Sunrise Pashmina Update

"I do it because I can"

April 20, 2010: This week we're announcing the winner of the 2010 Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal (HM), awarded every other year or so "for remarkable service in the conservation of culture and nature in mountainous regions." [What do we mean by "we"? Well, the Hillary Medal as well as Mountain Legacy were invented by Seth and Empar; in fact, Sunrise Pashmina was supposed to be just another do-goody project, like the others we ideated ... until it started making money.]

The award goes to Scott MacLennan, founder and Executive Director of The Mountain Fund.Ten years ago, Scott's casual remark about a visitor's project requiring nothing more than "chump change" got him involved in an infinite regress of humanitarian adventures. MacLennan's work includes the rehabilitation of two monasteries, the staffing of a public school, and the foundation of school for HIV-affected children, two clinics and a training hospital. He has set up voluntourism programs and mentored new NGOs around the world. He is truly a philanthropist in the mould of Sir Edmund Hillary.

This is an incredible and inspiring story. Right now on WanderingEducators.com, we've got an article about Scott MacLennan, who was just designated winner of the 2010 Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Award. And we've posted two companion pieces, about the experiences of participants in his volunteer projects. Gorgeous pictures! Actually, they've rotated off the front page already, so here are the links:

• "I do it because I can" (on Scott MacLennan)
• Volunteering for The Mountain Fund in Kathmandu (text and photos by Olivia B. Zank)
• The Mountain Fund's 2010 Nepal Medical Trek (text and photos by Chuck Lovely

Scott MacLennan's award will be presented later this year at a ceremony in Melbourne, Australia.
[ More ]

Nepal on the Edge

As the May 28 deadline for the new constitution approaches, strikes and protests are once again delaying some deliveries. We thank you all for your patience. Meanwhile, check our Letter from Nepal blog for an excellent New Economist article on the situation: http://nepalletter.blogspot.com/2010/05/himalayan-precipice.html.

Click!!! According to an article today (May 17, 2010) in Xinhua News (http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6988224.html), that May 28 deadline has just been extended for a year. Let's hope that puts a lid on the protests for now.

She LOVES us. She really loves us!

Okay, maybe some of you don't remember Sally Fields' Oscar gusher, and anyway she didn't really say You like me, you really like me!, and that was the Oscars and we're talking about the Golden Globes here, not that there's anything wrong with that, cause really, the foreign critics know movies -- scratch that, films -- better than all those swag-wooed Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members, don't they?, but here's the thing, we just got a fan letter from a genuine movie star, Irene Miracle, whose credits include Midnight Express (what?? you haven't seen that? better put it on your Netflix queue right now!) and if that isn't reason enough to order immediately... uhm... well, check it out, anyway.

Helpful new image...

... for comparison of wrap sizes. See
Size and Fabric page

 

New Petite Size Shawl with Jacquard: $55

At 61 cm x 178 cm (24" x 70"), this is perfect for the flower girls in your bridal party.

Jacquard Designs Currently Available with New Petite Shawl Left: Diamond Snow (snowflake with diamond background). Right: Gabiana. [ See Jacquard page ]

 

What's with Safe Shopping Network?

Some of our sharp-eyed shoppers have noted the ongoing extirpation of Safe Shopping Network seals from our pages. What's going on???

Well, we don't want to say much at this point, but the issue is certainly not whether Sunrise is safe.

We're still gathering information, but, in the meantime, we thought it best not to promote SSN by using their seal.

PS If you're curious about this company that purports to test the safety and reliability of scores of companies -- including Amazon, Expedia, Better Homes and Gardens, and the Gap -- take a look around at the Google imagery... Just zoom in, click on "Street View" and have a look around. And like the sign on their gate says, "Beware of Dog!"

Scammed?

Do you own or manage a small business that has been scammed by Safe Shopping Network -- or by other companies making bogus marketing promises? We have, and we'd like to share your story. Contact us, and we'll shine a light on these -- and other -- predators!

 

HM, GPK, COPD, THEM, LTI and other BFDs

Our April article in Wandering Educators is about some of our BFDs (Big Effing Deals): respiratory disease, Everest marathon, Bucket Lists, and the late Girija Prasad Koirala. Please read it: you might find you'd like to get involved.

 
 

Himalayan Meltdown?

Check out our March 2010 article on Wandering Educators. Lot's of pretty pictures.

When the Himalayas make headlines, it's generally not a good thing. Sure, the world celebrated the conquest of Everest ("We knocked the bastard off," gloated Edmund Hillary), but since then it's been one crisis after another. Wall-to-wall deforestation, garbage Armageddon, glacial lake outburst floods, traffic jams on Everest, and now meltdown. Tourism plummets as postcard views disappear into thin air; drought racks the Subcontinent; millions die. As Hillary put it, "It's all bullshit on Everest these days." [ More ]

 

Nepal Celebrates Chyangra Pashmina Trademark

Chyangra is Nepali for "goat" -- so the name makes sense, and now Nepal has exclusive rights to use it, and the government has already set quality guidelines. The question is, will anybody really use the moniker? If not, who cares? See the article on our SunrisePashmina blog.
 

Haiti's Grim Reminder to Nepal

You can save some real money by buying your pashmina in Kathmandu ... and we heartily recommend doing so! On the other hand, as we point out in our February Wandering Educators article, Nepal is overdue for a big one. Of course, so are a lot of places. But when Nepal's number is up, it's going to make Haiti seem like a walk in the park. Find out why.

[Another] Really Green Article by Us!

Our January 2010 article in the Wandering Educators ezine is about Pepper Etters, a former student in our Bridges-PRTD program, who returned to Nepal to set up a health clinic in the remote village where he was stationed.

See also our shameless plugs of previous articles, below.

New Prints!

 

Fly much?

These days, a lot of airlines make you pay for the blanket and pillow. Which, in a way, is not such a bad thing, since they probably haven't been washing them between uses. Renowned travel guru Peter Greenberg says that the free ones were basically a science experiment at the Centers for Disease Control.

If you’ve seen those blankets, first of all they look like they’re fire hazards, second of all they don’t keep you warm, and third of all, who knows what’s on those blankets? If we ever took the black-light test on those blankets, it would be wild. [from When Nickel-and-Diming Pays Off ]

So... pack your pash. It's warm, schleppable, and you know what kind of company it's been keeping.

 

New Page: Special Occasions

We've started a new page as a gateway to the Wedding, Babies, and Gift Certificates pages. It's not linked up to all our menus, but will be soon.

 

We Love PincStuff!

We've expanded our already bloated collection of how-to-wear links and videos. Of all the online advice as to how to wear pashmina shawls, we think the best is Sheryl Ng's tutorial How to Wear a Pashmina Scarf. Embedding is blocked, so we just put a link to her YouTube clip on our How to Wear Pashmina page. We've also posted her clip How to: Magic Scarf Trick (which, unlike the other clip, actually does feature a scarf). Cute. Real cute. Check out Sheryl's Web site PincStuff.com -- she sells accessories and other stuff.

We're Famous!

Well... not really famous. But Seth Sicroff (Sunrise Webmaster) is now Nepal Editor for the travel e-zine WanderingEducators.com, and we've got our first article up. It's about the experiences of the brother of one of our faithful customers and how he became a sponsor of Nepalese orphans. It's a great story -- not because of the writing, but because Marc Osborn and the Rainbow Children Home are doing something fantastic. Please read the story. You may be tempted to get involved yourself. If so, you should write to Marc, or Dr. Jessie Voigts (the editor-in-chief of Wandering Educators) or Rainbow Children Home director Ms. Goma Dhakal. Their contact information is posted with the article.

By the way, before Dr. Voigts invited Seth to edit the Nepal column, she had done an article on Sunrise Pashmina. You can read it in the Wandering Educators archive: here.

Participatory Tourism: Climber Adopts Village

We've got another article up. This one is about Anthony John Freake (or "Papa Tony," as he was known in Nepal), who spent two decades helping a Sherpa community become a much more livable place. He ended up designing, raising funds, and directing construction of a school, teacher's house, clinic, monastery, youth center, community center, hydro-electric plant, running water supply... Very inspiring. [ Read the article at WanderingEducators.com. ]

Pantone Colors

Shopping for gifts? Why not think ahead? Check out Pantone's Spring 2010 fashion colors. We're especially partial to Amparo Blue.

New Print Designs

We are pleased to offer a new customization option: Sundar and Tyokeho are our first screen-printed designs. [ More ]

Liana and Gabriela flew from Ithaca NY to Chatsworth CA to deliver Grandma's birthday present. ("Oh, gosh, now I'll have to get Albert to take me out someplace fancy to wear this!")

 

Moving Mountains

Mountain Legacy (the Nepalese non-profit founded by your Sunrise staff) has launched a new journal: Moving Mountains: Journal of Sport for Development and Peace, dedicated to the United Nations theme of sport for development and peace. The journal focuses on mountainous regions, including lowland gateways, but peripheral attention is paid to exemplary developments in lowland and oceanic regions. Take a look (www.sportdevelopmentpeace.org) and let us know if you might be interested in collaborating.

Fall Colors

Pantone's top ten fall colors are ... [drumroll!]... American Beauty, Purple Heart, Honey Yellow, Iron, Burnt Sienna, Nomad, Rapture Rose, Warm Olive, Majolica Blue, Creme Brulee. Unlike David Letterman, we list them from #1 to #10. To the extent your monitor matches ours, you can view these hues on our Color page.

Pashmina for the Power-Preppy

According to the Times Online, preppy is back, in multiple varieties, and a signature accessory of the flagship "Power Preppy" look (exemplied by Michelle Obama) is [yay!!!!] the classic pashmina shawl:

POWER PREPPY: The grown-up, glamour end of preppy. It’s preppy with an injection of designer, and you won’t see any logos anywhere. Classic looks include a dark jacket with a white shirt and bootcut denim for smart-casual, and, for casual, sawn-off long white denim shorts, a vest and a pashmina.

Read the full article at Times Online, or on our own blog, Sunrise Pashmina!.

Any low-brows out there?

We just posted a new video clip of Janice Dickinson tongue-lashing and pash-bashing an innocent paparazzo. [Got beads?] See it on our Sunrise Pashmina blog (Off-white and off-color).

Back [just] in Time!

Have any of you heard of the Daily Express ["the World's Greatest Newpaper"]? Me neither.

Anyway, they have an article today (May 14, 2009) trumpeting "THE NEW FASHION STAPLE IN TOWN" -- and it's the pashmina shawl! Yay!!! (right?)

   

Jill... we hardly knew ye!

Our random googling has led us to a happy discovery on Huffington Post: Joe Biden loves his wife Jill because she wears pashmina!!! Huffington Post has a whole article, beginning with this:

Let's take a moment to meet the woman whose husband, Joe Biden, couldn't help but call "drop dead gorgeous" in his speech on Saturday. She certainly is pretty, and her look has lightened up a lot in the last few years (a few blond highlights here, a few cheerful pastels there). But upon closer inspection, there seems to be one accessory that's become her signature style: the pashmina scarf.

Lest Huffington retire the article, we've posted it on our Sunrise Pashmina! blog.

 

Pantone announces Color of the Year

It's mimosa!

Pantone has named mimosa the color of the year for 2009. The specific color name is Pantone 14-0848 Mimosa. Pantone says, "In a time of economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount and no other color expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow." [ More... ]

Best illustrated by the abundant flowers of the Mimosa tree and the sparkle of the brilliantly hued cocktail, the 2009 color of the year represents the hopeful and radiant characteristics associated with the color yellow. Mimosa is a versatile shade that coordinates with any other color, has appeal for men and women, and translates to both fashion and interiors. Look for women's accessories, home furnishings, active sportswear and men's ties and shirts in this vibrant hue.

Vogue UK writes that designers Christopher Kane, Giles, Tommy Hilfiger and Ossie Clark are already incorporation yellow hues into their Spring 2009 collections. Pantone's Spring 2009 color report lists ten other hues that are popular this spring.

New Imagery

We've posted some close-up photos that we think clearly show the difference between the appearance of 100% pashmina and the silk blends. On our Size and Fabric page.

New Verbiage

New Advice for First-Timers. We kind of liked our minimalist advice to first-time Sunrise shoppers ("take your time"), but in the interests of practicality at a very serious part of the shopping cycle, we've expatiated a bit. We'd still like you to get sucked into all our pages of pashmina info, do-goodery, and of course our delicious fan mail, but... if you're intimidated by the prolixity, here's our simple, straightforward, heartfelt advice.

 

So what's new?

Aside from fixing a lot of links, pruning and reorganizing old material, correcting typos, and other housekeeping, we've added some new content:

• Advice for new Sunrise shoppers
• About Nepal
• More about pashmina and the makng of shawls at About Pashmina
• Information about our latest do-goody project... in which YOU can get involved. See Career Advice Without Borders at Our Other Projects. (No, we're not asking for money. Save that for pashminas!)

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New article posted

Travels with my pashmina, by Annalisa Barbieri
New Statesman 7/9/2007, Vol. 136 Issue 4852, p52-52. The article presents the author's opinions on purchasing, using, and traveling with a pashmina shawl. Discusses the benefits, including washing machine washability, and uses of pashmina shawls.

Sunrise Pashmina in Toronto newspaper

Experiments in cybershopping by Sarah Bancroft, National Post (Toronto)
Saturday, October 04, 2008

NET GAIN
What: A custom-embroidered, hand-woven large black double-ply cashmere/silk pashmina shawl from sunrise-pashmina.com Price US$174

Log-in to cash out 20 minutes, delay caused by need to make decisions on size, quality, colour, embroidery and beading. Also found out how the shawls are woven, dyed and embellished by artisans in Kathmandu. Order was immediately acknowledged and I received an e-mail giving the exact price two days later. Shipping time and cost 3½ weeks, cost included in purchase price

Arrived in A package with a brocade bag for the shawl, silver and black stone earrings in a little drawstring purse and a letter on handmade paper thanking me for my order. Satisfaction guaranteed? My elegant and warm wrap for winter evenings helps provide employment for Nepali families and is a fraction of what I would have paid for similar quality retail.

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