Men's aloha shirts and women's dresses are Hawaiʻi's pillars of local fashion.
A new exhibit titled "Fashioning Aloha" is on display at the Honolulu Museum of Art. It captures the history and evolution of aloha attire and textile motifs.
The exhibit includes more than the iconic aloha shirts. It also features women's dresses, known as the holokū and the mu'umu'u. The holokū is a long formal gown, usually with a train, and the mu'umu'u is a loose dress that was once used as an undergarment.
Tory Laitila, HoMA's curator of textiles and historic art of Hawaiʻi, said the dresses were introduced in the 1820s by American Protestant missionaries. The first holokū was made for Queen Kalākua Kaheiheimālie, who asked for a dress at the time.
"Late 18th century, early 19th century, Hawaiians are using Western fashion as a status symbol," Laitila said.
The aloha wear on display at HoMA spans more than 90 years, telling a deeper story of Hawaiʻi's history.
It wasn't until the 1930s that the term "aloha shirt" appeared in print advertisements by Musa-Shiya Shoten, Ltd.
Laitila described this period as the Art Deco era in Hawaiʻi.
He said that people bought their clothes in Waikīkī or Downtown Honolulu during that time. He noted that most clothes were already made to order.
"People were selecting loud prints, whether they be cotton and silk from Japan or cotton from England," Laitila said. "It really is this combining of Hawaiʻi's multiethnic environment to develop these colorful shirts, and in 1935, aloha got attached to that colorful shirt and we have the aloha shirt."
The exhibit takes museumgoers on a walkthrough of aloha wear worn locally and internationally.
Some themes are flowers, bark cloth, Asian motifs, hula, location, Hawaiian quilts, the Hawaiian Kingdom and more.
Laitila said one of his favorite parts of the exhibit is the idea of locations. He said people could tell where someone was from by looking at their aloha attire.
On display is a red and white Sig Zane aloha shirt that has a street map of Hilo, where the designer is from. Next to the shirt is a Bete Inc. holokū for Reyn Spooner representing Lahaina, which has the original sailor print and patchwork of paisley bandana prints, referencing the whalers in Lahaina.
Laitila said that the aloha shirt also acts as a souvenir.
"You visited Hawaiʻi, and you got this tangible piece of aloha that you could wear that acted as a wearable souvenir postcard," he said. "It had these vignettes or locations of Hawaiʻi, and some of them were even spelled out. It might say Diamond Head or Waikīkī on these garments on the fabric."
The exhibit includes 53 garments, accompanied by paintings and prints. Linda Arthur Bradley, a former costume and textile professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, gifted most of the collection.
The exhibit also recognizes some familiar designer names, such as Allan James, Allen Akina, Surfriders Sportswear and more.
The exhibit also features a slideshow of a fashion runway featuring motifs and aloha wear. It also has an interactive design table where people can draw their own motifs on dresses and shirts.
Laitila hopes that the exhibit is fun and nostalgic for museumgoers, with an anticipation that they might find a vintage aloha shirt in their families' closet.
"Fashioning Aloha" is on display until Sept. 1.
Editor's note: HoMA is an underwriter of Hawaiʻi Public Radio.
