Models display Kamehameha Garment Co.'s products at the Tenth Annual Governor's Fashion Awards at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Monday. Below, a model sports a Nake'u Awai Design.
Photos By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin

In a "Made in Hawaii with Aloha" trade show in Waikiki this week, which included Hawaii-made jewelry and other products as well as apparel, several older designs of aloha wear were prominent.

Hawaii fashions in general, including some new, unique approaches to island flavor are very popular now on the mainland and in foreign countries, manufacturers say.

National and international brands these days often include some Hawaii-style items, made all over the world.

But there is a special magic to the "Made in Hawaii" label that makes the trend doubly good for those businesses that actually design and produce their lines locally.

"Nostalgic Hawaiian is very popular all over the country," said Marshall Marumoto, general manager of the sportswear company Kahala.

"Actually the Hawaiian look is very, very popular on the mainland right now. All the major clothing manufacturers have a Hawaiian print in their lines," Marumoto said.

The Hawaii-made product does well, not just because it is authentically made in the islands but because of creativity, design and special use of colors the islands foster, Marumoto said. Kahala has been making aloha wear since 1936.

Brad Walker, who took over the dormant business of Kamehameha Garment Co. and revived it in 1994, says his business is doing well making and selling "retro" aloha wear, designs that used to be made by tailors more than 60 years ago and were discovered by mainlanders.

Export markets are particularly important, he said. "We do a lot of business in Japan." He said his sales will go to about $1 million this year and probably get to $3 million in 1997, because of the way the traditional Hawaiian styles are catching on everywhere.

Kamehameha's silky shirts and dresses won the company the award for Manufacturer of the Year-Traditional in a vote by the Hawaii Fashion Industry Association at the 10th Annual Governor's Fashion Awards Monday.

The Red Dirt shirts from Paradise Sportswear on Kauai won the award for Manufacturer of the Year-Unique.

Anne Vegas, Paradise Sportswear sales manager, said that the style made by dyeing shirts and pants in red dirt from Kauai agriculture, has become very popular on the mainland.

Other award winners were Wild Ginger by You and Me Naturally, Manufacturer of the Year-Contemporary; Sears, Roebuck & Co., Retailer of the Year-General; Local Motion, Retailer of the Year-Specialty; and Gunther von Hamm, of G. von Hamm Textiles, lifetime achievement award.

Sparky Doo, whose Locals Only retail business is a success, went into manufacturing eight years ago is also winning big export sales with the the older, traditional styles.

The Pineapple Juice label, he said, consists of "vintage reproductions," more of those silky, close-to-body designs that reflect the earliest aloha-style shirts and dresses.

Actor Bruce Willis wore a Pineapple Juice "tigers" shirt as the hard-pressed time traveler hero in the movie "12 Monkeys," Doo said.

The state estimates some 2,000 people work in Hawaii's garment industry, in 1,609 companies which had $154 million in sales last year.