Executive shirt

'Iolani

Keiji and Edith Kawakami founded the 'Iolani clothing company in Honolulu in 1953.

An executive shirt - aloha wear for the office

This smart polyester shirt, with lace inserts, is branded as an 'IOLANI / EXECUTIVE' shirt, 'Style 1060'.

In 1962 the Hawaiian Fashion Guild launched 'Operation Liberation' - a campaign aimed at convincing Hawaiian businesses to allow workers to wear aloha shirts rather than formal business attire 'during the summer months for the sake of comfort and in support of the 50th state's garment industry.' In 1965 the Guild launched Aloha Friday, which encouraged men to wear aloha shirts on the last business day of each week during the summer. This shirt has clearly been designed to bridge the gap between business and leisure wear.

This shirt was purchased from Barrio Vintage Honolulu. The store specialises in vintage Hawaiian clothing from the 1950s to 1970s, and caters to customers in search of unique garments.

Co-collecting in Hawai'i

This shirt was acquired by Te Papa during a co-collecting trip to Hawai'i in 2017. Te Papa worked with Noelle Kahanu, a cultural specialist from the University of Hawai‘i, to develop collection of aloha shirts that reflects the ways in which Hawaiian culture has been historically represented, and misrepresented, through the aloha shirt, and the ways in which contemporary native Hawaiian designers are utilising the aloha shirt to communicate indigenous cultural values.

Te Papa’s co-collecting programmes are guided by the principle of mana taonga – the sharing authority with stakeholder communities.