Summer Must Have: Sun Safe Clothing

As the weather gets warmer and the sun shines for longer hours in hotter temperatures, it's best you take good care of your skins while you're having fun in the sun. One of the best and most affordable ways to protect yourself from the sun's direct harmful ultraviolet rays (UVR) is by using sarongs to cover up whenever you're lying by the beach and exposing yourself to the sun all day long. Whether you're on a summer holiday or escaping to a tropical destination or simply spending time with your family at a resort over the weekend - you'd need to be aware of your health and the danger that the sun can bring to your skin. As much as we love sunshine, too much of anything can never be good for a person.

Besides your face, your shoulders are the most prone to direct sunlight, cover up these body parts when you're out in the sun!

The most basic form of sun safe protection is clothing and in the context of wanting to be versatile and flexible, you'll find that our sarongs are ideal substitutes for sun safe wear where you're able to pack it easily wherever you go, just fold and tuck it into your beach bags or hand purse and whip it out at any time the sun starts to get overbearing while you're out at the city or beach.

Enjoy being outdoors and just be mindful to how many hours your body gets exposed to direct sunlight

We spend most of our lives getting excited over summer and we can't help but feel the joy of basking under the sun. As much as we love this activity, it's important to stay mindful of our actions. In a long run, over-exposure to sunlight can lead to unpleasing outcomes and to the extreme - skin cancer. According to Skin Cancer Organization, 'the sun damage done to every exposed part of your body is cumulative over your lifetime, continually adding to your risks of premature skin aging and skin cancer'. It is advisable for us summer and beach lovers to cover our skins often as it's better for our health from a long term perspective. Besides the superficial downfalls of pre-mature aging and wrinkles and unhealthy skin glows - you'll have to consider taking care of your immune system and state of being.

Always pack an extra sarong just in case you need to allow your skin to breathe and rest no matter where you go

Here are 2 important factors to look out for when deciding on the best sun safe clothing for you and your family:

1) FABRIC WEIGHT & DENSITY: WEAVE TYPE & ABSORPTION 

Choose the kind of fabric that does not allow sunlight to pierce through. This is dependent on the number of fibers woven together in any fabric, the tighter the knit, the tinier the holes and so the less space for UV sunlight to go through. With higher thread count and more fibers weaved together, you'll have dense and solid like materials which makes it protective from sunlight. Besides that, do consider the types of material that absorbs more UV radiation. *'Most fibers naturally absorb some UV radiation, and some have elastic threads that pull the fibers tightly together, reducing the spaces between the holes. Synthetic fibers such as polyester, lycra, nylon, and acrylic are more protective than bleached cottons, and shiny or lustrous semi-synthetic fabrics like rayon reflect more UV than do matte ones, such as linen, which tend to absorb rather than reflect UV'. If you want to go for our lightweight fabrics, do consider choosing our Pertama top quality sarongs for women and men, which are usually made of denser type of rayon weave type.

2) COLOR VARIATIONS

Our sarong collections are created with color dyes that helps reduce exposure because they absorb UV radiations. It is common that darker colors tend to absorb more UV than lighter colors which explains why wearing a black sarong under the sun will heat up your body ore than say wearing a white sarong. Vivid and darker colors tend to provide better sun protection then lighter and pale colors but this is also subject to the sarong fabric type and weave that you can put into consideration. You're best bet to keep your skin safe is to go with white sarongs because *'white fabrics have 'optical whitening agents' that are chemical compounds that strongly absorb UVR, especially UVA'.

You can spend hours out in the sun, just build a make shift tee-pee & get your skin protected from overexposure sunlight

Additional tips when shopping for sun safe clothing:

1) Buy garments that covers more skin. If you need an extra sarong to take with to the beach, get it done. You can even go for our plus size sarongs so you have plenty of material to protect your skin with

2) Get the size right, over stretching clothing that don't fit your body size will only allow more sun exposure to pierce through the fabric. If you're worried about stretched clothing, make sure you get a scarf or sarong to layer up as added protection

3) If you're going to wear bikinis or bathing suits or swim shorts under the hot sun, make sure you have your sarongs packed together. Sure we love to work on our tan lines but after 1-2 hours you'll start to feel the burn on your skin and that's not a good sign. By that time you'll need to hydrate by a dip at the pool or ocean and dry up and cover yourself with your sarongs so you can allow your skin to rest and breathe

4) Pack the right travel essentials! Never leave for a tropical destination or summer holiday without your sun protector for body and face (minimum SPF 15), a beach hat, sunglasses, cover-ups like ponchos, cardigans or sarongs

Wear a sarong over your head and shoulders if you start to feel your skin heating up

Above all - sun safe clothing goes beyond health benefits, they can be stylish and fashionable and versatile for your everyday wear! You can play around with different colors and use your imagination to layer up and combine sun safe sarongs with your outfits of the day.

*1 World Sarongs is thankful to Skin Cancer Organization for enlightening and educating us regarding this important subject on our skins and to our beloved customers who were trusting enough to share their insights and reviews with us.

Spooky Sarong Tricks for a Killer Halloween

Planning a do-it-yourself kind of Halloween? Look no further. With just a couple of sarongs, you get to be the coolest kid on the block. If you want to be different for this holiday season in the most affordable and easiest way possible, you are in for a treat. From costumes to decor ideas, here are sarong tricks and spooky ways you need to know for Halloween:

1) Get Your Capes On

The easiest costume to pull off with any colored sarong. You can use capes and cloaks for so many different types of scary costumes such as a witch, vampire, dead superhero, fairy, zombie, magician, elf and so much more.

2) My Sarong Brings all Ghosts to the Yard

Want to have the spookiest yard in the neighborhood? Flowy and drapey, there's no better way to create ghost and spirit like formations than with white sarongs. Be it indoor or outdoor, you can turn scary characters to live with a dash of imagination. For an even cooler effect, put some fairy lights into the fillings so your characters can shine boo-tifully at night.

3) Light it Up

When night falls, create an eerie effect with dimmed lighting. Using a white or yellow light bulb, you can cover any light source with a white, red, green or any suitable sarong color to set a dark and haunting kind of mood.

4) That Creepy Table

Be it black, orange or dark purple - throw a solid color sarong over any table to create a Halloween themed dining area for your friends and family. Use cool party props to accessorize and give your table setting an edge.

5) Animal Spirit

From Caveman, Tarzan to Cat Woman and whatever your mind imagines, bring out your wild and feisty persona by dressing up with animal print costumes.

6) Horrific Photo Booths

Capture the moments by setting up a photo booth for your Halloween parties. Using sarong colors like red, black or white as a back drop together with any scary props, your friends and family get to have fun and take awesome photos dressed in their costumes.

What do you think? If you have any more sarong tricks and want to share your ideas, we would love to hear from you!

Have a Spooktacular Hallooween, folks!

- 1 World Family

*All photos are sourced from Pinterest

Postcards from Rachel: Slovenia

I wanted to dedicate my first post to the beautiful country of Slovenia in Central Europe. I was blessed enough to be able to visit the gorgeous Lake Bled in the Julian Alps. This is an amazing tourist destination located in the town Bled that has been there for a thousand years! Interesting fact: on the island in the middle of the lake, the ancient Slavs worshiped Ziva, the goddess of love and fertility. There's some great info here and here if you are interested in visiting this beautiful place.

 

Must Watch Videos to Learn How to Tie A Sarong (for Women)

1. ‘7 New Ways to Tie Your Sarong This Weekend’ by PopSugar

Fresh styles for the weekend for those who want to explore both short and long sarong styles. Modeled by Allison Mcnamara, our favorite style is the dress with a little bit of waist definition that is really flattering to the body. For those who like shorter styles, you can turn your full sized sarongs to a short skirt.

Using a combination of fringeless and solid color sarong followed by a patterned and fringed sarong, we also like the harem jumpsuit look especially that added detail of having the fringe or tassels hang loose in front, it’s so cute!

*Get the look here:

• Fringe-less orange sarong
• Fringed blue sarong

2) ‘10 Simple Ways to Tie a Sarong’ by Harper’s Bazaar

True enough when they say, 'you'll never look at a single piece of cloth the same way'. Firstly, we got to compliment the quality of production because we totally love the mood and feel throughout this tutorial, it’s so chic and cool.

Our favorite sarong style is the ‘chic cape’ which is a long kimono that makes a lovely swimsuit cover when you’re strolling by the pool at a resort. A second sarong style to pay attention to because it’s unique and not many people have thought about it, turning your favorite sarongs to a crop top. Wear it with a bathing suit or a pair of shorts or long pants after having a day out in the beach. We also like that they demonstrated and eye catching and tasteful range of color palettes to show how you can match your swimsuit colors with different sarong colors and patterns.

*Get the look here:

• Fringe-less grey sarong
• Abstract sarongs

3) ‘Tie a Pareu’ by The Coconet TV

This video makes us want to book a ticket to Hawaii like yesterday! We love the angle of seeing a modern Polynesian woman sharing a staple part of an Island woman’s wardrobe which is the Pareu aka. lavalava aka. sarong. The best thing about this video (besides the beautiful Hawaiian music and setting!) is they show how to tie sarong styles using sarong ties. It's the perfect fashion accessory to pair with your sarongs so you can tie and secure your sarongs easily.

*Get the look with our collection:

• Hawaiian sarongs
• Fringe-less sarongs.

4) '12 Sexiest Ways to Tie a Sarong' by Cosmopolitan

‘No other single piece of clothing allows you to transform your look in so many ways.’ That is exactly what they try to show in the video. Our favorite is the number 10 style, where you have a one shoulder long or short sarong dress. Depending on your body type, this style may be suitable for certain body types and not others, it’s really all about experimenting and trying it out to see what works for you.

Sheer sarongs are sexy, sensual and feels heavenly on your skin. We love that they used an ocean inspired color sarong for this tutorial with a combination of blue, green and turquoise.

*Get the look here at a great value price:

• Sheer sarong black
• Sheer white
• Short sarongs

5) 'Traveler Obsession: 3 Sarongs, 3 Ways' by Condé Nast Traveler

Short, easy and straight forward tutorial to demonstrate how 'a beach cover up can become a surprisingly sophisticated piece if you know how to knot it'. Our favorite is the second style which is a halter style knee length short dress. It’s very flattering for those who want that extra boost on the chest and not to mention refine one's body shape by tying a knot around the waist.

Above all, we are really obsessed by the way she used a larger sized sarong and tie dye pattern to demonstrate the sarong styles. It's all 'about that dynamism: the beauty of a great sarong is in the creativity it affords you'.

*Get the look here:

• Tie dye sarongs
• Plus size sarongs

6) 'Trendy Sarong Styles' by Brisa G. A. Silva 

Made in Brazil which got us day dreaming about the beaches of Rio de Janeiro and samba music of Carnival. We have to admit our Portugese vocabulary is as good as 'Oi' and 'Caipirinha', so we're using our body language to put our hands together for these awesome tutorials.

We are very impressed by this beautiful Brazilian woman who really knows how to style her sarong. We can learn a lot from her and so if you're looking for something unique and truly creative, you got to check her out on Instagram. Thank you and obrigada, @brisagasilva!

The possibilities are truly endless and it makes us very happy to see more and more creative videos being made by fellow sarong lovers from all around the world. If you're looking for more ideas, follow our weekly updates here:

How to Wash a Sarong?

Similar to our initial advice on how to care for a sarong , we've taken further investigation by talking to our loyal 1 World Sarongs customers as well as doing tons of reading on other reliable sarong resources to get the first dips on the best way to wash a sarong.

We all use our sarongs in the most versatile way and having them exposed to all kinds of environment makes you wonder - what's the best way to keep them clean and fresh at all times? The key is to maintain your sarongs in the best way possible so that it stays in its best condition and you can have long lasting sarongs.

The first step is to find out how delicate is the clothing and so you can ask yourself: what fabric or material is the Sarong? It's always important to determine the fabric or material - are you washing a batik, silk, polyester, cotton or rayon sarong? It's also important to check whether you're washing a sarong with fringe or fringeless sarongs.

So far the most important and consistent tip that we found useful is that using COLD WATER (or low temperature water, if you must) is the best way to wash your sarongs.

Why?

Well, most people would use hot water wash to effectively remove heavy dirt or germs but the downfall in using hot water is that your clothes are prone to higher risk of wrinkle, shrinking or fading especially for your vibrant and strong colored sarongs. The positive factor in using cold or low temperature water when washing is that you get to protect your delicate sarongs and ensure that the color quality of your sarongs are well-maintained.

Another cool factor about avoiding hot temperature machine wash is that you get to conserve energy, avoid wastage and do your part in saving the environment with less carbon footprints on Earth. That's because setting your washing machine at hot temperature requires more electricity to heat than using unheated water and saving electricity also means you get to save money!

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Hand Wash Tips

This is probably the most efficient and effective Sarong washing method. It's the best way to wash your sarong AND the most environmental friendly practice too. If you have read our sarong labels you would already know that it's the correct way to care for your sarong and here's what we think:

1) If you want to use hot or warm water, keep the soak duration at a minimal period (maximum 60 minutes) and if you use cold water, feel free to use longer soaking hours (overnight soak is fine) to help remove stains or heavy dirt.

2) Use very minimal or no detergent at all. Besides, using less chemicals is the least we can do to help protect our Earth! If you insist to have your clean sarongs smell like fragrance then we would like to suggest a little DIY home project for you. Why not create your own non-toxic home made natural laundry detergent? Get instructions on how to make your very own natural laundry detergent.

3) Don't over do the rubbing, a gently kneading is sufficient. (So avoid washing your sarongs when feeling temperamental or angry)

4) Avoid soaking your colored sarongs with any white clothing. (Unless you plan to get into a tie dye project :))

Machine Wash Tips

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While we always encourage our customers to stick to hand wash (as instructed on our sarong labels!), some of you might still prefer to save time and effort by tossing your sarongs into the machine for a wash and if that's the case, here are some advice:

1) Wash separately from other clothing (especially for first time wash), consequently make sure you wash your sarong following the basic rule of laundry - always separate the clothing by colors.

2) Set the machine at preferably cold or low temperature.

3) Minimal wash cycles and rinses work best for your light weight sarongs. There's no point in over washing your sarongs due to its breathable and delicate material unless if you're washing cotton sarongs.

4) Use very little detergent because sarong fabrics are not thick, so you might as well save up on detergent.

LOL

Finally, now that your sarongs are all washed and cleaned, the final step is to get it dry and ready for your next usage. So the question is..

Property of 1 World Sarongs

How to dry your Sarongs?

1) For longer lasting sarongs, try to avoid using a dryer for your sarongs, hang drying a sarong is the best method.

2) If you hang dry your sarong correctly, you can avoid creases and skip the ironing process.

3) Get your wet sarongs hung out on a bright sunny day and it'll only take a few hours for them to get dry to to it's breathable fabric!

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So now that we've shared our insights on how to wash your sarongs, we hope that you'll use these tips to care for your sarong. If you have ideas or tips or personal experiences on how to wash a sarong, please do leave us a feedback!