Bahama Bob in 2000 |
It its all about the way that I dress that spawned the nickname "Bahama Bob" and the Aloha style shirts that I so enjoy wearing. It is amazing to me how that it keeps returning again and again. In an article in the "Huffington Post", there is a great history of the shirts and how they are returning again to the mainstream today. This is a feeling that I have enjoyed several times in my lifetime as the style seems to be an everlasting one that really makes me smile a lot.
Bursting At The Seams: The Trend Grows In Popularity
Nixon in the 50's |
The word "aloha" was thrown around a lot in the
'30s as tourism grew, but Musa-Shiya Shoten, an inspired shirt-maker, was
probably the first person to ever use "aloha shirt"in print. He ran an ad in a 1935 issue of the "Honolulu Advertiser" for
"Aloha" shirts: "well tailored, beautiful designs and radiant
colors: 95¢." Later, Ellery Chun noticed the hot trend and trademarked the
phrase as a way to keep his store in business during the Depression.
According to Dr. Bradley, aloha shirts of the '30s were
technically "hash print," or a "hodgepodge of images [slapped] onto a shirt
using linoleum stamps." During the war, stationed servicemen bought tons of these shirts, which served as a colorful antithesis to their
uniforms, but it wasn't until a design house led by Alfred Shaheen hired salaried artists in the '50s that the style really took off.
Elvis in the 60's |
Shaheen's mass-produced shirts were sold in 3,600 stores
on the mainland, as well as stores in France, Hong Kong, London, Samoa and
Cuba. Today, they fetch tens of thousands of dollars each at auctions. One of
Shaheen's early designs, the Tiare Tapa, was worn by Elvis on the cover of
"Blue Hawaii" in 1961.
The 1960s also saw a huge shift in aloha shirt design:
the reverse print, a more subdued style that looks like a shirt sewn inside
out. Design house Reyn Spooner first put the reverse print out and locals loved
them. "The reverse shirt was something special," Pua Rochlen,
president of Jams World, told Hope in "The Aloha Shirt." "It was
for the kama'aina, not for the malihini tourists."
When Shirt Hit The Fan: The Hawaiian Shirt's Fall From
Grace
The 1970s and '80s were a dark period for aloha shirts.
The popularity of a mustachioed Tom
Selleck in the television series "Magnum,
P.I." had every paunchy guy thinking he could look as macho as Magnum if
he, too, wore aloha shirts. Rochlen told The Huffington Post that the Hawaii
style presented in "Magnum, P.I." "wasn't about embracing unique
fabrics, color, art, and imagery." For instance, Magnum's Jungle Bird
shirt -- which is now included in theSmithsonian's collection -- was a basic print: a blue shirt with parrots on it.
But as Rochlen points out, "it was Tom Selleck. He could have been wearing
toilet paper and we would have chased the best toilet paper in the world."
Tom Selleck in the 70's and 80's |
The real blow to aloha shirts' cred came later, according
to Hope, who says you can pinpoint the date to August 1993, the month the brand Tommy Bahama was born.
Tommy Bahama ushered in a new era for island resort wear.
It championed a Jimmy Buffett Parrothead
lifestyle that confused the public's perception of aloha shirts, ultimately
dooming the term to nothing more than kitsch.
Read More at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/08/hawaiian-shirt-history_n_6173708.html
Today you will still find me wearing the colors of the "aloha shirt" proudly behind the bar at the Rum Bar at the Speakeasy Inn in Key West. It is a part of me that I don't see me changing in this lifetime. One that makes me feel young and full of life , something that the colors and the life of the shirt keep alive in me. ;o)
Read More at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/08/hawaiian-shirt-history_n_6173708.html
Bahama Bob Today |
Today you will still find me wearing the colors of the "aloha shirt" proudly behind the bar at the Rum Bar at the Speakeasy Inn in Key West. It is a part of me that I don't see me changing in this lifetime. One that makes me feel young and full of life , something that the colors and the life of the shirt keep alive in me. ;o)
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ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I'm a big fan of the shirts, they make me smile. I have been wearing them in some way shape or form since the 80s. They have become more and more a part of my wardrobe over the years, to the point where I have work clothes and Aloha shirts in my closet with very little in between.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the article that Magnum and Tommy Bahama ruined the shirt, if anything TB raised the style from garish rayon prints (not there's anything wrong with that) to higher end fabrics and styles.
Selleck made them "with jeans" cool IMHO.