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.

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.