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Frequently Asked Questions

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • IDR 10,000 for Greater Jakarta (Jabodetabek); free shipping for orders above IDR 2,000,000.
  • IDR 30,000 for the rest of Indonesia; free shipping for orders above IDR 2,000,000.
  • USD 15 for Singapore; free shipping for orders above USD 350.
  • USD 30 for the rest of the world; free shipping for orders above USD 350.
All ready-stock items are shipped within 2 working days of your purchase, excluding weekends and public holidays. After shipping, you’ll receive an email with the tracking code. You can expect them to arrive within:
  • Jabodetabek: 1－3 days.
  • Outside Jabodetabek (Indonesia): 5 days.
  • Singapore: 4－6 days.
  • International: 10－14 days.
Need it in a hurry?
Contact Dea for expedited/express shipping from our studio (additional charges may apply).
Any customs or import duties are charged once the parcel reaches its destination country. You may be charged for handling fees and taxes as your order passes through customs. These charges must be paid by the recipient of the parcel. We are not responsible for any customs and import duty charges.
 
Unfortunately, we have no control over these charges and are unable to tell you what the cost would be, since customs policies and import duties vary widely from country to country. We recommend contacting your local customs office for current charges before you order, so you are not surprised by charges you were not expecting.

Payment

  • Our main currency on the website is IDR.
  • We do estimates for USD and EUR on the bottom left corner of the website. 
  • For USD/EUR, exchange rate fluctuations may occur.
  • All major credit cards
  • BCA, BNI, BRI credit cards (0% installments available).
  • Bank transfer
  • PayPal
  • All major credit cards
  • PayPal

 

We will send an invoice in USD for your purchase. Please note that exchange rate fluctuations may occur.

About Sahabatarae

Our name means happiness in Indonesian. Taking its Sanskrit root, it’s a reminder that connection is what makes a life worth living. From our artisans directly to you – and back to their communities. Full circle. .

“Ibu” is Indonesian for mother. It’s a common term used in Indonesia to address women to show respect and appreciation. And it’s what we call all our craftswomen in our villages in Java, Bali, and Kalimantan. In Flores, and East Nusa Tenggara, they prefer to be called Mama!

(literally translated to House of Happiness) are Indonesia’s first textile craft schools—it’s where we train more women in how to earn a living wage from their craft and teach them how to set up and run their own businesses. Our aim is to turn craft into a viable income for women with little access to education and jobs. We have built 4 craft schools in Java and Bali so far.

We exist to between craftswomen and customers, and will continue to do so. In 2022, we earned two third-party certifications that verify our commitments:  and the 

We constantly better ourselves to not only be sustainable, but actively healing the Earth. These are the things we practice to combat the most significant environmental issues contributed by the fashion industry: 

Overproduction

Brands overproduce and inflate their prices from the very beginning—pressing everything and everyone in their supply chain to the point that 98% of the women making your clothes do not earn a living wage. We do not overproduce nor do discounts, because our prices reflect the true cost of producing it that provide a living wage and protects the Planet. 

Overconsumption

Aligning with our allies in Fashion Revolution, we believe that the most sustainable clothes are the ones already in your closet, and that loved clothes last. This is why we advocate for proper garment care, offer free lifetime repairs for our customers, and also a redye program.

Deforestation and biodiversity

We commit to working with native plant-based ingredients from the villages work with, and practice zero harm sourcing for ingredients. Read more about our natural dyes here.
 
We started growing our own cotton and dyes regeneratively in 2020, working directly with smallholder farmers, and plan to regenerate 1,000 Hectares of land by 2030. Read more about our regenerative farms here.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Together with World Research Institute, we’re in the process of measuring our emissions and setting Science Based Targets. Once we identify how much carbon we produce in our entire supply chain, we will work on ways to reduce these emissions by 90% until 2030 and offset what we cannot reduce by purchasing internationally accredited carbon offsets. 

Water scarcity and pollution

Through using only plant-based and natural (as opposed to synthetic) dyes and mordants, we have prevented 1.2 Mio. litres of toxic waste water from being dumped into rivers. Read more about our natural dyes here.

We work directly with smallholder cotton and indigo farmers to reclaim their land—we plan to regenerate 1,000 Hectares of land by 2030. Read more about our regenerative farms here.
We exclusively use plant based fibers–no secret ‘blends’ that hide polyester here. Our signature raw cotton fabric is handwoven by master weavers in Central Java, and we are in the process of going 100% traceable regenerative cotton. Our Tencel, Sylk fabrics are from Lenzing AG, made using Eucalyptus fibres through a closed-loop facility. 
  • Our ANGKASA collection uses silk to obtain true black with natural plant dyes.
While our dyes are 100% plant-based, we currently use non-vegan materials in our pieces. We ensure they are sustainably sourced to be kind to the planet and minimize waste. Those materials are:
  • Our buttons, made from waste mother-of-pearls in Makassar.
  • Our vegetarian batik wax, made from beeswax, pine gum, and reclaimed parrafin.

Products

You can follow Ana’s guide here, or consult directly with Dea. All of our garments are pre-shrunk and will not change sizing after you wash them.

We work with Ibus and families who mostly work from home. It is important that they are not exposed to toxic synthetic dyes and that their ground water stays consumable. Since switching to natural dyes, our Ibus have reported less chest pain and breathing problems.

Through using only plant-based and natural (as opposed to synthetic) dyes and mordants, we have prevented 1.2 Mio. litres of toxic waste water from being dumped into rivers. Read more about our natural dyes here.

Natural dyes are notoriously labor intensive and inconsistent—it takes a level of artistry to master them, and our Ibus have done this for generations. We fell in love with the beauty of one-of-a-kind colors and patina effect, and we hope you will, too.
 
Disclaimer: Our natural dyes are colorfast, but that does not mean they do not require proper garment care. Never mix colors, and handwash in cold water. Wet bleed in naturally dyed items is natural and to be expected. We have a redye program, where you can recolor your pieces with reclaimed Mahogany wood barks (mahoni) or our SweetIndigo.
Natural fibers with synthetic process will mess with its biodegradability. This is why we only work with raw cotton and lyocell—it’s the only way to ensure there is no coating!
 
One thing to be wary about is cotton that has been chemically treated—be wary of clothes that promote “easy iron”, “less wrinkles”, “water repellent”, etc. These synthetic additives typically use formaldehyde, which will never decompose.
natural (as opposed to synthetic) dyes and mordants, we have prevented 1.2 Mio. litres of toxic waste water from being dumped into rivers. Read more about our natural dyes here.
 
Similarly, synthetic dyes are typically made with petroleum (fossil fuels) that coats the fabric, making them hard to degrade. Our natural dyes, however, are 100% plant-based and processed with naturally occuring chemicals instead of synthetics.
 
Long story short, our clothes are biodegradable with one caveat—you would need to remove our durable certified recycled polyester threads, which we use to sew and embroider.

Yes! Send them to us and we will upcycle your loved piece into a #ReMadeRight piece.

Our price reflects the amount of work it took the artisans to make your piece. We take into account the true cost of making clothes you’re proud of: traceable materials, fair wages—but also trainings that allow us to care for our planet (also known as internalizing social and environmental externalities).
 
Brands overproduce and inflate their prices from the very beginning—pressing everything and everyone in their supply chain to the point that 98% of the women making your clothes do not earn a living wage. We do not overproduce nor do discounts, because our prices reflect the true cost of producing it that provide a living wage and protects the Planet. 
 
56% of your purchase goes back to our villages, providing living wages, microcredits, and trainings that help women get out of proverty.
 
Additionally, we plant 1 tree for every purchase for our food forest project in Timor.
 
Every piece of clothing comes with a free lifetime repair guarantee.

farms here.

Yes, within capacity. See available services here.

If you are to send them to a service, we recommend dry cleaning instead of regular laundry. The reason being that most laundry use really harsh detergents that shorten the lifespan of your clothes, especially in case of batik tulis and natural dyes.

Otherwise, we have compiled the care guide here.

Gifting

Yes! Just leave us a note upon checkout (e.g. this is a gift) and enter their name and phone number in the shipping details. To make sure you can track the order, we recommend you use your email address for checkout. You can shop for gifts here.

Yes, you can add gift wrapping to your cart here. Looking for something extra special? Contact Dea to make your gift wrapping even more personal.
Yes! You can find our gift cards here.

Returns and Exchanges

Is your purchase not the right size or not quite what you expected? We accept returns on ready-stock items within 14 days of receiving your order. For all returns and exchanges, please contact us, stating your order number and why you would like to return/ exchange your item. We will be in touch within 48 hours and do our best to resolve the situation.

Please note that we only offer refunds in store credit for our online boutique. Shipping costs are not refundable. Furthermore, your items must be returned in their original packaging and in the same, unworn, unwashed state in which you received them. So please don’t send us pants that have tomato juice stains on them!

Products that were bought on special offers or during pop-up markets cannot be returned or refunded. If you bought your Sahabatarae piece from our stockists, please contact them regarding their refund and exchange policies. We cannot exchange or offer refunds for products sold through our retail partners.
We can only accept cancellations of custom or personalized orders within 24h of you placing the order. Afterwards, we’ve most likely already started working on your custom piece and unfortunately can no longer accept returns or cancellation. 
You can exchange your purchase for a different item within 14 days of receiving your order. For all exchanges, please contact us, stating your order number and why you would like to exchange your item. We’ll happily guide you through the steps.
 
Due to the complexities of international shipping, we’d like to suggest customers from outside of Indonesia to refund your order for store credit before ordering a new item. As in the case of returns, please make sure to return the item(s) you’d like to exchange in their original packaging and state (unworn, unwashed).

Once your exchange/ refund process was approved, we will provide you with our shipping address. You will be responsible for paying for your own shipping costs for returning your item. Shipping costs are non-refundable.

 
If you are shipping an item over USD 75, you should consider using a trackable shipping service or purchasing shipping insurance. We don’t guarantee that we will receive your returned item.

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