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We pride ourselves in selling the most authentic
Hawaiian shirts and dresses.
Despite relentless pressure from foreign manufactures, all of
our Hawaiian shirts and dresses are still made in Hawaii. For
those of you who always wondered how these fun pieces of
clothing are made, read on! |
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Hawaiian Shirt Pattern
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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, and overall shirt length. |
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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 paper before refining
them on a computer. 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.
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Confined Print Rolls
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There
are two kinds of prints, confined and open. Confined prints
are typically owned by each shirt or dress manufacturer. Open
prints are usually owned by the fabric manufacturer and
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 very protective of their
intellectual property. |
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Rolling out fabric for cutting
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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. |
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Button Machine
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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, the nearly completed Hawaiian shirts
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. |
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Semi-finished shirts
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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. |
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Finished Hawaiian Shirts
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All
of our Hawaiian shirts and dresses are made
this way, right here in Honolulu, Hawaii. Although the local
manufacturers are facing relentless pricing 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. |
