We pride ourselves in selling the most authentic
Hawaiian shirts and dresses.
Despite relentless pressure from foreign manufactures, most of our
Hawaiian shirts and dresses are still made in Hawaii. By
understanding the effort that goes into making each item of
clothing, we hope you gain a new appreciation for your new Hawaiian
dress or shirt.
Cutting 340 layers of fabric to make 340
Hawaiian shirts
Rolling out fabric and cutting multiple
layers
The
process starts with the Hawaiian shirt pattern. The pattern consists
of precisely cut cardstock cutouts of the different pieces of the
shirt such as the sleeves, collar, pocket, and the main body. At a
glance, most Hawaiian shirts look pretty much the same, but in
reality, each manufacturer has different dimensions and features
such as the number of buttons, collar size, sleeve length, overall
shirt length, and many other parameters.
Another
other key component to the Hawaiian shirt is the fabric. Graphic
artists specializing in Hawaiian shirt designs often start by doing
rough sketches on a computer (sometimes even on a sheet of paper)
before refining them for presentation to a prospective customer. The
skill and experience of the artist is especially important in making
sure the beginning and end of a design is not distinguishable as the
pattern repeats. This is crucial for border design and engineered
shirts.
There are
two kinds of prints, confined and open. Confined prints are
typically owned exclusively by each shirt or dress manufacturer.
Open prints are usually owned by the fabric manufacturer or importer
and are available for any shirt maker. It is not uncommon for one
manufacturer to copy another's designs with just enough difference
to be legal. The successful shirt manufacturers invest hundreds of
thousands of dollars in their own confined prints, sometimes much
more, and are naturally fiercely protective of their intellectual
property.
Once a
print is approved, it is printed and delivered on rolls to the
manufacturer for cutting. Dozens of layers of different prints are
rolled out onto a long cutting table. The different pattern pieces
are laid out on top of a sheet of paper and traced. A technician
carefully cuts layers simultaneously with an extremely sharp
electric knife. A slight mistake in this step could render the
entire batch useless, resulting in a loss worth thousands of
dollars. Needless to say, it pays to have a very skilled operator.
Once all
the sections are cut, they are bundled together and sent out to
sewing companies. After a few days or weeks, depending on the time
of the year and the productivity of the contractor, the nearly
completed Hawaiian shirts and dresses are returned to the
manufacturer for a few final steps. Some sewing companies will
deliver finished and ironed shirts to the manufacturer, while others
deliver semi-finished shirts without buttons. A special machine
resembling a sewing machine is used to create the holes and apply
the buttons to the shirt.
Once these
freshly made Hawaiian shirts are complete, they are ready to begin
the journey to the customers. Some manufacturers send their shirts
to stores in Waikiki or other tourist destinations in Hawaii, while
others send them to different department stores. In our case, the
shirts are prepped in our facility and shipped out to our waiting
customer around the world.
Most of our Hawaiian dresses and shirts
are made this way right here in Hawaii. Although the local
manufacturers are facing relentless pressure from foreign-made
shirts, we believe there is something special about a genuine
Hawaiian shirt with the "Made in Hawaii" label. A healthy dose of
Aloha goes into each and every shirt we sell and it is this Aloha
spirit that we want to share with all of you. So the next time you
put on your Hawaiian shirt from us, you will know the story of how
that shirt was made.
