Black Pearl Designs logo shop is now open

What is that you say? Black Pearl Designs new look is in the works. Along with a redesign, we are going to be adding in more products, more how-to-tie instructions and a couple surprises on the way. We are almost 5 years old and all throughout our anniversary we'll be introducing new products, news and of course, designs.

One of the additions is the new Black Pearl Designs logo shop. This is where you'll be able to find our designs. You can pick up a shirt or bag of our Black Pearl Girl - Tehani. She's great! Sassy, intriguing, enchanting and a little sultry. Look closer and you'll notice that she is wearing our signature Tehani pareo.

In the future you'll be able to see additional designs showing off some of the creative designs of our artists and crafters.

Sneak Peek at our new look

Since our beginning we have been looking for an iconic image. Well, at Black Pearl Designs, we think we have found it... or rather her. Meet Tehani.

We'll be introducing her throughout the summer and celebrating the new addition to our ohana. She's great! Sassy, intriguing, enchanting and a little sultry. Our tiare bearing vahine is sure to attract attention. Take a closer look and you'll notice she is wearing our signature Tehani pareo.

With her introduction, we'll be adding in some great new products, handicrafts, hard-to-find and one-of-a-kind Polynesian artisan works. Check back often as we grow.

Tahitian Pareo questions

Three of the pareo styles that we offer are all made of 100% cotton of different weights. The heaviest is the Heiva Hibiscus. It is made of a high threadcount of cotton sheeting. The Mahana is more of a chiffon weight, light and airy. And the Tehani is in the middle. It is a broadcloth. When you go shopping for your pareo it all depends on what you are really looking for.

The Mahana pareo is the only one that is hand dyed. It's varying colors and motifs are the result of a photo sensitive dye process that fixes the colors into the fabric depending on how much heat and light it receives. Sea salt that is thrown on the fabric absorbs colors and creates texture to the design.

The Heiva Hibiscus pareo is based on classic Tahitian motifs. Many prints in the past were printed on a polyester and cotton blend. We've decided to stay away from the polyester.

The Tehani pareo is all our own. It's one of the most "Tahitian" that we're proud of. Tehani is based on the Tahitian tiare, Hawaiian lauae and Marquesan tattoo inspirations. The fabric is just the right weight (we think it is) and has a nice balance of weight and durability.

Our last pareo is made of rayon. We've had request after request for rayon and we intend on making a new design in the future on rayon or one of the above in a rayon version. The Tiare pareo is a handmade work of art. Each is screened by hand. The only fabric more softer is silk.

Hope this helps in making your decision when visiting our Black Pearl Designs website.

Vote for new Tehani Pareo colors

We're already looking to make a reorder on our Tehani design (way ahead of schedule) and we're looking for your input on what the next colors should be. Of course, we'll be reordering some of the colors we currently are offering. Why fix something that isn't broken? But we'd also like to introduce colors that we don't currently offer.

Here's a look at a possible black version of the Tehani design. It's not final and may change or not be used at all. It'll largely depend on the feedback we receive from our designer core and from your participation which colors we will add. Our poll is now open and we're looking for your vote. Once you do, check out our Tehani Pareos and get $1.00 off when you buy 3 or more. It's a limited time offer and available in the full size, mini and sets.

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.

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.

Putting together a Tahitian pareo design, Part III

Our Heiva Hibiscus Pareo design is a classic. It's so much a classic that we are making the Tehani Pareo a "sister" to our staple. Why is it a classic. Well, for one thing, it was created to give the look and feel of the traditional way of printing pareos in Tahiti. Basically, in the old days, pareos were printed one by one. A piece of fabric was laid out flat and a large screen was placed on top and ink was applied. For more complicated and multicolored pareos, more than one screen was used one after the other. It was a long and labor intensive process. However, the outcome was well worth it.

Even before the silk screen method, there was the wood cut method. This was done with a carved wood cut or a series of wood cuts. Ink was applied and transferred to the fabric in a variety of ways. As each was done by hand, the varying pressure that was applied created slightly different prints. Each pareo was unique.

The new Tehani pareo design mimics these organic and artistic methods of manual printing. It pays homage to the old traditional ways but also updates the look with some smooth lines and a modern tiare flower. The detail and precision of the tiare flower would not have been possible using the old methods. So without further delay, we are giving a sneak peak of round 3 of the Tehani pareo design. The design features the tiare flower and a stylized traditional Tahitian tattoo treatment of the tiare leaves and lauae leaves. We should note that this is not the final draft and that we are working on a couple refinements before we send it off to the printer.

Putting together a Tahitian pareo design, Part II

Decisions, decisions, decisions. If you only knew how many places fabric is manufactured. For our new Tehani pareo design we have several options to choose from. We decided to work with a company we used to print the Heiva Hibiscus pareos. It was a fairly easy decision as we work with the company all the time. There are competitors with comparable prices but it always helps to work with the same company for consistency. Building those relationships of trust is a key factor. From there you can also build a credit history with the company and work on terms that will benefit in the long run.

We have decided to use the 100% cotton broadcloth. This is a change from our Heiva Hibiscus fabric. It's lighter and drapes more freely. It has a feel between the high end rayon and our heavy duty cotton sheeting. Once we decided on the fabric, we had the option to pick where it would be printed. The fabric company has textile plants in Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Japan and specializes in Hawaiian and Polynesian prints. We were given samples of the cotton broadcloth from each of the plants and interestingly enough there were subtle differences in the feel of each. China seemed to be ever so slightly lighter in weight which might account for the lower price. Indonesia had prints that were a more softer feel. Malaysia seems to use more ink but that could be just the fabric sample we received. Which leaves Japan with a more nicer sheen on the end product.

So which one did we choose? We chose Japan. Although not quite as soft as Indonesia, it definitely competes. Quality is great and an added bonus is that we don't have to print as much yardage per color. The usual minimum is 1000 yards per color. The Japanese however only require 600 yards per color. This translates into more colors that we are able to offer. Another factor we considered is the chance of piracy. The other countries are notorious for piracy. Although we've never had that problem and the company we work with has strict control, you never know if it could happen. It seems less likely to happen in Japan.

All these factors played into our decision and we think it is in our best interest and our customers best interest to proceed with our fabric production in Japan. We'd love to print in the USA but costs seem prohibitive. Although, we admit we haven't researched it thoroughly. So if there is a competitive American fabric textile company out there, we'd love to explore the option.

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.