Speak softly and…
In Hawaii, we say speak softly and wear a loud shirt.
If your shirt is loud, you are happier. You are expressing, color, joy, lightness, and a plethora of weird objects interpreted as things to be grateful for: flowers, surf boards, palm trees, ukuleles, jalopy cars, pineapples, and hula dancers.
That our shirts have been appropriated by rich, white bros, or worse, racist Buggaloo boys, is not the fault of the thousands of people who benefit by creating, or selling aloha wear.
I read an op-ed recently that suggested Aloha shirts could be insensitive. Hey, guys/gals, it’s a shirt. It’s not a forced/abortion/police brutality/swastika flag. It’s a piece of clothing that suggests you don’t want to be a boring as a cardboard box every day of your life.
Except for Joe, of course.
Cardboard and color
We used to go to parties in the gloomy northwest.
My husband, among all the vampires, goths, emos and black draped outcasts used to attend parties with a glaring Aloha shirt that practically made the vampires sparkle with fear. Everyone thought it was the dope-ist bomb since the invention of snack chips.
That’s because it was.
Of course, then when we moved to Hawaii, he switched to basic beige button downs. Why? Because all around us everyone else is as gaudy as hell. It’s part of who he is to be the one wearing what no one else is.
That said, looking like a cardboard box is now fading from his favor due to the over-excesses of Jeff Bezos making the magnificent Amazon into THE monster Amazon. Today, there are just too many Amazon boxes and they are, in part, stripping away our love of color in the actual Amazon.
My husband is an exception. He gets away with it only because he tolerates bird of paradise paraphernalia everywhere else. Hibiscus drapes, flowery sheets, and every other fabric item printed like a magenta, blue, purple and lime party explode all over the house upon reaching maximum color capacity –that’s just how our world is upholstered here.
As a form of cultural appropriation, making aloha wear something associated with oppression would be a sad end to a lovely, island tradition. That’s why we won’t let aloha wear become the next swastika.
Culture Wears
In itself, the aloha shirt, or Hawaiian prints, are already a unique blend of many cultures. The weather of the islands was the first factor, the leftover fabric from Japanese kimonos was the second factor, the love of color that mirrored vibrant foliage was another, the popularity of casual wear among soldiers from around the globe arriving in Hawaii after WWII was a factor. The international surfing craze popularized Hawaiian wear in the mid-twentieth century, which further morphed into “I’m too wimpy to surf, but I can rock beach wear.”
Another, but not the last, factor that popularized our shirts and other bright clothes is the popular fabrics themselves, usually cotton, poly blend, or silk. These come from every corner of the world to weave a rainbow to make multi-culturalism cool again.
Hilo Hatties, an island tradition in Aloha wear that employed thousands has all but disappeared locally, but online it is as popular as ever.
Legend has it that although the first fabrics were from Japanese prints and patterns, it was Ellery Chun, (whose name sounds more Chinese to me) who invented the Aloha shirt in 1936. That immigrant offerings should go full circle, from Asian origins to a symbol of racist, and anti-immigrant hatred and ranting is all too typical of how stealing and exploitation work in this world.
We can’t have nice things so long as we idolize not-nice people.
If a person wants a loving and beautiful shirt, then fine, simply be a beautiful and loving person.
Aloha is, literally, “with the: HA, (breath).” It originated with the idea of breath and spirit, but when you breathe your word, breathe, or spirit, it is intended to be done with love. Therefore, for many reasons “ALOHA” has come to be love be with you, just as “Goodbye,” is literally “God be with ye.”
The Hawaiian shirt is as popular as ever from the moment people land in the sweet humid air to the days they simply dream about tropics, palms, surf, sun, and ALOHA.
It is said with warm feeling. It is also said with our clothing as a greeting to the world.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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