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.
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