My partner often helps me pack orders on busy days, and we’ve had quite a few words about what color a color actually is.  What color is aubergine, he’ll ask.  Purple, I answer.  Well then why don’t you call it purple!? What the heck is aubergine? 

A good many chuckles have passed in the warehouse on this topic.  We use the colors that the manufacturers assign, and even I scratch my head occasionally on the choice of color name. 

The other day we were looking at a printed catalog and I pointed out a list of colors that I couldn’t make out because they hadn’t included swatches.  The conversation went something like, “Well, I know a tiger lily is a flower, but I’m really not sure what color it is.  Have you seen one?”  So after another silly round of what color each color is and where these color names come from, he suggested a contest.  So here it is.

Glen’s contest:  Match the color names to the color swatches, for example 1A, 2B, etc.  Leave your answer as a comment here or on our Facebook page with some way to get in touch with you (e-mail, phone, Facebook handle) and the person with the most correct answers will receive one of our new organic panties when they come out in June (or July).  Last day to enter is Sunday, May 25, 2014.

In the very likely event that more than one person ties for the same number of correct answers, we’ll draw randomly to decide who wins. Anyone can play for fun, but you must leave a way for us to contact you if you want to win the prize.

Happy Guessing!

PS – We originally started with 20, but we couldn’t even get it right… lol.

We’re thrilled to announce a new line of organic cotton underwear purposely designed to help folks with chemical sensitivities and skin contact allergies.  We have 7 products in this new line (2 for men) and we’re giving away a few items for our customers to try out and review! 

Give-a-way 1 – The Allergen-Free Drawstring Bra

This bra is not only latex-free and spandex-free, but it actually contains no elastic whatsoever, using a drawstring design instead to hold it closed.  Sizes are marked 34B, 36B, 38B, 38C, 40C, 42C and 40DD, though the manufacturer claims they run a little on the small side.  We’ll work with you to pick the right size and then hopefully you can provide some feedback on the fit.

Give-a-way 2: The Allergen-Free Front Close Bra

This bra is does contain a small amount of elastic at the straps and under the bust.  However, the elastic is fully covered in organic cotton and contains no latex or spandex.  Sizes again run from 34B – 40DD.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment on this blog post including an e-mail address or phone number or some way to get in touch with you. (Note, if we can’t figure out how to tell you that you’ve won, we’ll have to pick someone else.) Contest ends Monday, April 25, 2011. Drawing will be held on Tuesday with the winner announced in the comments section.

There will be 2 winners – 1 for each bra. If you only want to be consider for one of the bras, please let us know. Otherwise, everyone gets in the draw for both picks.

Allergen Free Design Features:

• Latex free and spandex free for sensitive skin
• Bra #1 is also completely elastic free
• Bra #2 has hypo-allergenic plastic front closures for easy wear
• Purified organic cotton process
• Double-layered cotton lining
• Covered Seams prevent rubbing and agitation
• Irritation-Free label for sensitive skin
• Textile Dye-free & Resin-free for sensitive skin

Please, please pass this contest info along to anyone you know who might have skin contact allergies.  We’re excited to get feedback both from women who just want to try them for fit and also from anyone who really needs the extra attention to what goes into their clothing.

We’re pleased to announce our newest vendor, Smart Glass Jewelry.  Smart Glass offers classic and contemporary jewelry pieces made from cut and polished glass rings from drinking bottles.  The artist, Kathleen Plate, individually hand makes each piece right here in the US.  She uses bottles from Champagne, wine, beer, vodka, sake and even Coke©.  The pieces are all unique as there are slight variations from bottle to bottle and cut to cut.

You’ll find 7 distinctive designs in the Jewelry Section at FaeriesDance.com.  Our list prices are between 15% – 20% off MSRP, so you can try these wonderful pieces at a discount.

We’re kicking off this new line by giving away a Recycled Bottle Circle Necklace in Cobalt, which the manufacturer graciously sponsored.  The give-a-way necklace has the same circle design shown in the top photo, but is hanging on their thinner, single-attachment sterling silver chain (like the picture to the right).

TO ENTER: Leave on comment on this blog post by midnight March 31, 2010. You must include an e-mail address or phone number so we can contact you.  Drawing will be held Friday, April 2.

We’re giving away a Pacific Spirit Sweatshirt in your choice of size and color!

HOW TO ENTER:  Just leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post. (Preferably pertaining to shipping, but any comment will enter you in the drawing.)  Be sure to provide e-mail contact information.

Today I received an e-mail from a very irate customer on our shipping policies.  I wish I could keep a business attitude towards these things, but this store is my passion – a lot of time, energy and thought have gone into it and even one unhappy customer is usually enough to bring me to tears.  (Yup, I’m one of those weepy people.)  I really do want every single customer to be happy, but I have found that this is an impossible goal. 

But I digress.  The issue at hand is shipping.  We keep prices very low as a matter of course.  All products from US manufactures are at least 10% off the MSRP.  Unless someone is having an unexpected sale, you can generally go right to any of our manufacturers and find that we sell their items cheaper than they do every single day.  (Massive fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates prevent us from making the same claim on our Canadian and European manufacturers, but we do our best.) 

Of course, this means we make lower profits.  No worries on that because hopefully we’re spreading the Green message and selling more with our low prices to make up for it.  However, we can’t offer super low prices and free shipping all the time.  Sadly, shipping just costs too much.  Our current policy is to offer reasonable shipping charges and then offer free shipping on large orders (over $99 where our profit is a little higher).  If no one ever returned anything, this would probably work fine.  But it gets a little sticky with partial returns where an order started out at $100 and ended up at $35.

In any event, we thought we take the question directly to our customers.  On the right you’ll find a poll booth.  Would you rather pay a little more (say MSRP) to get free shipping on every item all the time?  Do you prefer knowing you’re getting the very best deal and seeing shipping charges broken out separately?  Or does the hybrid method we’re currently using work best – good prices and free shipping only on large orders?  After you vote, be sure to leave a comment to enter yourself into our drawing for the free sweatshirt.  We’ll draw for a winner on December 1, 2009.

Depending on the winning poll answer, we may have a follow up question… 

If you’ve ever purchased anything from us, FaeriesDance.com is your store.  Even if you’ve just looked, the fact is, it was designed for you, our eco-conscious customers.  So please help design it the way you’d like to see it.  Your opinion really does count!

This is a question we get often so I’d like to clarify the answer.  We have many lines with tags that say “Made in the USA” on them.  But legally speaking, that only means that the final garment was sewn in the USA.  There are essentially 3 steps to making a piece of clothing (organic or otherwise).

1. The base material (cotton, hemp, bamboo, pine tree, whatever) has to be grown somewhere.
2. The base material has to be soaked, spun, woven or otherwise turned into fabric for cutting or yarn for knitting/crocheting.
3. The garment has to be sewn (or knit or crocheted).

While there are always exceptions to every rule, we have found that in the vast majority of cases #1 and #2 are done in the same region.  It’s too expensive to grow cotton in one country, send the raw material to another country to make fabric and then send the fabric to a 3rd country for cutting and sewing.  Most raw material is turned into fabric or yarn local to where it is grown.  However, it is very common to produce fabric in one country and then ship the finished fabric off to another country to have it sewn.

The tag on this adorable Overall Dress on the left states Made in the USA.  But the Hemp/Tencel blended fabric is imported.  We do our very best to track down exactly where our products are imported from.  We try to list both where an item is sewn and where it’s grown along with working conditions for both.

As we mentioned in our Quick Facts, the USA does not grow enough organic cotton to meet our own eco-fashion needs.  Thus organic cotton is often imported.  Hemp has only recently been legalized to grow in the USA, so much of it is still imported.

We’re started putting a “Made in America” flag on items that are sewn in the USA. Bolstering our manufacturing capability definitely helps job our economy and job growth, even if the fabric has been imported. So as long as the item has been sewn in the USA, you’ll see that flag. Check the “Fabric & Care” section for more details on where the fabric originates. 

There are still a (very) few manufacturers who grow and sew end-to-end completely in the USA.  For example, SOS From Texas grows, spins, weaves and sews completely in the USA. For our own in-house underwear brand, Green Tree Organic, we design, pattern, cut, sew and print locally in Oregon using GOTS certified fabrics from India. We think the resulting panties, like the Hearts A’Flutter shown right, are still pretty great. (But we’re definitely biased.)