Why I Wear Aloha Wear
For those who are not from the Aloha State, the idea of “Hawaiian shirts” and muumuus might be a cheesy niche corner of American fashion history. You might think of Elvis movies, tiki bars, and sipping on a mai tai. In Hawaii, these clothes hold a meaning much more profound and personal. The aloha shirt and mu’umu’u, as they are called in the islands, are pillars of local fashion and reflect the history of our ancestors.
The story begins with Kate Greenaway, an English poet and artist whose nursery rhyme illustrations ignited a major trend in children’s fashion. It was given the name Mother Hubbard dress and later crept into women’s wear in England and the U.S.. The dress was controversial for women’s wear at the time, many calling it inappropriate and too suggestive. The nursery rhyme-inspired dress became a feminist statement, and, eventually, a respectable garment for girls, and women.
Christian missionary wives living in Hawaii during the 1820s sewed garments for the Hawaiian royalty to gain their favour. The Queen dowager Kaʻahumanu was fond of the Mother Hubbard dresses worn by the American women. She ordered them to make her Western-style gowns with the fabrics she had acquired from people travelling across the Pacific. The aloha shirt did not enter the story until over 100 years later, when Kōichirō Miyamoto, a Japanese shop owner and immigrant to Hawaii, began to make and sell shirts made of Japanese fabrics.
With every identity crisis that comes along with growing up mixed-race in the Pacific, I never doubted that my heart belonged to the island of Oahu. Aloha Wear reminds us of the beautiful and unique story of The Kingdom of Hawaii. In a way, the kingdom is still alive today in Hawaiians, Japanese, Haoles, Filipinos, hapas, and “mixed plates” who honour our history. Aloha Wear is a statement that our ancestors were enemies who became friends and family. I wear Aloha Wear because I love Hawaii and the people who call it home.
