:: deep, long, drawn-out sigh ::

We have parted ways with our Hong Kong / China manufacturer. I’m.. hm, okay, how do we put this nicely in a PC way.. well, personally, I’m done with China. I’ll summarize my main criticisms of doing business in China in a future post, but for now, suffice it to say our sights are set elsewhere.

So we’ve been chatting with a couple of factories in various parts of Southeast Asia and South America. For some of these places, I had to look them up on a map. (No shame in acknowledging my ignorance here…) Hubby and I are checking over our 2012 vacation days to plan a couple trips to countries we’ve never been to and don’t speak the language. For us at least, the good part about doing business in China was we spoke the language (me, sorta; him, native fluency). Ah well, that was all in the past. It’s all looking forward now. So hold on tight for some world frolicking adventures.

Over the last year, I’ve revised the designs in the alpha collection multiple times. Some of the revisions were in the design details and were minor. 90 degrees to 85 degress. I remember this one. The factory responded with, “Really? 90 degrees to 85 degrees. Really?!?” =P

Others were serious revisions, after I received feedback from product testers. For instance, see above shoulder strap revision. Our shoulder straps will now come with an ergonomic shoulder pad. The pad is removable, so if you find it too hideous, you don’t have to use it. However, my more pragmatic friends griped to me about how their shoulders ached after lugging around a briefcase with a laptop inside for hours on end. I’m hoping the ergonomic shoulder pad will help some.

Since we were working with the same factory for the whole year, I didn’t need to rewrite full briefs for the changes; I just had to notify them of the desired adjustments after each samples production came back.

After a year’s progression of tweaking this, redoing that, the original design briefs I drew up are now so different from the final design I want that I have to draw up entirely new design briefs to send to the new factories. What a pain.

And because the world is not fair, all this has to fall on me the same month I couldn’t be busier at the day job. I’m neck-deep in some big cases right now and have had to deal with more litigation work than usual. (I’m a transactional attorney; this is a clarification that will make sense to some people and invite understanding nods of sympathy.) So in addition to all the day job stress, I now have TZ stress. Anyway, complaining over, I promise. Now on to the purpose of this post, the nutshell summary, design briefing part.

The purpose of this post is to provide a nutshell summary of what goes into submitting design briefs to a contract manufacturer, or at least how I do it. It’s certainly not the most efficient way, considering I don’t have any of the cool specialty design software programs. The way I do it is pretty old school and it’s not like I recommend it exactly, but if you’re an amateur starting with nothing, my old school process might be an option.

I’m too stingy to buy a legit sketchpad, so I use print paper, as in computer printer paper. With blank print paper and a black roller ball pen, I drew the final version that incorporates all the changes I’ve made in the last year.

An impressive drawing? No. Does it get my point across? Yes.

Typically if I were just sketching, I’d add a lot of shading, but I keep that to a bare minimum when doing these design sketches because they’ll be uploaded digitally for alteration. It’s hard to do the digital stuff to these sketches if there are too many pen lines, so the fewer the pen lines, the better.

Once I complete the pen and paper sketch, I scan it in and save it as a JPG file. I archive it so if I lose the hard copy original, I can still print out the JPG as backup.

Then on that same sketch sheet, I mark up the drawing with notes. All measurements (in centimeters, not inches, something I’ve had to work real hard at getting used to) are in red ink and all notes and descriptions in blue ink.

My supervisor, the kitty pictured above, totally micromanages me. He has to check and double-check everything I do. There he is looking over a sketch of the signature TZ handle bases.

I also draft style summary sheets, which serve as the cover page to each brief. These are done in MS Word. Above is a screen shot example of a style summary sheet. This page summarizes the dimensions, stitching instructions, hardware notes, etc.

For an illustration of what the styles will look like in the color options I’ve selected, I upload that pen ink drawing onto the computer and using a paint can function, digitally color in the pen ink drawings.

The above illustration is from a page of the briefs that illustrate the contrast stitching I want. If there are special stitching instructions for the style, I include it on this same page. For the Peripatetic weekender tote illustrated above, a more industrial needle than the standard ones used is required, so I make that notation here on this page.

That’s a screen shot of Jasc Paint Shop Pro, the software program I use for digital alterations of my sketches. It’s a fantastic program, and I prefer it over Photoshop. In Jasc, the paint can function is referred to as the “Flood Fill Tool,” I guess.

To cover my bases, I reviewed all the swatches I’ve collected from the many leather factories I’ve talked to. In the above photo, my feline supervisor is also reviewing the swatches with me.

Over the last two years, I’ve visited and chatted with dozens upon dozens of factories around the world that manufacture vegan (synthetic) leathers. We don’t look at any PVC at all. Ew, gross. Among polyurethanes (PUs), there’s a wide variety of manufacturing methods, embossing techniques, treatments, and therefore a wide range of quality.

“That one looks promising.”

We’re focused on the high end stuff, to put it simply. We’ve looked at soy-based polyurethanes, other vegetable-based materials, and the varying types could be listed on and on.

By this point, I’m settled into my choices already and we’re going with a totally customized material (so it’s not pictured in any of the color swatches above).

“Bird!”

And there goes the kitty’s attention. Birds flying around outside our window interest him more than leather swatches.

Anyway, I then compile sketches with the dimensions (in centimeters, in red ink), sketches with notes and descriptions (keep it concise, in blue ink), any special stitching or color pairing instructions, and the style summary sheet, which lists out the hardware, etc. That is all then organized into a PDF and sent off to the manufacturer. If I get back a workable quotation, we then move forward and I coordinate between the leather factory and the handbags factory. Then we’ll proceed with samples making and if that goes well, confirmation samples and if that goes well, a production order is finalized and signed and then we wait. It’s on average a two month production wait. Then it’s shipped by sea and then we wade through U.S. customs, which is always an adventure in and of itself.

Since production time for packaging materials is typically shorter than production of the handbags (which are all made by hand), once the handbags purchase order is out of the way, I focus on getting the packaging produced. It’s not awfully expensive to get that done state-side, so that’s what I’m intending to do.

I apologize to all those who contacted me about Christmas orders. As you can see, we’ve encountered several production bumps and have nothing to sell right now. Production with the prospective new factory won’t complete for another who knows how long. I so wish I had cheerier news to report, but alas.

Valerie of Miniskirt Murder featured me on her amazing blog and I am eager to share it with you! Her bio on the blog’s About page sums up why I am so fond of this gal: “Recovering attorney. Fledgling businessperson. Wannabe entrepreneur. Someday women’s empowerment expert (the kind of expertise that comes from experience, please).” Gee, I wonder who else that could describe. =X

Valerie and I have been exchanging e-mails on the highs and lows of both lawyering and our shared new adventures into entrepreneurship. She, like me, is starting her own small business. I highly recommend her blog, where she ruminates empirically on changing from the stable, known lifestyle of a litigation attorney to the high-risk, unknown ventures of a small busines entrepreneur. Writing wise, this woman has an amazing voice and style. She should write a book, a memoir or something! Oh, and while you’re there, please read: I know her! Sunny W. tells it like it is.

Speaking of reading…

Christine, a writer, editor, and an amazing blogger, held a giveaway for a signed copy of Patricia Engel‘s debut Vida, which I by plum luck won. So I am just diving into Vida this week. Christine’s writing style is warm, heartfelt, and intimidatingly honest. That’s an odd adverb to use with “honest,” I know, but where I come from, that’s how it seems.

I don’t have much to report on the TZ front because lately my legal work has consumed all my time and energy. I’ve come to understand too painfully well the difference between a job and a profession. A job is something you can leave at 5 pm, or whenever the stated shift ends. A job is separate and distinct from your identity. A profession, on the other hand, is part of you, or at least something you’ve made (often unwittingly) part of your identity. There is no beginning or end to your shifts. You are your profession always, and that is both the professional’s honor and her burden. Now. Go read Valerie’s and Christine’s blogs! =)

Wanted to share another painting I’ve done this summer (previous summer painting work here). The above is of Hubby and me and yes, the background is an attempt at the New York City skyline. I’ve titled it “Love On A Summer Night” and it’s currently hanging in our living room.

And those were the photos I used as reference for the painting.

Hubby and I went roadtripping to Mendocino this weekend. Mendocino is an ideal setting for a short story! I love it there! On the day we drove the coastline, however, it was foggy. The bad: It was foggy. The good: The mood set by the fog inspired me to write a short story! That’s definitely new. Fiction I have written so far have all been set in the New England region of the States. To write or to even think of writing about NorCal is different for me.

The above photos are of Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. The site used to be a dump where locals threw their trash: glass bottles, appliances, all sorts of junk and litter. Over the course of 50 years, the pounding waves of the Pacific wore away the glass, metals, and plastic into smooth pebble-like pieces. Really, really pretty!

Photo Credit: Glass Beach, Wikipedia.org

Also, since it was a looooooong drive, I got some reading done in the car. Kartika Review editors were given advance review copies (ARCs) of Hagedorn’s latest novel, Toxicology, a book I can best describe based on my superficial preliminary reading of it as very pomo. I know some folks shudder at being categorized as pomo lit (in particular the folks who write pomo lit), but I mean c’mon, the novel was a pastiche of pop culture references rendered into a nonlinear narrative with a lot of irony, self-deprecation, and dark humor. Gee, what’s the sum of these parts? Toxicology is as postmodern-lit as postmodern-lit gets these days.

In the case of this particular book, that is all a very good thing. I enjoy Hagedorn’s writing immensely! Count me one of her biggest fans.

Again, though, I read it very fast in the car on a roadtrip, and will be giving the novel a second, closer reading. What I have to say about it may change after that. Readers who enjoy David Foster Wallace, Chuck Palahniuk, or Don Delillo will probably like Toxicology a lot. The book is out this month (April 2011), so go out and get it!

And yes, that’s one of the first prototypes of the Peripatetic weekender tote in pink that I carried all weekend. The above photo is a camera-phone pic of it in the car.

Over my objections against him doing what he’s doing in the above photo, Hubby crossed that narrow bridge-cliff-thing. Not. Cool. I was on the verge of a panic attack the whole time I watched him cross it.

Oh, and look what arrived in the mail just in time for me to take on the trip:

My Compassion Fashion Project tee! Also see the way-too-kind, made-me-sound-way-cooler-than-I-am article the organization posted about Taryn Zhang and me on their blog, linked here. As you can see, we did a mini-interview exchange. =)

Let’s conclude today’s programming with a pseudo-OOTD. =)

In addition to the cool Compassion Fashion Project tee, made with eco-friendly, sustainable organic cotton (and carrying my very own Taryn Zhang Peripatetic tote, which of course is not pictured because that would make too much sense, you know, to remember to advertise my own bags), I’m wearing an adorable necklace designed by Eki Mura, the jewelry designer behind EkiLove.

The Love Neko Necklace. Photo Credit: store.ekilove.com

Eki is multi-talented and wears many hats. In addition to accessories design (including handbags!) she’s a makeup guru, artist, and–well, okay, mind as well put it out there–as Hubby might remark, a “hot chic.” There’s just no avoiding it, which is that this designer happens to be very, very, incredibly beautiful.

Photo Credit: ekilove.com

The design point of view of EkiLove may best be described as pink pearly girly pretty princess cuteness (try saying that a hundred times as fast as you can), and is a wildly popular style in Asia that is just beginnning to gain attention here in the States. It’s derived from Japan’s harajuku fashions, and this particular style is referred to as the hime or “princess” style. I certainly could never pull off the hime style, but one necklace here or two is fine. =) Especially if it’s by someone as sweet, gracious, and talented as Eki Mura!

Anyway. Check out her stuff. Right now, a significant portion of all EkiLove’s proceeds will go to support earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Japan.

• Website: EkiLove Jewelry
• Blog: “A little bit of eki.”
• Online Store: EkiLove
• Youtube Channel: ekimura

Hubby took the above photo of me at The Peak in Hong Kong on the night I arrived. The view from there totally reminds me of our Kartika Review (where I serve as managing editor) anthology cover art. See below:

Hubby led the way on all our sightseeing adventures, since he’s literate in Chinese. It wasn’t until after the trip when we started looking through the photos that we realized how many pictures we took of Hubby reading a map. See below for 3 of many. Posting them on this blog only because I think they’re cute!

My cousins from Taiwan met us in Hong Kong and we visited Ngong Ping 360 together. You ride a cable car suspended lord knows how many feet above ground to get to Lantau Island. We took the crystal cabin where the floor of the cabin is made entirely of see-through glass. Not for those with a fear of heights!

Hubby made me climb the dozen or so flights of stairs up to see the Tian Tian Buddha Statue at the Big Buddha Temple. In the above right photo, there’s me about to keel over from exhaustion, and in that pic, I was only halfway up!

Admittedly the sight was pretty magnificent once we got to the top…

I wanted to love the Big Buddha Temple, but I didn’t. There was a commercial twang to every aspect of the temple, nothing sacred, nothing spiritual. We saw monks in Oakley sunglasses playing with their iPhones, a VIP room at the nearby vegetarian restaurant (guilty: that’s where we ate), and you had to pay to do or see anything at the temple.

Perhaps the coolest place we visited this trip was the Window of the World theme park in Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China. The theme park replicates the major tourist attractions around the world, such as the Taj Mahal, Mount Fuji, Buckingham Palace, the pyramids in Egypt, Stonehenge, etc.

Hubby, who has a passion for archery, also kicked butt at the mini archery range in the — guess where! — North America region of the theme park, I guess to represent the U.S. Native Americans. I found it an odd choice for a cultural representation, borderline stereotyping. Guess non-indigenous Americans aren’t the only ones guilty of it (E.g., “Redskins” as a name for a football team…).

Cool Asia Observation #1:

Bar none the most fascinating sight at the theme park were the sheer number of high heels we saw.

Keep in mind that all of these photos of high heels were taken at a theme park comparable to Disney World or Six Flags — you know, where even most of us prissy girls are in T-shirts, shorts, and sandals? At one point I sat down and started counting. I got an estimate of 3 out of every 5 girls that walked by to be in high heels. At a theme park!!

When we were at the Peak in Hong Kong and Lantau Island, where we had to climb those flights of stairs to see the Big Buddha, I also saw tons of high heels. Climbing up the temple! Hiking around the island! It’s insanity.

Later friends told me it’s the same throughout East Asia. If you walk the Great Wall of China or visit the Forbidden City, both locations walk-intensive, you’ll again see tons of Chinese women in high heels, often stilettos. Like I said earlier, I was half dead after climbing up those stairs to the Buddha statue, in sneakers. I can’t imagine having trekked the same in pumps.

More photos of high heels, again all taken at the theme park. I planted myself on a bench at one point and just started snapping photos of heels I saw that walked within range over a twenty minute stretch of time.

Now I would like some commentary on this one…

Cool Asia Observation #2:

Boyfriends carrying purses for their girlfriends. Yay or Nay?

All across Asia, it’s trendy for a guy to carry his girlfriend’s purse. I don’t mean she needs to put on her coat so will he please hold her bag for a moment while she buttons up, no. I mean he simply carries it for her. I wish I had taken more photo samples of the phenomenon because from a Westerner’s cultural perspective, it was quite the sight to see grown men carrying these pink designer bags (e.g., in the above-pictured case, Balenciaga, though that one in the photo looks like a fake…thoughts?) with cutesie shmutesie bibelots dangling off it.

Is carrying a woman’s handbag for her some postmodernist form of chivalry? Or are you with me on this one and it’s just plain silly?

Anyway it’s farewell, Hong Kong and hello again, work. Sigh. Vacation is certainly no pause button on work. Rather, it accumulates while you’re away and on the first day back, you have 386 messages in your inbox flagged as “URGENT” or “TIME SENSITIVE.” I also returned from vacay with the worst of souvenirs: the flu. =(

Public Domain Image.

It has been raining non-stop here for days, which can only mean one thing: Spring is coming! I never cared much for fashion forecasting in the past, and 10 times out of 10 will opt for classics over trends, but lately I’ve been fixated on colors.

For this spring, I see the color trends governed by our pale economy here in the U.S., which may predispose us to neutrals, especially grays, beiges, and creams. Green energy technology and sustainable business practices have been a big focus this year, so I bet there will be an inclination for greens, especially dark forest greens because they complement the beiges and creams so well. I like pairing dark, dark green with a very light gray. Plus with all the conflicts still going on in the world right now (and U.S.’s involvement), I see the military inspirations continuing. Awful. Because I am quite over the military look. That’s both a fashion and a political statement.

On an optimistic note, the pops of color I will lean toward this spring are pastel-turquoisey-blue-greens and pink (not together though). I’m loving the pastel-turquoisey-blue-green color pictured above and will be accenting a lot of the beigy pieces in my closet with that pop of blue. As for the pink, a lot of the style forecasters are predicting “honeysuckle pink” to be in this coming season. If so, then pairing honeysuckle pink with white will be very cheerful and refreshing. I have a more subdued personality, so such a bright pink with white may be too much on me, so I’d tone it down to a cream. Honeysuckle pink and cream.

There’s my Precisionist satchel in a neutral beige. It’s a good accessory for Spring ’11! I’m also going to be loving the soft pink version of the Precisionist for spring vacation.

Photo Credit: Sherrie Thai. Model: Heidi W.

After I created my Spring 2011 color palette above, I checked online to see what the gurus have to say. It’s generally in line with what I thought and predicted myself, except there’s also orange. Again? Wasn’t orange big last spring? Or summer? Well orange was 2010. Yeah, I think it was summer. I was liking bright orange plus red lipstick at the time. Don’t think I’ll be doing that again so soon.

What will I bring back? Loving the wide-legged pants for these coming seasons! I’m so over the skinny jeans and leggings.

Now that’s an outfit I can wear: loose and comfy, but still clean-cut and put-together. And there’s my little pop of pink. Not exactly the pale pink I like or the “honeysuckle pink” that the experts want you to get behind, but still an appropriate Spring 2011 pink.