. 2 at the French Polynesia Assembly exhibition area for residents and tourists who cannot travel to the northernmost archipelago for the Dec. 17-20 7th Marquesas Arts Festival on the island of Ua Pou.

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11/22 | 11/25 | 11/26

Tau Matari'i i ni'a – 2nd Annual Cultural Festival

Tahiti's second annual traditional cultural festival Tau Matari'i i ni'a will run through Dec. 15, 2007. The cultural festival has gone through a new name but the purpose is the same – to encourage cultural discovery. This year's festival program of events offers a variety of mostly free discoveries for both residents and tourists.

Activities on November 12-13 will feature harvesting workshops at the Harrison Smith Botanical Garden in the Papenoo Valley on Tahiti's north coast.

Among the many discovery activities include a film festival Nov. 15-17 at Place Vaiete along the Papeete waterfront where several locally produced short films and documentaries will be shown. From Nov. 17-24 there will be cultural entertainment at the Papeete Public Marketplace, including performances by traditional Tahitian dancing and singing groups. Concurrently, live entertainment will be featured at the Papeete Cultural Center along the waterfront.

A night of traditional Tahitian "himene tarava" singing will be presented on Nov. 30 at Place Vaiete. The participating groups will include Te Ui Api no Arue", which won top honors during July's Heiva.

On Dec. 8, traditional fruit-carrier's races and free tastings of traditional meals will be offered at the Museum of Tahiti and Her Islands in Tahiti's west coast community of Punaauia. Additional entertainment will be provided by dance schools.

Delegations from Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand and Easter Island will join the entertainment and workshops on traditional dancing, language, mythology, genealogy and navigation from Dec. 9-12 at the Fare Hape village in Papenoo on Tahiti's north coast.

Finally, from Dec. 13-15, the visiting delegations will join in a seminar at the Radisson Plaza Resort Tahiti on the north coast. The delegations will share their culture during workshops initiating visitors to making dance costumes, weaving, sculpture, singing and dancing.

Visit the official website for more information and details (In French)

Putting together a Tahitian pareo design, Part V

Colors are looking great! Here's a sneak peek at our new Tehani Pareo, Black Pearl Designs original artwork. After working with the colors, tweaking and retweaking, we finally came up with colors that we are more than excited about. The five colors that ended up the winners – Arii Red, Mango Orange, Yellow Bounty, Green Tiare and Poehere Blue. It was a difficult task to narrow down the choices. We're excited even more because we know we have other exotic colorways to choose from for our reprint next year.

The reason it took so long is that the printing company didn't exactly use pantone colors that would standardize the process. So going back and forth with the printer was a little long. In the end we finally "eyeballed" the colors, tints and shades from printouts. The actual design had been finished long before. The colors, however, were the hold up.

Off to the printing press. The next step will be to approve the strike offs. The strike offs are samples of each of the colors. This is a critical step that can make all the work done up to now pay off or it can really delay the project. We have five colorways. But the printing company does tropical prints all the time and they are used to island style prints. I'm not too worried...

The strike off should be getting to us within the next week at the latest and so we'll hopefully approve everything and send it back for the full order. We hope to get the fabric by mid December. Pretty much too late for Christmas but a great way to start the new year off with a bang.

Before final approval, there are a few details that we need to take care of such as the border - no border, no name printed on the selvage or top of the roll. We principally make pareos with the material so an extra cut along the top of the pareo is not exactly desired. We also need to verify the fabric style which is 100% cotton broadcloth in this case. Just to remind everyone, we chose this fabric because of it's quality, draping attribute, natural material and comfort. And lastly the delivery location will be verified.

One thing we won't have to worry about is dealing with the customs office. The printing company has a clearing house and the fees are already built into the costs. So no headaches and worries about this step is very welcome.

All in all, we're just eagerly waiting for the strike offs and the arrival of the full order.

3rd International Tahitian Tattoo Convention

Some 32 Tahitian tattoo specialists plus a dozen others from throughout the world will participate in the 3rd International Tahitian Tattoo Convention in Tahiti from Nov. 7-11. This year's theme will be "Tattooing for Women".

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