DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Dana Wheat buys old T-shirts and refashions them to get a "deconstructed/ reconstructed" look.
Boxy old T-shirts get a sexy
new start with a few snips
here and a few stitches there
All it takes is a seam ripper and scissors to bring simple old T's to the cutting edge of women's fashion.
T-shirts, once a standard underpinning for men, are comfortable for hanging around the house or washing the car, but there isn't much feminine about the boxy tops, unless a woman wears one two sizes too small. Thus the baby tee was born. The wearer of baby tees teeters between telling the world, "Hey, I'm hip," or "Oops, cold-water-only got stuck in hot-water wash."
There's no room for hedging with the latest trend in fashion tees that are form-fitting with definite street-savvy.
"It's a deconstructed/reconstructed look" said Dana Wheat, of the Two Hula Girls and a Surfer boutique in Kailua. Wheat takes T-shirts apart and then restyles them into blouses -- some backless with spaghetti-strap ties, others with flutter sleeves, corset lacing and more, all using fabric from the same shirt.
It's a look she's spotted on many a celebrity on TV and in magazines, and she decided it would be easy enough to replicate. "In the '80s we used to do that, cut up men's T-shirts and do fun stuff with them," she said.
Wheat started buying old shirts, then cutting and sewing, "making them into something more feminine and personal," to sell in her resale and vintage shop. Prices for her reworked tees range from $9 to $22.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Here, she's wearing a T-shirt she stitched up to be a little more fashionable item. She drew two hula girls and a surfer on it to represent her kids.
Vintage rock T-shirts are hot, she said, as well as shirts with wording. For instance, customers have requested styles with any T-shirt she can find reading "New York" or "Adidas."
"People like name brands redone or anything with numbers," she said. Some have also walked in with their own old favorites in hand for reworking, which costs $20 for labor.
Not all T-shirt transformation is equal. Some only require simple cutting and fabric knotting to look cool; others take a little more time, requiring new seams and notions such as buttons or elastic; but she basically leaves the fabric edges unfinished.
"If you cut a T-shirt, you'll notice the edges don't unravel, and the destruction of it is kind of cool," she said. "It's not perfect. The unfinishedness of it is part of its style."
Even so, the look is so popular that boutiques such as Le Lotus Bleu and Raphael sell new shirts designed to look old and ravaged but, most importantly, tough and sexy.
Two Hula Girls and a Surfer is at 167 Hamakua Drive. Call 263-3615.
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