Aloha shirt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Aloha shirt, is a style of dress shirt originating in Hawaiʻi, USA. It is currently the premier textile export of the Hawai‘i manufacturing industry. These shirts are printed, mostly short-sleeved, and collared. They usually have buttons, sometimes as a complete button-down shirt, and sometimes just down to the chest (pullover). Aloha shirts usually have a left chest pocket sewn in to make the printed pattern continuous. Aloha shirts may be worn by men or women; women's aloha shirts usually have a lower-cut, v-neck style.
Aloha shirts exported to the mainland United States and elsewhere are called Hawaiian shirts and often brilliantly colored with floral patterns or generic Polynesian motifs and are worn as casual, informal wear, and generally only by men.
By contrast, men's aloha shirts manufactured for local Hawaiian residents are usually adorned with traditional Hawaiian quilt designs, tapa designs, or simple floral patterns in more muted colors. Aloha shirts manufactured for local consumption are considered formal wear in business and government, and thus are regarded as equivalent to a shirt, coat, and tie (generally impractical in the warmer climate of Hawaii) in all but the most formal of settings. These shirts often are printed on the interior, resulting in the muted color on the exterior, and are called "reverse print"; this often is confused for the shirt being worn inside-out.
The related concept of "Aloha Attire" stems from the Aloha shirt. Semi-formal functions such as weddings, birthday parties, and dinners are often designated as "Aloha Attire", meaning that men wear Aloha shirts and women wear muʻumuʻu. Because Hawaiʻi tends to be more casual, it is rarely appropriate to attend such functions in full evening wear like on the mainland; instead, Aloha Attire is seen as the happy medium between excessive formality and casual wear.
[edit] Missionary origins
The shirt's origins are traced back to the early years of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi upon the arrival of Congregational and Presbyterian missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands. These early Christian settlers from New England imposed strict dress codes on the native Hawaiians and forced many to wear quick-sewn shirts made of various fabrics available to the missionary seamstresses at the time.
[edit] Modern Aloha shirt
The modern Aloha shirt was first manufactured commercially in the early 1930s by Chinese merchant Ellery Chun of King-Smith Clothiers and Dry Goods, a store in Waikĩkĭ. Chun began sewing brightly colored shirts for tourists out of old kimono fabrics he had leftover in stock. The Honolulu Advertiser newspaper was quick to coin the term Aloha shirt to describe Chun's fashionable creation. Chun trademarked the name. The first advertisement in the Honolulu Advertiser for Chun's Aloha shirt was published on June 28, 1935. Local residents, especially surfers, and tourists descended on Chun's store and bought every shirt he had. Within years, major designer labels sprung up all over Hawai'i and began manufacturing and selling Aloha shirts en masse.
The popularity of the Aloha shirt boomed in the United States after World War II as major celebrities sported the Hawaiian wear. President Harry S. Truman wore Aloha shirts regularly during his tenure in the White House and in retirement. John Wayne and Duke Kahanamoku endorsed major designer labels, while Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, Arthur Godfrey and Johnny Weissmuller, "Weird Al" Yankovic entertained while wearing them.
