Hawaiian shirts

DeCoDiVa

DeCoDiVa

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Can the mental trust:adore: at VFG give me the best brands (meaning most collectable)
labels for Hawiian shirts? I ran across someone who has a plethra (how's that for a word?) of them.
 
lol, 'plethora'!



(Can only disguise my ignorance of Hawaiian labels by noting that plethra is an ancient measure of distance. I think.)
Any pictures? :)
 
one of my favorite source books for background, label, dating and other information for aloha shirts is "The Aloha Shirt" by Hope/Tozian.

Condition plays a huge role in the value of them, "silkies" are considered the most desirable, however the tapa-cloth-inspired prints of the 60s have their own collectors gaining in popularity: by far, though, the old rayons are most highly sought after.

There were many highly skilled aloha shirt manufacturers; some of them were little mom and pop places that simply used a Made in Hawaii tag, so it really depends on the print, the CONDITION and the size (the bigger, the better, generally)
 
Last summer I worked on a project for the VFG to try find some information about some of the Aloha Shirt labels that we had in our resources but knew little to nothing about. I turned in a brief history of the Aloha Shirt and the garment industry in Hawaii which Lizzie blogged about. You can read it at this link:

http://vintagefashionguild.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

I did some of it online but also got four books out of the library - and later ordered them through amazon. My favorite is "The Aloha Shirt" by Dale Hope.

The UH Historic collection of Aloha Shirts has just gone online. I helped with this shoot. No values but you can see some great older shirts:
www.museum.hawaii.edu


Aloha!

Linn
 
This is from the VFG workshop boards. Check the Rockabilly workshop thread titled "it's tiki time". The images aren't all there anymore, but here's some helpful text:

Weither you love the Vintage Hawaiian fashions from the 1940's or you love the fashions from the 70's, Hawaiian items have always been popular. Alfred Shaheen has been a huge contributer to Hawaiian Tiki fashion business for over 40 years, and his items are as sought after as they where back then. Alfred Shaheen’s fashions (sarongs, sundresses and shirts) are one of the most sought after Vintage Hawaiian clothing. Some of the other sought after names were Surfrider, Kamehameha, Reef, Kahanamoku, Royal Hawaiian, J.C. Penney's, Surf –n- Sand and Nani of Hawaii.
 
I would add, at least in men's shirts, McInerny to this list. McInerny was a chain of retail stores in Hawaii, but sold clothing under its own label. I've had some men's shirts with this label, and they have been good sellers. I think you mostly see them made by Iolani for McInerny, but I think Kamehameha and others made branded items for them, too.
 
Help for the hawiian..

WOW!!
I feel like I just had a college course!! as you can see I am "malihini"
To vintagemerchant:
I have ordered "the Aloha shirt" text
To vintage-voyager: Thanks for the clarification and sorry about the spelling, I've always used Plethora to mean excess.. I will not be shamed for the want of an "O" NO PICTURES YET.. I wasn't sure about spending the $$$
To Patentleathershoes: Yes and thank... I've already had the shame of being the idiot :icon_wall: who passed up a Shaheen dress printed with people at a race track, when I was at a near-by garage sale! Thank you for the "tiki time" info.
To Linn: Love those links, girl. You advice has always been dead-on and I learn alot from your input.
To vintagebaubles: Never heard of McInerny or
Kamehameha but I add them to my mental list .
and "mahalo nui loa" to all of you "mai-tai's" anyone??:drinking2:
 
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