I met Katie Echeverry in her office decked out in her workaday 'uniform'-jeans and a tee shirt and bare feet. Katie is the founder and CEO of Unique Vintage, Inc. located in Burbank, CA. Sitting at a rather humble desk surrounded by garments hung up on anything and everything available, she looks to be anything but the chief executive of an apparel firm, yet that firm, started by her, alone, in a garage back in Y2K, now employs 50 people in their 30,000 square foot location.
Began initially as an internet-only avocation, it was slow going at first. Indeed, when she launched her website, it took six months before she received her first order and they were few and far between after that, until, one day, she received an order with a note attached that said, simply, "You have Glamour to thank for this." She had absolutely no idea that the customer was referring to a small blurb in Glamour magazine touting the goods available on her site. The business experienced such an uptick that she had to impress her father into service helping her ship the orders that began to trickle, then pour in, though the work was still being done in her garage and she still had her "day job". Dad still does an occasional turn at the shipping desk and I would meet him on my tour of her facility.
As Katie, herself is quite young and fit (She confesses to 44 yrs., though she looks much younger), her crew, including Dad, project much the same image. I was introduced to the person she calls her go-to-for-everything, who promptly introduced me to the dog that was accompanying her."We are a dog-friendly workplace" Katie explained. And, indeed, the dog itself was quite friendly to me as well!
As she has outgrown the ability of the market to supply her with quality used apparel, she has taken to manufacturing her own vintage reproductions and does so at very reasonable price points. She has associated with an outside manufacturer that allows her fairly low minimum production orders. This allows her to rotate her styles rapidly enough so that her offerings never grow "stale". She was prepping for a visit to that manufacturer later that day, so we had to cut our visit short, but not before she entreated me to go visit her store, also called Unique Vintage also in Burbank. It is a spacious, delightful store with many offerings and a friendly staff, but the one thing that really stood out to me, as a former retail store owner, was the fact that the store featured 10 dressing rooms! Now, a retailer has to be doing some kind of brisk trade to require that many dressing rooms. I have been in major department stores that do not have 10 dressing rooms! When I mentioned this to the manager, she simply said: "Yes, we get pretty busy in here sometimes". I should say!
The company's cyber sophistication shows a similar growth pattern. At last look, the Unique Vintage Facebook page boasted over 400,000 likes and nearly a quarter - million netizens follow the firm on Instagram!
Katie & Co's latest pursuit is a co-venture with The Kamehameha Garment Company, the original manufacturer of vintage-style aloha shirts. She, under license from that firm, will be the exclusive maker of women's wear, co-branded and using KGC fabrics. This will also make her the sole outside wholesaler of KGC labeled goods. If her track record is any indicator, this ought to be another big hit for her and Unique Vintage.
Having spent a career in and around the garment business, It is truly gratifying to see a down-to-earth and all-around, pleasant person experience such major success in this extremely tough and competitive business!
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Aloha Friday is a tradition in Hawaii that began as an attempt to aid the Islands' garment industry, but it would prove to be so popular that it spread to the mainland United States, where it is called "Casual Friday". What it is, simply is a dress-down workday to celebrate the end of the week.
It had its beginnings back in 1946 when the Chamber of Commerce funded a study about aloha wear and its feasibility as work wear. Subsequently, the City and County of Honolulu passed a resolution allowing its workers to wear aloha-type garments to work in the summer months. This became the norm for Island work apparel and, in 1962, The Hawaiian Fashion Guild, headed up by Malia, Inc. (and Island dressmaker) President Bill Foster Sr. began lobbying for the creation of "Aloha Friday" year round. An early convert was Maui born William Cannon, the President of Bank of Hawaii, who started wearing the shirts to work and his workers would soon follow suit.
As there was a tremendous influx of mainland-made apparel coming to the Islands, local garment makers feared that aloha wear would lose its appeal to the resident population and thus, hurt their sales to their local market. Aloha Week was originally created to spur tourism in the normally slow month of October but the garment people quickly latched onto it as another promotional vehicle for their products and "Holoku Balls" began to be held where participants could show off their finest aloha designs.
But the idea of a casual work day had a strong appeal, to the point that Island companies, originally subscribed to the missionary-influenced suit-and-tie business uniform, gradually began to cast this off totally, in favor of the more comfortable and appropriate for Island climate aloha fashions. Eventually, it came to be that the shirts were suitable for wear year-round any day of the week. Needless to say, the fashion industry appreciated the new style and the effect it had upon their business.
The garment companies reacted to the trend and firms, from the oldest makers, Kamehameha Garment Company, Kahala Fashion, Tori Richard and Reyn Spooner to the later crop of designers like Sig Zane and Amos Kotomori, would respond by orienting their product offerings towards this newly created niche of "business aloha".
Some years ago, Island singer and KCCN DeeJay Kimo Kahoano recorded a song that has stood the test of time and is played by local music stations virtually every "Aloha Friday" "It's Aloha Friday, no work 'till Monday" can be heard on radios or at the many bars serving Friday pau hana ("work's end") mai tais and other Island refreshments to thirsty aloha shirt-clad patrons.
This trend would gravitate to the US mainland in later years, as companies began to permit "Casual Fridays" with employees being allowed to dress down for the last day of the week. Not surprisingly, as the aloha shirt has gained many mainland followers and fans, the shirts began showing up on company casual days, which has sparked renewed interest in the irrepressible aloha shirt.
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The market for collectible or "vintage" clothing is born of a quixotic sort of pursuit that attracts a variety of followers. After all, just who really wants to buy somebody else's old shirts, dresses or jeans? The answer is, apparently, a lot of people from all walks of life and the prices of the garments sought after by these aficionados can be stratospheric. As in a black velvet evening jacket from Schiaparelli produced in 1939 that sold at a Christie's auction in 2013 for over $75,000!
There are sub-groups in vintage clothing followers. Levis jeans had a collector-following for pairs of the pants that had a capital "E" in the word "Levis" on the back patch above the right rear pocket. Simply called "Big E Levis" a pair could fetch hundreds of dollars or even more. Though they are not really clothing, old tennis shoes have a very active market in collectors. Those old, original Air Jordan's can find buyers in the multiple hundreds or even thousands of dollars. A recent perusal of eBay listings showed one pair of "Airs" (a rare sample) priced at around $5000 and, if you are lucky enough to find yourself in possession of an actual pair worn by Michael Jordan in a game, you have the "holy grail" of sneaker collectors and its worth can only be found at auction.
But, back to clothing and the collectors of same. When we use the word "vintage" we are generally referring to an item that is at least 25 years old. In today's market, that would be pre-1990. People tend to collect by category or era, There are people that specialize in particular designers, Coco Chanel, Yves St. Laurent and Oleg Cassini come to mind, though many others have their set of followers and others that specialize in time-periods. Each decade from the 20's through the 60's has its share of fans. Vintage western wear is liked by many and the tie-dyed and colorful dress of the 60's hippies has many adherents.
One particular category that is, and has been, strong for years and that is vintage Hawaiian wear, old muu-muus, swimwear and, particularly aloha shirts have found a fertile collector following. Shirts that were produced from the thirties onward are coveted by collectors, particularly, says David Bailey of Bailey's antiques and aloha shirts, those of The Kamehameha Garment Company, which can, and have, brought sell prices of up to $5000 at his Honolulu store. This store is known to collectors the world over and is a must-visit for many Japanese tourists when they take their Hawaii vacations. Celebrities, such as Nicholas Cage have been known to drop thousands at Bailey's in a single visit. Surfers also favor the vintage versions of this Hawaiian fashion staple, as they lend an authentic Island flavor to their apparel choice not generally available in the modern, mass-produced versions of same.
There are even collector websites that will value that which you own and might be willing to part with at a particular price. Vintage Vixen is one such site and there are others. A woman I know turned her affinity for vintage womenswear into first, a hobby, then a website then a rocket to stardom, as Vogue magazine dropped a mention of her in their very prestigious in the business Fashion Mag. Within Six months, she had quit her day job and set up a warehouse in her Burbank location. She would soon move to bigger quarters and begin to manufacture copies as her ability to sell the goods far outstripped her ability to obtain them. She would retain the original location, turning it into her Unique Vintage retail store, a store that features, among other things 10 dressing rooms that store staff say are needed to handle the traffic, though she says, most of her business originates from her website at www.unique-vintage.com. She won't say, but I conservatively estimate her sales at $10 Million annually. There is gold in them threads, partner!
Google vintage clothing and have at it. Who knows, maybe a fortune lurks in the back reaches of your closet??
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The notion that Waikiki had humble origins, however, lies in the fact, that, prior to draining it into the newly-finished Ala Wai Canal, much of what we now call Waikiki was a swamp. The canal would be finished in 1928 and would usher in the tourist era for this most well-known of Hawaii's many beaches. Prior to this time, there was a single world-class hotel situated on Waikiki Beach, that being the Moana Hotel, completed in 1901 with such room amenities as working telephones, which were barely available anywhere in the Islands, outside of government offices at the time. The hotel was a success, with many of the worlds well-knowns staying there. It is still an operating and prestigious hotel to this day. Shortly following the canal's completion, the "Grand Dame", The Royal Hawaiian Hotel, would open its doors and cater to the elite from around the world.
From the 1930s until 1975 the Moana played host to Webley Edwards' "Hawaii Calls" radio show. This show would serve as a beckoning to countless tourists over the years and would help cement the vision of Waikiki as a Shangri-la in the minds of millions the world over. This, back in the days when Hawaii was only served by cruise ships such as the Lurline, probably the most famous of such. Hawaii's status as a destination of choice for tourists would receive a boost when the first of Pan-Am's Clipper Ships reached the Islands in the mid-1930s. For the first time, an air option for reaching the Islands was available, albeit short-lived, as the Japanese would bomb Pearl Harbor in 1941, and bring the US into World War II by so doing. The US would requisition all of Pan-Am's flying boats for the war effort and so end the tourist air service for the duration of the war.
The mid-'30s would see the blossoming of another tourist-related enterprise, that being the manufacture and sale of that signature Hawaiian garment, the aloha shirt. Initially made by hand in individual tailor shops, demand for the item soon gave rise to the founding of the Hawaiian apparel industry, with the Kamehameha Garment Company and Branfleet, creators of the Kahala label, both opening their doors in 1936. This garment would find its way to the US mainland on the backs of legions of tourists, creating a demand for them there that was boosted when celebrities such as Arthur Godfrey and Elvis Presley would appear in them. This only served to enhance Hawaii's 'mystic'.
Though during the war years, the number of recreational tourists dwindled, their numbers were supplanted by the arrival of more than 1 million military personnel on their way either to or from the Pacific war effort and Waikiki would receive many of them as guests during 'leave' periods. Indeed, the Army's Fort DeRussey is still situated on Waikiki Beach adjacent to the Hilton Hawaiian complex, one of Waikiki's largest tourist enclaves. Ft. DeRussey features a fine hotel that caters exclusively to military personnel and there, a nice room can be had for around $80 per night for servicemen and vets, a rate that is half or less the prevailing rates of hotels in the area.
Through the years, Waikiki has played host to literally millions of tourists and appears set to do so for decades into the future. It truly can be called, as it has been on thousands of Tee-shirts, "Life's Greatest Beach".
]]>In Hawaii, the original instruments were gourds and drums fashioned from hollowed-out logs with shark skins stretched over them. Animal bones were struck for the different tones made possible by the different length of, say, the rib cage bones. There is no historical record of Hawaiian music before the mid-to-late 1800s. That is when the Europeans started to come to Hawaii in numbers, bringing with them several different instruments such as the Portuguese forerunner to the Ukulele, the braguinha. Legend has it that one Portuguese immigrant by the Name of Joao Fernandes was so adept at playing this instrument that onlookers would describe his fingers as flying over the fretboard like little fleas. The Hawaiian successor to the braguinha was thus named ukulele, Hawaiian for “jumping fleas”. Fernandes would become well-known and popular for his abilities on the Uke, much like today’s virtuoso, Jake Shimabukuro, who plays it with the adeptness of a Jimi Hendrix albeit with only four strings!
The guitar, also brought by not only the Portuguese but also the Mexican Caballeros as well, who came to tend cattle on the Big Island and gained the name “Paniolo” in the process. Add a string bass and you have the foundation for basically all the great Hawaiian music that followed, including one Island variation, that of slack key guitar, a tuning and playing style that originated in the Islands and has gained adherents all over the world.
Another contribution to instrumentation, courtesy of Hawaii was the Hawaiian steel guitar, which would travel to Mainland America and gain prominence in American Country and Western music. The story on the steel guitar was that a sailor tried using his comb to depress and slide across the strings and created a pleasant sound in so doing. The adaptation of the comb into a steel bar gave the instrument its name, though many people erroneously thought the actual guitar was made of steel, which is untrue.
Though original Hawaiian music was, of course, performed in the Hawaiian language; its popularity would soar when English words were set to Hawaiian rhythm and instrumentation, giving rise to the most widely known genre of Hawaiian music called “Hapa Haole”.
The Hawaiian sound was given a real boost when a radio show called “Hawaii Calls” hosted by Webley Edwards originating from the Moana Hotel in Waikiki hit the airwaves in the 1930s both boosting the tourist market and bringing the music itself into the living rooms of thousands of homes in the US Mainland.
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At Kamehameha Garment Company we are used to the following comment "Your shirts are lovely, but why are they so expensive?" So I thought that I would take some time to explain just why that is.
There are many ways you can make a shirt and many finishing touches that can be, and are, left off in a cheap, mass-produced garment. One of the very first things you will notice about KGC shirts is that the print continually matches across the front of the shirt, not almost, but perfectly after it is buttoned. There is only one way to do this. That is to cut the fronts individually, by hand. Most all garments one buys off the rack are machine-cut in layers of fabric, sometimes 2-300 or more layers high, making the average time to lay and cut a shirt mere minutes. It takes half an hour to cut one KGC shirt to get the fronts to line up perfectly.
The second thing you will notice about a KGC garment is that all the pieces are engineered so that the pattern is both matched and symmetrical. This drives fabric consumption way up. Speaking of fabric consumption, our fabric is the most expensive of its kind, a high-sheen rayon that most closely delivers the "silky" look of yore that the old-time manufacturers strove for. They had used silk itself as the fabric of choice for the shirts until, in 1939, the Japanese invaded China and cut off the silk supply. Into the lurch stepped the Dupont Corporation with their just-invented Rayon fabrication that closely duplicated both the look and feel of the original silk. Rayon had the advantage of having a larger fiber diameter, creating more space between the fibers, thus allowing better air circulation in the garment, and it is a natural, plant-based fiber. This made for a cooler wearing experience and allowed for the wicking away of moisture from perspiration. These properties make for an expensive piece of goods!
In the actual make-up of the garment, we do things that are almost invisible to the wearer, such as take a larger seam allowance in the collar to prevent the fraying that can come with repeated washing. A top-stitch at the perimeter of the collar serves as additional insurance against this. The side seams of the garment are double-needle french seamed for strength as are the joining seams of the sleeve to the garment. Your KGC shirt will not tear at these stress points. We also use four-hole polished coconut buttons, making them half as likely to fall or pull off. In the unlikely event that one does; we sew an extra button inside the lower placket to replace any loss. And, speaking of that placket, if you turn it inside out, you will find that it is lined with interfacing. Tailors do this to ensure a smooth front presentation. So do we. Hardly any other manufacturers do this, because of the extra cost.
In timepieces, you can buy a Timex or a Rolex, in automobiles, the choices run from a Ford Focus to a Lamborghini Aventador. In men's suits, the cost for a good one can run to the multiple $1000's. In Hawaiian shirts, we shoot for that level of excellence and I think the buyer will agree, we hit our mark.
]]>Hawaiian prints have only slightly more than an 80-year history, as when the first Hawaiian shirts, called then and now "aloha shirts", were made, there were no such prints. The original shirts, all made in small tailor shops in downtown Honolulu or Waikiki, were made from Japanese Kimono prints, generally, those designed for young girls, as the size of the designs rendered them appropriate to the cut of a man's shirt. A tailor by the name of Ellery Chun cut out and sewed the first of these in his King-Smith Tailor shop, coined the term "aloha shirt" and trademarked it sometime in the late 1920's or early 30's.
The pattern for the garments existed as the pattern of a man's field uniform used by sugar cane and pineapple workers and the fabric utilized for the construction of same was a plaid pattern that Hawaiians called "Palaka". Indeed, this pattern surfaces from time to time as a component of Island-inspired tropical sportswear lines. But it was the floral patterns that inspired the sale of the garment as a tourist-oriented item and the garments began making their way back to the mainland USA, sparking interest therein. It was not long before an industry sprang up in Hawaii manufacturing and wholesaling the garments. The first of the wholesalers was Herbert Briner's Kamehameha Garment Company, followed closely by Nat Norfleet Sr. and George Brangier whose Branfleet Company produced The Kahala branded shirts, both company's having a founding date of 1936 and both, though under different ownership, still in existence today.
This propelled demand for high-quality textiles with prints inspired by the Island lifestyle. As there were no textile printers in Hawaii at the time, the manufacturers looked to the Japanese printers for their source of supply, using Island artists to design the prints, which were initially printed upon silk and done in Japan. World War II would change all of that as the import of the fabric was abruptly halted after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The American company DuPont would step into the lurch when they developed a suitable rayon fabric that was colorfast through repeated washings, had the look and feel of silk and the added benefit of "breathability" owing to the larger fiber diameter of rayon. This would become the fabric of choice during and after the war, while, during the war years, the printing began to be done in Hawaii, with large screens used to hand-print the goods on long tables.
A gentleman by the name of Alfred Shaheen would develop a printing machine that he cobbled together from spare parts scavenged from junk shops and yards around the Island and his Shaheen branded shirts and women's wear would capture the attention of Hawaiian fashion aficionados, both in Hawaii and on the mainland, where he would eventually operate as many as 40 stores. He would eventually replace this machine while building an $8,000,000 facility to print and sew his garments that would come to employ over 400 workers. His unique method of hand-block printing and machine screening assured him a place in the industry that would eventually make his the largest apparel complex in Hawaii. His business flourished until his retirement in 1988, when he would close the doors on his company and a piece of Hawaiian history.
The business of making aloha shirts would continue, however, with makers both old and new taking inspiration from Shaheen's success and breaking new ground with their continually evolving Hawaiian textile designs. The popularity of these garments waxes and wanes with the years, but never disappears, though it has been ninety years since Ellery Chun sold his first one.
]]>Whether the omen story has any truth to it or not, Kamehameha did, indeed, rise to greatness and would eventually conquer all of the Islands save Kauai by 1795, thereby creating the Hawaiian Kingdom. By 1810, to avoid certain conquer by the vastly superior forces under Kamehameha's control, Kauai would capitulate and enter the kingdom as a vassal state.
Kamehameha's early days were spent on the Hilo side of the big Island, where he is reputed to have lifted the Naha stone, which still exists today. As the stone weighs in at some 3 tons, it is highly doubtful that he actually lifted it, though quite likely was able to engineer a way to move it sufficiently to impress the locals, thereby acquiring the following of the faithful who believed him destined to be a great ruler. At 6'8" as over three hundred pounds, it would have been easy to believe that such a powerfully built man could have, indeed, moved the stone. Nevertheless, at the time of the death of the Island's king, the will he left divided control of the Island between Kamehameha and his cousin Kiwala'o, who would, predictably, battle it out for total control of the Island with Kamehameha eventually winning out.
In the year 1779, Kamehameha would meet with British Sailing Captain and great explorer James T. Cook and, at first, greet him as a visiting god, giving him the title Lono, roughly equivalent to the word "god" in the Hawaiian language. Things soon turned sour between the locals and the visiting seaman and a couple of Hawaiians, in a midnight escapade, made off with one of Cook's shore boats. This angered Cook and he came ashore with a group of armed sailors to retrieve the boat. In the ensuing confrontation, Cook was killed, pretty much putting the lie to the "god" status accorded him in the eyes of the Hawaiians.
But King of the Big Island was not enough for Kamehameha and he soon marshalled the troops for some new prey. His capture of Maui, Molokai and Lanai sufficiently whetted his appetite and he would put together a war party of some 10,000 warriors fitted out in 960 canoes and head out for Oahu with his eyes on the big prize-total control of the Hawaiian chain. The fight would be fierce, but in the climactic battle, Kamehameha's forces backed the resistance all the way up through the Pali gap and, finally, over the cliff there, a drop of 1000 feet that killed every last one of his opposing forces.
So he had realized his dream of creating a Hawaiian Kingdom and so established it in 1795, with the lone holdout of the 90-mile-distant Kauai. It took 15 years for Kauai to come to the table, but they eventually saw the wisdom of doing so, as surely Kamehameha would have prevailed, had it ever come to actual confrontation.
Kamehameha would enact many laws and edicts as King, including one which basically survies to the present day and is embedded in the States 1978 constitution. Referred to as "The Law of the Splintered Paddle" which holds that the old and infirm or weak shall be accorded care and consideration.The law traces back to an incident in Kamehameha's earlier life in which, while doing battle with an adversary, his foot became stuck between some rocks, whereupon his foe cracked a canoe paddle over his head and left him for dead. Later passers-by freed him and gave him this notion of fairness that was later encodefied.
He was also a prolific surfer, and as being able to surf well was a greatly respected talent and would accord the performer additional social status; it led to the sport being referred to as "The Sort of Kings". He would eventually relocate the seat of the Hawaiian government to Waikiki, making it convenient for him to enjoy the surf while not performing his King job.
Today, if one travels the Hawaiian Islands, many reminders of Kamehameha can be seen almost every place you look. There is Kamehameha Schools, Kamehameha Highway and many companies named for him, including the Island's original aloha shirt manufacturer, The Kamehameha Garment Company.
A 'must-see' for any Island visitor is the King Kamehameha Statue located directly across from Iolani Palace. And June 11th is the Hawaiian holiday commemorating his birth, though no one really knows the actual date of his birth. Nevertheless, on this day, visit the statue and see it draped with more leis than you can imagine!
]]>Missionaries, led by Hiram Bingham, arrived at the Islands in 1820 with a goal of converting the native population to Christianity. They took a dim view of most everything that was done by the locals, including surfing, which led to a temporary demise in the prominence of the sport. But, in 1885, three Hawaiian princes took a break from their studies at St. Mathews's Boarding School in San Mateo, CA and made it down to Santa Cruz with a couple of redwood boards they had shaped in their spare time. They proceeded to catch a couple of good ones and, thereby, introduced the sport to the west coast. Somewhat later, Henry Huntington, for whom California's Huntington Beach is named, brought Islander George Freeh to California to do an exhibition of the sport as a PR stunt for Huntington's new railroad. This was the first introduction to surfing in Southern California.
Meanwhile, back in the Islands, there begat a revival of interest in the sport around the beginning of the 20th century, as locals living in Waikiki began to practice the sport in the relatively calmer waves that hit the south shore. The beach boy became a fixture on Waikiki Beach, as tourists began to visit the Island mecca in numbers and notables, such as Duke Kahanamoku, would dazzle visitors with their skill in the surf. In the late 50's-early 60's, a television show set in Hawaii, with the name "Hawaiian Eye" featured, in its opening sequence, some footage of a surfer on a wave and this sparked interest in the "new" sport, which would become a signature California fad, bringing with it its own language ("bitchen, man", etc.), music (The Beach Boys and many others), movies ("The Endless Summer" remains a classic tribute to the sport and its practitioners) and apparel-the first "Surf" label was Duke Boyd's "Hang Ten" surf trunks. Previous to the introduction of surf wear, surfers would sport Hawaiian shirts, by makers such as The Kamehameha Garment Company in a nod to the birthplace of the sport. And, indeed, such shirts are still the garment of choice for many surfing aficionados today.
From its origins in Hawaii, the sport has spread worldwide with superstars of its own, including 11-time world champion Kelly Slater, who is sometimes referred to as "The Michael Jordan of surfing." Catch a wave!
]]>It was not until the missionaries showed up in 1820 that the native dress styles began to change. The prudish westerners admonished the local ladies to cover their breasts, and indeed, most everything else. They introduced to native women the 'Mother Hubbard,' a garment that, unlike their traditional covering, left absolutely everything to the imagination.
The Hawaiian adaptation of this bulky garment became known as a holoku and it was worn underneath a nightgown-like garment known as a muu-muu. It did not take the locals long to get tired of the cumbersome nature of this get-up and discard the outer holoku in all but the most formal of occasions, in favor of just the muu-muu, which began the signature garment for women of Hawaii and would, eventually, find its way to America where it was embraced by women for its ability to cover that which gals would just as soon have covered. Back on the Islands, the holoku remained the garment of choice for formal occasions and has a list of storied makers that produced and sold them throughout the years.
On the masculine side of the apparel equation, missionary influence precipitated a shift from the skimpy loin cloths to more conservative trousers and shirt wear. As there were no makers of such garments, save for a few tailor shops, they tended to be simple and plain renditions of same, often made at home. The rise of plantation labor and the immigrants imported to do it fueled a need for an appropriate 'uniform' for field duty. First the denim-type work shirt, similar to those employed today, was the go-to garment for work, but it quickly gave way to the palaka (Hawaiian for "plaid") shirts that adorned the backs of thousands of sugar plantation toilers and, later, their pineapple-working brethren. This garment featured a box-type cut with a pocket and short sleeves. It would be made in dozens of small tailor shops that struggled to fill the demand for them.
Eventually that demand was such that manufacturing entities sprang up to produce them in quantity. Not surprisingly, the corresponding drop in traffic suffered by the smaller tailor shops caused them to look elsewhere to make up for lost sales. First, the Musashiya store brought to the market this same box-cut shirt made from kimono prints imported from Japan. Their reception was such that others picked up on the idea, including one Ellery Chun, proprietor of King-Smith tailors. Mr. Chun made up one shirt out of a floral print that suggested, with its abundant vegetation, the Islands themselves. An idea struck him and he began marketing them as "Aloha Shirts" and very quickly had a run on the product at their then-robust sell price of $1 a piece. Tourists would make their way to the out-of-Waikiki location of Chun's store and began wearing them back to the Mainland as souvenirs of their trip.
Sensing a trend, May Company department stores suggested to one of their suppliers, Mr. Herb Briner, that he take a trip to Hawaii and see what was up with the garments. Briner quickly realized an opportunity in the shirts, and the sale thereof, in the mainland United States. So, in 1936, he bought the only existing uniform factory and turned it into the Island's first ready-to-wear wholesale manufacturer, christening it "The Kamehameha Garment Company" and began producing the shirts. He was quickly followed into the business by Nat Norfleet and George Brangier who started Branfleet that later became The Kahala, also making the garments.
By 1939, there would be some two dozen firms making aloha shirts as well as ladies muu-muu. This was the beginning of what is now a large Hawaiian industry. And today, some 80 years later, both Kamehameha and Kahala, through many twists and turns, still survive and continue to produce high-quality aloha shirts.
]]>A couple of fortuitous events, one from years back, lead to its survival and eventual revival. Back in 1976, Mrs. Farrell, as President of the firm at the time, was invited to do a presentation to a group of influential women in the industry called the Honolulu Fashion Group and every woman of any stature in the apparel business was a member. The presentation was to be called Hawaiian Fashion-The Oldest and the Newest. and would, of course, feature Kamehameha (The oldest) as well as Hawaii's newest player in the apparel game, one Brown Sugar of Hawaii, owned by Brad Walker. Ms. Farrell did not like doing such presentations and prevailed upon Walker to be the presenter. What developed was a friendship between the two that lasted for years thereafter. Sometime after the Farrell's unfortunate heart attacks, Walker noticed that the price of antique Hawaiian "silkies" as they became known, was experiencing a run-up, particularly the price of old Kamehameha garments.
He had an idea. He phoned his friend Vi Farrell and inquired as to what was happening with Kamehameha. When he was informed that the company was about to be dissolved, he got busy. He contacted the owners and inquired as to whether they would be interested in selling the company. After some negotiation, the rights to the trademark were transferred to Walker and he re-incorporated the firm and began seeking out interested investors. All three of Hawaii's fabric companies saw the potential that existed and began to supply, on liberal terms, the fabric needed to make it go. Brown Sugar, having experienced some success marketing their wares in Japan, and the notoriety that had been created transferred well to the Kamehameha enterprise and the Japanese were to provide the initial engine for the company's rapid growth, going from start-up in 1995 to a $1million in sales three years later, a time-frame in which the new version of the firm was named Hawaiian Apparel 'Manufacturer of the Year' in 1996. It kept the growth arrow going and hit $2 Million by Y2K.
Unfortunately, in apparel, all trends fade and this one was no different. After the longest "run" the Hawaiian "look" had ever experienced, the demand for the product began to slow in 2001. Though the company was still selling and doing as well as market condition would allow, the 9/11 terrorist attacks brought about an abrupt halt in the demand for the casual look and lifestyle that Hawaii represented. Sales spiraled downward, until a decision was made to put the company "on ice" and bring it back at a later time.
After a hiatus of a couple of years, the label was licensed to another Hawaiian shirt maker, The Pacific Clothing Company. With the business still in the doldrums, this effort did not fare as well as either company had hoped and a decision to discontinue the agreement was made in 2012. Walker began planning to re-introduce the label on his own, but faced a series of set-backs, both financial and health wise that delayed the effort for a couple of years. But after many detours, the company again is in operation, reintroducing, for their 80th anniversary, an updated rendition of their signature Anthurium print first made by the company back in 1936.
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