Written by Andy Gilchrist
Aloha!
Hawaiian or Aloha shirts: Boldly patterned, bright colored, loose fitting shirts introduced in the Hawaiian Islands in the 1920’s.
They are collared, buttoned down the front, casual shirts, usually short-sleeved, made from printed fabric, and are typically worn untucked.
Obviously casual but acceptable as informal business attire in Hawaii. The Hawaii Chamber of Commerce resolved in 1947 that businessmen could wear it to work from June through October.
![Image]()
Island shirts trace their origins back to the “tapa” fabric made from the bark of the paper mulberry tree and the staple fabric for the Polynesians. And also, the “pareu”, a lighter printed cotton cloth worn by Tahitians.
Traditional men's aloha shirts are usually adorned with traditional Hawaiian quilt designs, tapa designs, and simple floral patterns in more muted colors. Contemporary aloha shirts may have prints that do not feature any traditional Hawaiian quilt or floral designs but instead may incorporate drinks, palm trees, surf boards or other island tropical elements in a similar form as the traditional aloha shirt.
The earliest shirts were made of silk, cotton, and readily available kimono fabrics, developed when local Japanese-Hawaiian women adapted kimono fabric for use in men’s shirts.
In 1924 Du Pont introduced rayon, a man-made wood pulp fiber, which became the fashionable fabric for Hawaiian shirts. The Du Pont mill burned to the ground in the mid-1950s. So vintage shirts (from 1935 to 1959) made with these fabrics are highly valued.
The origin of marketing aloha shirts can be traced to the 1920s, or the early 1930s, when the Honolulu-based dry goods store "Musa-Shiya (the Shirtmaker"), under the proprietorship of Kōichirō Miyamoto, started making shirts out of colorful Japanese print fabrics. The term aloha shirt first appeared in print in an advertisement for Musa-Shiya in the June 28, 1935, issue of The Honolulu Advertiser newspaper.
It has also been contended that the Aloha shirt was devised in the early 1930s by Chinese merchant Ellery Chun of "King-Smith Clothiers and Dry Goods", a store in Waikiki.
Although his claim has been contested, Chun may have been the first to mass-produce, and to maintain the ready-to-wear in stock to be sold off the shelf.
Contested or not, Ellery Chun is credited for coining the term. "Aloha sportswear" and it was registered as a trademark by him between 1933-1936. Chun's store carried window signs that said, "aloha shirts". Chun trademarked the name, "Aloha Shirt" in 1937 and owning the rights the next 20 years gives him some credibility in history.
With America about to enter World War I (July 1914 - November 11, 1918) Hawaiian music was all the rage. In 1916, Hawaiian records outsold all other genres, while ukuleles were so ubiquitous in college dorms and upper-crust nightclubs that the New York Tribune ran a full-page illustration of an imagined “Ukulele Square, the Hawaiian Quarter of New York.” During the Great Depression, Americans again cast their eyes toward Hawaii, making the Aloha shirt popular.
![Image]()
One reason men adopted a garment which seemed more effeminate than masculine was that rich, famous men wore them. Visitors to Hawaii in the 1930s were invariably wealthy, and before long, aloha shirts were being worn by celebrities whom everyday Americans sought to emulate. American heroes from three-time Olympic swimming champion and surfing pioneer Duke Kahanamoku to singer Bing Crosby were lending their names to particular brands.
![Image]()
Those endorsements, says Dale Hope, a historian and the author of The Aloha Shirt: Spirit of the Islands, had “a huge effect on people purchasing those shirts.” If you could wear what the man unscathed by the Depression was wearing, it didn’t matter that it was feminine.
Hollywood did its part in promoting the shirt including the 1953 Academy Award winning movie “From Here to Eternity”.
By the 1960s, the shirt had become truly ubiquitous. There was a trend in American businesses for "Aloha Friday", an effort of celebrating the end of the workweek by wearing more casual attire on Fridays. Everyone—from Elvis to the less than “hip”” Richard Nixon—seemed to have an Aloha shirt.
Over time, perhaps inevitably, it lapsed into the realm of corny suburban-dad-wear.
![Image]()
The notion that Hawaii was a quiet paradise was shattered in 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and makers of aloha shirts, like others in the garment industry, turned to supplying the war effort. When production resumed, Japanese-influenced designs that had been common—featuring cherry blossoms and shrines—temporarily fell out of fashion, supplanted by designs that highlighted Hawaii’s local culture.
After World War II, many servicemen and servicewomen returning to the United States from Asia and the Pacific islands with aloha shirts made the signature apparel more popular than ever.
BRANDS
Within years, major designer labels sprang up all over Hawaii and began manufacturing and selling aloha shirts en masse. By the end of the 1930s, 450 people were employed in an industry worth $600,000 annually. Two notable manufacturers of this period are Kamehameha and Branfleet (later Kahala), both founded in 1936.
In 1956, Tori Richard, a well-known brand of aloha shirts was established.
Locals tended to shy away from the garishness of aloha shirts as "too wild" when they first appeared. An example of the type of shirt the locals favored was the "reverse print"; these shirts are printed on the interior, resulting in the muted color on the exterior.
Reyn Spooner (or, rather, its precursor, Spooner's of Waikiki) also established business in 1956, and made the reverse fabric style popular.
Following Hawaii's statehood in 1959, when extant tropical prints came to be regarded as rather tacky, designer Alfred Shaheen became noted for producing aloha shirts more stylish and of higher quality.
Elvis Presley wore a Shaheen-designed red aloha on the album cover for Blue Hawaii.
![Image]()
Photo credit: Dan Kosmayer/Shutterstock; oneinchpunch/Shutterstock Ranta Images/Shutterstock; Lisa F. Young/Shutterstock; Ranta Images/Shutterstock
Aloha!
Hawaiian or Aloha shirts: Boldly patterned, bright colored, loose fitting shirts introduced in the Hawaiian Islands in the 1920’s.
They are collared, buttoned down the front, casual shirts, usually short-sleeved, made from printed fabric, and are typically worn untucked.
Obviously casual but acceptable as informal business attire in Hawaii. The Hawaii Chamber of Commerce resolved in 1947 that businessmen could wear it to work from June through October.
Island shirts trace their origins back to the “tapa” fabric made from the bark of the paper mulberry tree and the staple fabric for the Polynesians. And also, the “pareu”, a lighter printed cotton cloth worn by Tahitians.
Traditional men's aloha shirts are usually adorned with traditional Hawaiian quilt designs, tapa designs, and simple floral patterns in more muted colors. Contemporary aloha shirts may have prints that do not feature any traditional Hawaiian quilt or floral designs but instead may incorporate drinks, palm trees, surf boards or other island tropical elements in a similar form as the traditional aloha shirt.
The earliest shirts were made of silk, cotton, and readily available kimono fabrics, developed when local Japanese-Hawaiian women adapted kimono fabric for use in men’s shirts.
In 1924 Du Pont introduced rayon, a man-made wood pulp fiber, which became the fashionable fabric for Hawaiian shirts. The Du Pont mill burned to the ground in the mid-1950s. So vintage shirts (from 1935 to 1959) made with these fabrics are highly valued.
The origin of marketing aloha shirts can be traced to the 1920s, or the early 1930s, when the Honolulu-based dry goods store "Musa-Shiya (the Shirtmaker"), under the proprietorship of Kōichirō Miyamoto, started making shirts out of colorful Japanese print fabrics. The term aloha shirt first appeared in print in an advertisement for Musa-Shiya in the June 28, 1935, issue of The Honolulu Advertiser newspaper.
It has also been contended that the Aloha shirt was devised in the early 1930s by Chinese merchant Ellery Chun of "King-Smith Clothiers and Dry Goods", a store in Waikiki.
Although his claim has been contested, Chun may have been the first to mass-produce, and to maintain the ready-to-wear in stock to be sold off the shelf.
Contested or not, Ellery Chun is credited for coining the term. "Aloha sportswear" and it was registered as a trademark by him between 1933-1936. Chun's store carried window signs that said, "aloha shirts". Chun trademarked the name, "Aloha Shirt" in 1937 and owning the rights the next 20 years gives him some credibility in history.
With America about to enter World War I (July 1914 - November 11, 1918) Hawaiian music was all the rage. In 1916, Hawaiian records outsold all other genres, while ukuleles were so ubiquitous in college dorms and upper-crust nightclubs that the New York Tribune ran a full-page illustration of an imagined “Ukulele Square, the Hawaiian Quarter of New York.” During the Great Depression, Americans again cast their eyes toward Hawaii, making the Aloha shirt popular.
One reason men adopted a garment which seemed more effeminate than masculine was that rich, famous men wore them. Visitors to Hawaii in the 1930s were invariably wealthy, and before long, aloha shirts were being worn by celebrities whom everyday Americans sought to emulate. American heroes from three-time Olympic swimming champion and surfing pioneer Duke Kahanamoku to singer Bing Crosby were lending their names to particular brands.
Those endorsements, says Dale Hope, a historian and the author of The Aloha Shirt: Spirit of the Islands, had “a huge effect on people purchasing those shirts.” If you could wear what the man unscathed by the Depression was wearing, it didn’t matter that it was feminine.
Hollywood did its part in promoting the shirt including the 1953 Academy Award winning movie “From Here to Eternity”.
By the 1960s, the shirt had become truly ubiquitous. There was a trend in American businesses for "Aloha Friday", an effort of celebrating the end of the workweek by wearing more casual attire on Fridays. Everyone—from Elvis to the less than “hip”” Richard Nixon—seemed to have an Aloha shirt.
Over time, perhaps inevitably, it lapsed into the realm of corny suburban-dad-wear.
The notion that Hawaii was a quiet paradise was shattered in 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and makers of aloha shirts, like others in the garment industry, turned to supplying the war effort. When production resumed, Japanese-influenced designs that had been common—featuring cherry blossoms and shrines—temporarily fell out of fashion, supplanted by designs that highlighted Hawaii’s local culture.
After World War II, many servicemen and servicewomen returning to the United States from Asia and the Pacific islands with aloha shirts made the signature apparel more popular than ever.
BRANDS
Within years, major designer labels sprang up all over Hawaii and began manufacturing and selling aloha shirts en masse. By the end of the 1930s, 450 people were employed in an industry worth $600,000 annually. Two notable manufacturers of this period are Kamehameha and Branfleet (later Kahala), both founded in 1936.
In 1956, Tori Richard, a well-known brand of aloha shirts was established.
Locals tended to shy away from the garishness of aloha shirts as "too wild" when they first appeared. An example of the type of shirt the locals favored was the "reverse print"; these shirts are printed on the interior, resulting in the muted color on the exterior.
Reyn Spooner (or, rather, its precursor, Spooner's of Waikiki) also established business in 1956, and made the reverse fabric style popular.
Following Hawaii's statehood in 1959, when extant tropical prints came to be regarded as rather tacky, designer Alfred Shaheen became noted for producing aloha shirts more stylish and of higher quality.
Elvis Presley wore a Shaheen-designed red aloha on the album cover for Blue Hawaii.
Photo credit: Dan Kosmayer/Shutterstock; oneinchpunch/Shutterstock Ranta Images/Shutterstock; Lisa F. Young/Shutterstock; Ranta Images/Shutterstock
