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Thursday, July 24, 2008

1 World Sarongs - Fair Wages - Vitcoria Secrets - Macy's and more!

We often get the question..."Are your sarongs and clothes and items fair trade products?" Yes, they are! We can say this with confidence. We have very close relationships with our suppliers and pay them fair wages. Our sarongs and other items are sourced from suppliers we've been doing business with for years and have very good ties with us. Our philosophy, it's better to pay more to get a lot more in quality and good will and better production over all has served our staff and our suppliers well. This philosophy of taking care of our employees and suppliers has helped us grow and expand our line of sarongs to clothing and jewelry and more.

Victoria’s Secret, The GAP, Macy's etc. can't say the same thing:

This is an article from CNN dated July 23rd 2008:

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Employees were underpaid millions of dollars and worked under sweatshop conditions at a New York factory that made garments for major retailers including Macy's and The Gap, the state Department of Labor said Wednesday.

Jin Shun -- which also made garments for Banana Republic, Express, Victoria's Secret, The Limited and Coldwater Creek -- underpaid about 100 employees by more than $3 million since 2005 and coached them to lie to investigators about their working conditions, the department said.

Before 2005, the factory -- then operating under the name Venture 47 -- underpaid its workforce by $2.5 million, according to the department.

The department cited the company for allegedly falsifying employee time records and violating wage laws.

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"This factory paid sweatshop wages, kept fake records and coached employees to lie even though it had signed retailer codes of conduct to comply with the law," Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith said.

The company gave employees a "cheat sheet" of answers they were to memorize and use if they were questioned by labor investigators, she said.

Smith said one woman worked at the factory for 60 to 70 hours per week and was paid 22 cents per garment or 40 cents for more complicated pieces.

The employee was instructed to keep two time cards per week -- one starting on Monday and the second starting on Wednesday -- so that neither would document more than 40 hours, Smith said.

When labor investigators asked for time records, they were given only one set of cards per employee, the department said.

Wednesday morning, the Labor Department tagged more than 10,000 items made by the factory with notices reading: "Legal wages have not been paid for the manufacture of this garment."

Within hours, the department said, Urban Apparel, the manufacturer that hired Jin Shun, paid $60,000 to have the tags removed.

Macy's, Gap Inc. (parent company of The Gap and Banana Republic), Limited Brands (parent company of Victoria's Secret and Express) and Coldwater Creek said in separate statements that they take the matter seriously and have strict policies and guidelines about fair working conditions with their suppliers.

Neither Gap Inc. nor Coldwater Creek currently had production in the factory.

A spokesman for Limited Brands told New York's Newsday that it had "zero tolerance" for vendors that violate labor standards."

So even in this day and age and even in America, we still are dealing with corporate greed and big companies pushing around hard working people and not paying fair wages.

It's a shame and another incident of bad moral character for the executives at these big corporations.

Let's keep this in mind next time we go shopping. Do we really want to buy products made by people in sweat shops? Yes, the cost of the garment is a lot cheaper (sometimes not), but if we buy the cheap stuff we end up abusing the people who make the clothes. So do your best by supporting smaller retailers and companies that insist on fair trade.

Peace,

Terry

P.S. See this link for more info on sweat shops: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweatshop

Saturday, July 5, 2008

How to Care for a Sarong - 5 Easy Steps


How to care for your sarongs is a question we hear quite often.

So, I asked Nancy J., who is one of our long time 1 World Sarongs customers (8 years) and has bought literally hundreds if not thousands of sarongs from us and therefore an expert in caring for sarongs. Nancy turns our sarongs into beautiful outfits. She's an independent seamstress / fashion designer who creates marvelous caftans / ponchos from our sarongs to sell to specialty boutiques in New Mexico.

Nancy called to place an order the other day(knowing we're getting our delivery and to get first dibs), as she does every few months, so I figured this was the perfect time to pick her brain and ask about how she cares for her sarongs.

So here's what she said:

  1. Unfold your sarong and shake it out a little
  2. Load into your washer machine (Nancy does up to eight sarongs at a time)
  3. Set your washer to cold water rinse - with medium water level
  4. When washer is finished take sarongs and shake out a little and separate them
  5. Load into dryer with a fabric softener - delicate setting - for 30 minutes
  6. After 30 minutes clean the lint filter and then run dryer for another 10 minutes
  7. Take sarongs out of dryer and spread them out on a bed or flat surface (Nancy folds them in half)
  8. Then run your hands over them to get any wrinkles out
Notes:

Make sure to take your sarongs out of the dryer right away so they don't wrinkle.

If you do decide to iron your sarongs make sure you set your iron on a very low setting.

Note, this is for the care of rayon sarongs and of course cotton or silk or poly should be handled differently. (We'll cover those at another time)

The advantage to washing this way is the dryer will set the colors of your sarongs so you don't have to worry about the colors running.

Wasn't that simple?

Ok, you got us...that was eight steps ;-) just checking to see if your paying attention :-P

This method applies to our lovely clothing too. So just use the same methods to care for your sundresses and other items from 1 World Sarongs.

Have an idea on how to care for your sarongs / clothing?

A different method?

A better way to do it?

Why not leave us your comments or suggestions?

Hope you're having a wonderful summer,

Terry

P.S. Just found a link to an interesting site about fabric care and doing laundry: http://www.textileaffairs.com/

Monday, June 30, 2008

1 World Sarongs is Finally Blogging!


That's right 1 World Sarongs "The Sarong Source" is finally web logging or blogging!

We've taken the next step in our webvolution...(web + evolution = webvolution).

We're excited that we'll be able to easily keep in touch with everyone and keep you up to date on what's going on over here. We have no shortage of stuff to blog about that's for sure!

As I write this...our next shipment is arriving from Bali to Los Angeles and should be delivered by Wednesday the 2nd of July 2008. That's great cause we're running really low on everything and need to restock right away...watch for many of our sold out items to come back in stock.

So far this year is off to a really great start with the introduction of our new clothing line at 1 World Sarongs - Clothing 2008!

Our new line includes sundresses, long dresses, skirts with matching tops, embroidered sequined satin sandals, some guys shirts and sandals and lots more!

We've had a wonderful response to our new exclusive line of clothing which includes batik patterns of hibiscus, hand drawn batik bamboo patterns and also lovely pastel colors with delicate embroidery.

Oh wow...we're going nuts just trying to keep up with it all. But we're so thrilled at the great response we're getting it's inspiring us to do more.

We have about 30 new sarongs in the pipeline too...batik sarongs, floral sarongs, cotton sarongs and much more...so stay tuned!

Thanks to all who have supported us over the last 7 or so years (yes seven- can you believe it?), and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Peace,

Terry

1 World Sarongs

P.S. Sign up for our mailing list to get news and special offers... Mailing List

P.S.S. Here's a few of our latest testimonials...they actually make us blush...

"Sarongs are exactly as shown in pictures. Sarongs are high quality. Excellent color representation on website photos. Excellent customer service and delivery. With gas prices the way they are, it is not worth driving around looking for stores that sell sarongs, and then finding they don't have any you like, and driving more to find another store. This website is fast and convenient to use. If you don't have a trip to southeast Asia planned anytime soon then I recommend 1 WORLD SARONGS."

"
We have shopped at 1 World Sarongs for several years. It has the best prices, great service and the products are shipped out quickly. The quality of their dresses and sarongs are excellent. I highly recommend 1 World Sarongs."

"I absolutely LOVE 1 World Sarong!!!!! Before I make any purchases I check every merchant I can find for price, shipping, and reviews. I seriously mean EVERY merchant. Ive been online a very long time. This has become habit. I World Sarongs cannot be beat. I found a sarong on their site for under $10.00, I found the exact same sarong at another merchant for almost $150.00. Ive called their customer service and they keep my info in their computers making ordering extremely easy.... I personally have not found a better online site for sarongs. Ive placed many orders with 1 World Sarong and plan on placing more. If anyone has question about this merchant, or would like more information feel free to email me directly. Deanna Steeves dmethe123@gmail.com"

"Everywhere I travel, people stop me and comment on what a beautiful sarong I have on & ask where I got it from and I tell them. Ive bought and received sarongs as gifts from other merchants over the years as well, but they dont compare to what you get at 1 World Sarong. The quality, the selection you get is unlike no other. Its hard to buy products online because you dont know what your getting until you get it, but 1 World Sarongs definitely delivers!!! You wont be disappointed in their products. The colors, the materials, etc.. - fantastic!!!! I wont shop for sarongs anywhere else!!"

The sarongs sold by 1 World Sarongs are the most beautiful sarongs I have ever seen!!! I already have four of them and I love them all, so difficult to choose a favorite one because they are all amazingly beautiful!! Sarongs by 1 World Sarongs are my new addiction!! I will definitely be ordering more. Customer service is excellent and very friendly. One is treated like a human being and questions are answered politely. I even got a free e-book describing the numerous ways to use sarongs. Shipping is also excellent. I pay for regular/standard shipment but my items always arrive sooner than I expect them. I also feel wonderful knowing that a percentage of my order from this company goes to charity. This company should be a model for other online companies.