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Hawaiian print shirts have become
a national trend; in Hawaii it's
always been in fashionBy Cynthia Oi
Great for company uniform
Star-BulletinALOHA is not only a state of mind -- it's also a shirt. From the natty businessman button-down to the free-style wrinkled silky, men in Hawaii live aloha in their choice of shirts.
Every island man is likely to have at least one aloha shirt in his closet. And if he doesn't, maybe he can borrow one from Jason Tamura, who has "about 60."
Tamura, who works downtown at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, wears an aloha shirt to work every day. "It's a dress requirement," he said during a work break in Tamarind Square.
"You have to wear a collared shirt," co-worker John Kaneshiro explained.
"It's either an aloha shirt or a long-sleeve shirt," Tamura said. Their choice, of course, is aloha.
After two decades of wearing them, Tamura has gathered a depth of knowledge about cut, fabric, style and brands.
For example, he said, if your arms are short, choose the Kahala brand. Sleeves are cut shorter so "you won't get the folds in your elbows."Some shirts are fuller in the torso, others longer, some have side vents, others not, he said. "You have to try different ones to find the brand that fits your body best."
His choice is Tori Richards for the designs and prints. And because he got them at a discount when his wife worked at Penney's, which carries the brand.
Kaneshiro, who gets most of his shirts as gifts, doesn't know how many he owns. "At least one for every day of the week," he joked. He's sure he doesn't have many as Tamura "because I don't have a wife who works at Penney's."
"But my brother works for Liberty House," he said, which sells Ono, the brand he was wearing.
Both men prefer placket-front shirts to ones with buttons all the way down, not because of looks but because of practicality.
"Fewer buttons means less of a chance of losing one," Kaneshiro said with typical male logic.
Tamura thinks ironing is easier with placket fronts, a consideration for men who take on the task.
"My wife doesn't iron them," he said, resisting further comment as any wise husband would. He usually irons on Sundays when he wants to watch a game on TV.
"That way, the wife cannot drag me to the store. She has to leave me alone because I can say, 'I'm ironing.' "
Another argument for plackets: "With the buttons all the way down, sometimes it cracks in between so your belly button sticks out," Tamura said. "With the pullover, you can eat a big lunch and not worry."Another consideration: to tuck or not to tuck?
Gov. Ben Cayetano tucks, according to his spokesman Wally Inglis, himself a tucker. "Anybody with a sense of fashion tucks," Inglis said with mock seriousness.
Kaneshiro and Tamura tuck.
"Guys who don't tuck in are making a fashion statement, going against the trend. Guys who don't tuck have lots of money," Tamura observed. "Or they're fat."
Tana Samuelu, a fit-looking twentysomething who works for Navatech, goes untucked. He's not belly-hiding.
"I wear them out because I want everybody to see the whole shirt, top to bottom," Samuelu said. "You have to show the whole shirt for the full effect."
Wade Cambern, a record producer, songwriter and musician with Hawaiian Style Band and A Blue Canoe, sometimes has to don more formal wear than his usual aloha shirt and shorts, but he doesn't like to. "When I'm gigging, I don't like having my arms constricted," he said.
He doesn't tuck because tucking also restricts movement, he said. "Comfort is really important."
Albert Garcia Sr. also doesn't tuck. He and his wife, Regina, retired to Kailua from California and tucking would make him look like he's still working.
"I just like them loose," he said. "I feel young but I'm retired."
Aloha shirts also help him blend in. "They make me feel like I belong here," he said.
Maui businessman Gregory Peck (yes, that's his real name) is more discriminating about aloha shirt usage. "I wear them when the occasion calls for it," he said, "but I do like aloha shirts."
The Avanti shirt he's wearing isn't tucked because of its style, cut just below the waist. It is reminiscent of the "jac shirt," a 1950s style fashioned after Eisenhower cropped jackets.
"This one is crepe silk," said Peck, who, as owner of the women's resort-wear line CY Maui, knows his fabrics. "I like them colorful."
Richard Maeda and Stanley Ito don't know the brands of their shirts, where they got them or when.
Maeda said his cream wing-collared number with a pineapple embroidered on the pocket is old, so old the label is long gone. He hardly pays attention to his clothing because among the retirees he hangs out with at Ala Moana Center, style isn't a concern.
"You put on the clothes. That's it," he said.
His companion, Stanley Ito, is of the same mind. His shiny, brown crane-print polyester shirt appears to be of '70s vintage.
"It's clean. That's the main thing," he said.Neither tucks. They are of the age that tucking is a nuisance, said Maeda. "You get old, you don't think of things like that."
Dennis Matsuda, long of hair and neat as a pin, said aloha shirts allow him to express himself.
"It's colorful. It makes you feel happy," said the Bank of Hawaii computer programmer who prefers the full-buttoned style, although he is wearing a placketfront shirt. "I don't like the pullover. Hard to put on, but this one was a gift," he said.
He tucks. "It's a cleaner look for me at work."
Owen Quon's short-sleeved, printed top looks like an aloha shirt. "But it isn't. I bought it from Banana Republic," he protested. "It's a pseudo-aloha shirt."
Quon, a Kamehameha Schools graduate attending the University of Southern California, doesn't wear aloha shirts, not anymore.
"I've turned into an L.A. person," he said. "People in L.A. wear fake aloha shirts. They call them 'Hawaiian shirts,' but they're like from the big department stores or like Abercrombie & Fitch."
He said mainlanders want to look like they're from Hawaii, "but I'm the opposite. I guess I'm not a Hawaii person anymore."
However, he said USC has an official aloha shirt made by Reyn's. He doesn't own one.
Aloha shirts aren't just for "old guys who like have jobs," said Troy Takano, 15. He and friends, Cody Ching, 14, and Matthew Lee, 15, students at Hawaii Baptist Academy, wear them, too, he said.
But they have to be the cool brands. "Like his," he said, pointing to Ching's blue-and-white, retro-look shirt. "That's MCD (brand) from Town & Country."
"We like the surfer brands, like QuikSilver and Billabong," said Lee. "People are getting into the surfer look now."
These guys aren't tuckers. In fact, they seem mildly exasperated that it is even suggested.
"No," said Takano. "It should be like that," again pointing to Ching, whose shirt loosely hangs over drapey off-white pants. Above the first button peeks a T-shirt, necessary for the right look, they said.
All three wear aloha shirts to school. How about parties?
Again the exasperation.
"No. Parties I wear T-shirts," said Ching.
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