The cover of Life Magazine, dated December 10, 1951, featured a beaming President Harry Truman wearing a Hawaiian shirt for a story entitled “The President of the United States - Evolution of a Wardrobe.” Truman wore Aloha shirts, as they came to be known, regularly while in office and in retirement. The Aloha shirt gained popularity after World War II, reaching a peak in the 1950’s and 60’s, as jet travel and statehood brought Hawaii onto the national spotlight. (A more detailed history with vintage shirts for sale below.)
Vintage 50's Pali Shirt
rayon, excellent condition
offered by Hana Shirt Co.
$395
History of the Aloha Shirt
The Ever Popular Palaka
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Hawaiian Islands emerged as a powerful plantation economy that produced sugar, pineapple and coffee for export around the world. Plantation workers needed a rugged shirt that was suitable for hard labor in the fields. Within a generation, the checkered blue and white denim palaka became the standard work shirt of Hawaii. 
By the early 1930s the palaka Hawaiian shirts and blue denim trousers called sailor mokus had almost become the official national costume of Hawaii both on and off the plantation.
Vintage 1950's Pali Shirt
cotton, excellent condition
$275
offered by Hana Shirt Co.
From Kimono to Ono
In the early days shirts were tailored by hand, either in the home or at custom tailor shops that had sprung up in plantation towns and throughout Honolulu. Dry goods stores supplied the fabrics: printed silk from Japan, raw silk, batik, rayon from the U.S. mainland and cotton cloth made for kimonos and yukatas. Short- and long-sleeved shirts and women's dresses were based on Asian garment designs and made from pre-printed fabrics from China and Japan. 
These colorful shirts and dresses were the direct ancestors of modern aloha wear. Here in the islands we say "ono" to mean deliciously cool.
Vintage 1940's Hawaiian Shirt
made by Hawaiian Togs
$675
offered by Hana Shirt Co.
First Real Kine Hawaiian Designs
It wasn't until the mid-1930s that Hawaiian clothing manufacturers decided to produce cloth that was uniquely Hawaiian in design. Watumull's East India Store led the way by commissioning artist Elsie Das to create fifteen floral designs.
Her hand-painted designs were sent to Japan where they were printed by hand onto raw silk.
Surfrider's - KILLER 50s Tribal Shag Vintage Hawaiian Shirt
cotton, excellent condition
$275
offered by Hana Shirt Co.
Satin Mistakes and Hollywood Dreams
According to Hawaiian fabric designer Elsie Das, a Japanese manufacturer once printed a set of her floral designs on heavy satin… by mistake. "These started a vogue in Hollywood. Ginger Rogers, Janet Gaynor and other stars bought bolts of the stuff and had it made into 'seductive gowns.' 
The result was an epidemic of Hawaiian designs, with hibiscus and ginger breaking out on table cloths, napkins and scarves all over the country." "Elsie Das, Artist Designer," an article by William Davenport in Paradise of the Pacific, p 9, 1963.
Vintage 1960's Wild Child Shirt
offered by Hannah Shirt Co.'s Ebay store
cotton blend, excellent condition
$39.95
click photo to make larger or click here for website
The "First" Aloha Shirt
The term "aloha shirt" may have started as street slang in the early 1930s to describe the growing number of shirts featuring Oriental and Hawaiian designs that were being produced by Honolulu tailors. Musa-Shiya, the Shirtmaker first advertised the "aloha shirt" in the Honolulu Advertiser on June 28, 1935: "Honolulu's Noted Shirt Maker and Kimono Shop. 'Aloha' shirts - well tailored, beautiful designs and radiant colors. Ready-made or made to order…95 cents up." By another account, an advertising salesperson from the Honolulu Advertiser and Ellery Chun, the owner of the King-Smith dry goods store, first coined the term "aloha shirt."
In fact Mr. Chun officially registered a trademark for his Aloha sportswear on July 15, 1936.
Vintage Malihini Shirt
Manufacturer: | Malihini |
Material: | Cotton |
Size: | Medium |
Condition: | Excellent |
Price: | $224.00 |
offered by vintage-aloha-shirt.com (click)
Aloha from Hollywood
Movie stars, crooners and politicians did a fine job of promoting Hawaiian clothing. Montgomery Cliff, Burt Lancaster, Ernest Borgnine and Frank Sinatra all wore beautiful Hawaiian shirts in the movie From Here to Eternity. Ginger Rogers wore seductive satin gowns of Hawaiian designs while Bing Crosby sported his unique combination of Hawaiian shirt and porkpie hat. And Betty Grable did a promo pin-up shot wearing a gorgeous Hawaiian-style swimsuit in the 1940s. 
In the 1980s, Tom Selleck often wore the signature "Magnum PI" Hawaiian shirt, which is now in the Smithsonian Institute.
Border Hawaiian Shirts
By modern standards, border Hawaiian shirts were a luxury because so much fabric was wasted in making them. These shirts featured wonderful designs that were so well thought-out that sleeves, sides and hems were identical. Pockets sometimes matched the shirt pattern perfectly. And some designs never repeated themselves on the same shirt. Border Hawaiian shirts tended to be longer to show off the fabric images (you never, EVER tuck in a border shirt). The same tailoring approach was used to create beautiful sun dresses. 
The border shirt is very similar to the Engineered print Hawaiian shirt. The only difference is that the engineered shirts' image are even wider than the border shirt, often stretching from seam to seam.
Vintage Coopers Shirt
Manufacturer: | Coopers |
Material: | Rayon |
Size: | Large |
Condition: | Excellent |
Price: | $1,499.00 |
Muumuus and Tea-timers
The Hawaiian muumuu started out as a loose-fitting dress designed for women of all sizes. It was the result of missionaries who sought to cover the bodies of Hawaiian women, who traditionally wore nothing more than a skirt. As the muumuu morphed and mated with traditional Asian designs, a unique series of women's garments emerged. For informal entertaining, the pake muu featured long, wing-like sleeves based on a Chinese design. The popular tea-timer was a tight-fitting, tailored, sleeveless top with a short mandarin collar. The holomu was a fitted garment for more formal evening wear while the holoku was a full-length dress for formal affairs.
Over the years, women's Hawaiian clothing has tended to feature floral designs: ginger blossoms, plumeria, hibiscus, orchids and birds-of-paradise.
Vinatge Hale Hawaii
Manufacturer: | Hale Hawaii |
Material: | Rayon |
Size: | Large |
Condition: | Excellent |
Price: | $3,499.00 |
Casual Day Finds Its Roots in Honolulu
In 1947 the Honolulu Board of Supervisors passed a resolution whereby City & County employees were allowed - actually, they were encouraged - to wear Hawaiian shirts from June 1 to October 31 each year to beat the summer heat.
This single act by a local government has had a powerful influence on businesses and civil servant departments around the world, especially where summers are unbearably hot. Today, many corners of the globe adopt more casual clothing styles for hot weather.
Manufacturer: | Hookano |
Material: | Crepe Rayon |
Size: | Medium |
Condition: | Excellent |
Price: | $1,299.00 |
Aloha Friday
In Hawaii every Friday is Aloha Friday. It's the day when you wear your favorite aloha dress or aloha shirt with pride.
On each and every Friday, downtown Honolulu is a sea of aloha wear, especially at lunch time when you can usually catch a free concert in the plaza at the corner of King and Bishop streets. Hawaii's aloha spirit can be found in many business offices. Companies that offer a "casual" day on Fridays need only look to the Aloha State for the source of this wonderful tradition.
White 1950's Rayon Shirt by Pacific
Manufacturer: | Pacific |
Material: | Rayon |
Size: | Large |
Condition: | Excellent |
Price: | $3,499.00 |
offered by vintage-aloha-shirt.com (click)
Aloha-Lite
Now for those of you who enjoy vintage Hawaiian but don't see yourself shelling out thoudands or even hundreds of dollars for one, here are a few more affordable finds.
1980's Vintage Hawaiian Shirt
44Chest,very good condition
$21 at rustyzipper.com
click photo to make larger
1960's Vintage Hawaiian Shirt
$28 at rustyzipper.com
41Chest, good condition
click photo to make larger
click for website
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