Putting together a Tahitian pareo design, Part I

It's been a long time coming but we are well under way on our newest pareo. Our Heiva Hibiscus Pareo is so popular and timeless that we just had to see if we could add to it or better yet, complement it. Almost 4 years ago we took the Heiva Hibiscus Pareo and brought it to the public. It was in a single shop and has (and still is) been used as a uniform for the Polynesian Cultural Center. Now, new colors have been introduced and old standards have been brought back and revitalized. The success and your urging has brought us to this current development.

I've been drawing and making notes, tearing out pages in magazines and taking photos of designs and inspirations for this new pareo. We, at Black Pearl Designs, are tentatively calling it the Tehani Tiare Pareo, but we might shorten that to just Tehani Pareo. We'd love input on this. Feel free to let us know your feelings on it. Tehani translates to - the sweet-smelling caress of flowers. And obviously we are featuring the tiare flower in this design.

The design is a "sister" to the Heiva Hibiscus Pareo. That's the way we described it to our design team. It has many of the same feelings and textures but is different in that instead of the hibiscus it features a truly Tahitian icon, the tiare. Once we finalize the design we'll work on colors. We have 5 colorways that we are working on but again, we are open to suggestions and requests.

One other element that will be different from the Heiva Hibiscus Pareo is the fabric. The Heiva Hibiscus Pareo is printed on 100% cotton sheeting. The cotton sheeting is a high-quality, heavy cotton and even heavier on some colors because of the amount of ink that is used to color. For instance, the tropic blue is much heavier than the hibiscus white as the white background is already there to start with. The Heiva Hibiscus Pareo is printed using 5 colors. The new Tehani Pareo is also using 5 colors as well. It will be printed on 100% cotton broadcloth with a 40/40 thread count (133 x 72). The broadcloth is softer, gives a little and drapes better. It's not as heavy duty as the cotton sheeting but for making pareos, it works wonders. It retains color nicely and has a subtle sheen that we think will complement the design nicely.