Thursday, December 27, 2007

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius power and magic in it "

(the quote above is by Wolfgang Johann von Goethe)
So here we are at the end of what has been a very productive year. In fact one year ago today, we were just beginning the whole nitty gritty manufacturing process for our debut line-"Ocean Collection". It's been both fullfilling and frustrating...but mostly fun! What an education! Even with all of the ups and downs, Deb and I are sure that this road less traveled is the right one for us as a company and we eagerly await the new year with all of the new possibilities. We've been privileged to have met some wonderful people from magazine editors (look for us in upcoming issues of Domino, Design New England, Coastal Living and Taditional Home) to designers and fellow entrepreneurs. We are thankful for every word of encouragement, praise, or gasp of excitement. And we are also thankful for the miracle of continued health for a sister in full recovery from a Leukemia diagnosis one year ago. Life throws ya some crazy curves sometimes so as we round the bend to this new year we do so with gratitude and wishes to one and all for health and prosperity.
Happy New Year!

Monday, November 19, 2007

The Green Room


Update:

On Saturday, 11/10 we were invited by Verdant Magazine to display our new collection in their showroom at the New York Design Center. (200 Lexington Avenue) It's called The Green Room and acts as a showcase for sustainable product design. Our fabrics will be on view there until early January. We are very happy to have a New York venue for our collection and are working towards creating more of a presence in NYC. It was thrilling to set up the show and we want to thank Victoria Foraker at Verdant www.verdantmag.com for being so encouraging.
(and a wonderful seamstress, Jean Quigley for sewing up our pillows so quickly )


We've had some nice press recently from a wonderful Italian news website.
Check our press page over the next few days; for those of you, like me, who don't read Italian, we will have a translation done.
I also just want to say that as we continue to work on 'getting the word out' about our company, we're meeting some really encouraging business owners, magazine editors, and designers.
Thank you all for your sound advise and helpful suggestions. Sharing this journey makes it all the more enjoyable and a lot less like 'work'.
til we meet again
Dawn

Monday, October 22, 2007

Good to go.......


Ok. it's been a few weeks since my NY trip and we've spent most of our time tieing up all the loose ends to complete production, send swatches and market the collection; happily, as of 10/18 all of our production yardage is in stock.

I drove down to our mill myself to pick up this last run of "Shellgame". Personally, I really enjoy meeting face to face with my printer to iron out details. It makes a marked difference in building a relationship with a supplier when you can speak in person. One day we will be printing overseas, but right now I am relishing the ease of travel and communication.

I can't stress enough how glad I am to have all 3 of our patterns in all 9 colorways here with me and ready to ship. I can now of course re-focus my energies on new designs/colors already in development!

On another important note: I know that the Organic Exchange is having their 5th annual conference on October 29th in Monterey County, CA. I am very sorry to say that we will not be able to attend, so if you are a member of the Textile Industry and can send comments (or a blog address) about what you took away from this trip, I would be most appreciative. Harmony, I will check your Blog of course...


thanks for tuning in...

sincerely,

Dawn

Friday, September 28, 2007

Material Girls


So, what do I take away from my visit to the "Material World" show in NY this week? Well, after walking the floor, visiting booths, exploring pantone's 'Trend Pavillion' and attending the
seminars, the most memorable 90 minutes was David Shah's presentation - From the Austere to the Absurd.
Mr. Shah, as the moderator chose to introduce him, is the futurist and publisher of Textile View Magazine.He is a brilliant thinker and extremely entertaining speaker. From his opening description of "Generation Jones, those born right after the baby boomers, "(picture the character Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex and theCity") as the first generation to fully embrace lifestyle culture, and a market segment not to be ignored; to his closing remarks - "The only way to survive in business today, is to create, to think outside the box". I was wrapt. He stressed the new approach to global commerce as "right brain thinking", and how this will leave us free to really create; to understand that Design is not the privelege of the rich, but rather, what we all need. He went on to say that people are no longer afraid of technology and emphasized the importance of transparency in manufacturing, quite literally getting around the table with your suppliers and being honest with your customers. After all, is anything secret anymore? Can't everything be found on the web? And to that point, did you know that there are some 60,000 fashion associated websites..that means a lot of people / consumers talking and listening to each other. It means much more consumer independence. It also means the old 'bricks and mortar' style of retailing will be partnered with digital retailing in a huge way. It already is in Europe.
Some of this information is not new, but it was thrilling for me as the owner of a young company, to hear such a passionate, exciting, and encouraging speaker. My late partner of 19 years, Sam Apple - a gifted designer himself, would have given Mr. Shah a well deserved round of applause....so did I.
thanks for listening...
Dawn

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

A Lot Like Giving Birth....





Hello everyone. It's Tuesday September 18th and we want to share a lovely piece of press from the "Ecofabulous" blog http://www.ecofabulous.com/ posted today. Take a look! (..and stay tuned for more exciting press to come...)
We will have 75% of our production yardage complete this week and 'in stock'. Feel free to call with any questions about our new collection or to order samples! Our Shellgame pattern will be complete by the end of this month. Thanks so much for visiting.

By the way...I've just today read some comments sent to our blog site...forgive me for not responding sooner...we are still familiarizing ourselves with 'blogging' and promise to stay up to date! Harmony...thanks for your kind words back in August...
sincerely,
Dawn




Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Strike-off Success


Wedensday August 15,
Well, we received our new strikeoffs last Friday and we are happy to annouce that they look very very good! We are extremely pleased with the colors and 'hand' of these new samples....with a couple of color adjustments, we will be ready for production this month. Finally. It's been a long process, but a great education....we will continue to research and develop our eco-friendly fabrics....stay tuned for new experiments. ....will inform you of upcoming venues for Oliveira Textiles.
thanks for visiting!
Dawn

Monday, August 6, 2007

You Go Girls....


Hello everyone.
Just to update--we are expecting our new strikeoffs this week and of course are anxiously waiting. It's just thrilling to see our designs finally printed. As soon as we approve them we will add the photos of our fabrics to the site and begin sending samples to our prospective agents. It has been challenging to say the least to meet all the requirements of the organic guidelines but I can say with confidence that we have done our level best to manufacture a safe and healthy product; one our customers will love. We really aim to create a unique, 'designer' level textile, while staying true to our mission: ...."producing environmentally-friendly fabrics that combine fine design with sustainable material". As well, we are constantly researching new technologies that will help us achieve these goals.
The Digital Printing Process in textiles is what I consider to be one of the most exciting new avenues in the industry and one in which we plan to educate our customers . There have been impressive strides made in the wearability of these kinds of fabrics with regards to lightfastness, washabilty, and overall durability. We have every intention of moving in this direction with future collections while maintaining our traditional screen printed collections.
Look for new prints and colorways over the coming months.
We're standing at the edge, waiting to leap.....and FLY!
Thanks for your time and interest.
Dawn

Monday, July 16, 2007

The Waiting Game


Well, it's been a couple of weeks of impatient waiting while our mill has been on vacation...
but we are back in touch and looking forward to our second set of strikeoffs. As soon as we have them and approve of them, we will add them to our website for all of you to see.
And, as always we continue our research for new sources of organic fibers and dyes.
In the mean time..check out my comment in Eco-Textile News...our publication of choice for incredibly relevant information on environmentally friendly fabrics.

e-COTEXTILENEWS“One of the most informative publications we've found on organic fibres, textiles, dyes ... and it's global ... awesome!.”Dawn Oliveira, Oliveira Textiles, USA.

It's time for change in the industry ... BE PART OF THE CHANGE
SUBSCRIBE TODAY, , , , t: +44 (0) 1977 708488 f: +44 (0) 870 486 2498e: subscriptions@ecotextile.com w: http://www.ecotextile.com/

Thursday, June 28, 2007

In The Beginning....


Hello, It's Thursday June 28th and we are very excited to see our first strikeoffs--fabric samples--tomorrow....These are our very first prints, 'Wavelength' and 'Anemone' and we can't wait to see our art printed...after 23 years designing textiles in New York for many other manufacturers, it is thrilling to finally be producing a product of our own...we've had some minor challenges printing on our hemp because of the natural 'lignens' in the fiber. The fabric is resisiting the dyes slightly so we will have to iron out this detail..my printer says it will be fine and we believe him. (Of course we are reading everything there is to know about printing on hemp anyway)
And by the way...if there is a textile printer in the Northeastern US who is using fiber-reactive dyes certified by "The Global Organic Textile Standards" body...or is at least aming their company in that direction ....please call us...currently the only printers we know of are overseas.
and since our goal is to 'decrease' our environmental footprint...we would much prefer to print here in the US...
And for those of you interested in samples...we hope to have our yardage by early August.
We'll keep you posted. thanks and ciao for now.
Dawn & Deborah

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Welcome to OLIVEIRA TEXTILES


Hello,
OLIVEIRA TEXTILES has just created this blog so that we can keep you, our customers, informed about what we are up to.....our road towards sustainability.... including the challenges, successes and current green news.

Stay tuned....and thank you for visiting.

Dawn Oliveira
Deborah Oliveira-olson