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Oahu bridal
institution to close
Mildred's Bridal & Formals
By Tim Ruel
has been a family affair since '56
Star-BulletinRows of dresses, including one black gown marked down almost in half to $100, fill the brightly lit store in Kakaako.
Mildred's Bridal & Formals, one of Oahu's oldest surviving wedding gown shops, plans to close in June.
Mildred Iwaki and her husband Harry Iwaki, now both 71, retired to Las Vegas last year, and left their youngest son Wain and his wife, Leolani Iwaki, in charge.
"They were tired already," Leolani said. "With all the competition in town, they weren't doing well enough to stay."
Leolani said she and her husband don't have the experience to continue operations. Harry and Mildred's three other children, Wendell, Sharlene and Brian, did not get into the business either.
Mildred and Harry, who just moved into their new home in Las Vegas, were unable to speak to the Star-Bulletin.
"We feel a little bit sad, naturally," said Laura Iwaki, a sales clerk at Mildred's for the past 15 years and wife of Harry's brother.
Mildred opened her small dress shop on Kalakaua Avenue in 1956, sewing her own garments, then moved the business to South King Street around 1960, seeking more space.
Harry, meanwhile, delivered milk for Foremost Dairies-Hawaii.
In the late 1970s, Mildred stopped making dresses and started ordering them from the mainland for fitting. By then, customers knew she was reliable, Laura Iwaki said. "Always on time."
Harry retired from Foremost in 1984, and joined his wife, delivering dresses rather than milk. He also kept the books, doing everything by hand, not with a computer.
The couple soon hired sister-in-law Laura to handle sales and Jane Hoshino to be a seamstress.
Hoshino, who will retire after the closing, said she became part of the Iwaki family.
Customers became part of the family too. Preparations for weddings take months, at the end of which, Mildred and her workers often found themselves invited.
Hoshino and Laura Iwaki said the best part about the job was meeting people.
Mildred's has done business with three generations of some families. "We saw grandmother, then daughter, then granddaughter," Laura said.
"Old timers come in and reminisce," added Leolani.
Friendship had a reward. At the peak of business in the late 1980s, annual sales reached almost half a million dollars, with 50 to 75 dresses a month sold.
Shoppers would line up outside the dressing rooms. Neighbor island high-school students would fly over, looking for the perfect prom dress.
"Very good competitor," said Rose Kamuri, owner of the nearby formal dress shop Ritz Collections, which has been doing business in Hawaii since 1938. "They're lovely people."
But around 1992, the Iwaki's business tale then took a familiar turn. Hawaii's economy stalled, new wedding shops opened and older ones went out of business. Mildred's dug in through the worst of it, though.
Customers simply didn't want the place to close, Leolani Iwaki said.
When the rent on King Street became unaffordable, the family moved shop to the Coral Commercial Center on Auahi Street in Kakaako in January 1999, to give it one last shot.
Five months later, Mildred and Harry left the islands for Vegas, where daughter Sharlene and son Brian live. Another seven months passed, and Leolani and Wain began looking for buyers.
After not finding enough interest, they announced a retirement closing sale earlier this month. The doors will remain open until customers finish current orders.
