MauiShirts Blog

The Shirt that says Hawai’i’ – The story behind the colorful cultural icon.

Hawai’i’ – awash in romance, marbled by different cultures, saturated with beauty, and compelling in contrasts – gave birth, over 50 years ago, to the renowned Aloha shirt. There is today probably no better-known garment in the world that captures a land’s ‘spirit of place.’ For half a century, the Aloha shirt has been Hawai’i’s most enduring and visible greeter and ambassador – like the lei, the Aloha shirt is worn as a statement of one’s love for, and connection to, a most special place.

These words from historian and waterman Tommy Holmes, from the forward of our book The Aloha Shirt, capture the true history of this marvelous cultural icon. The Aloha shirt, so evocative of the spirit of its home, is full of mystery and allure of Hawai’i’ and the stories of those who have lived here.

Different tales have circulated for decades about the origins of the Aloha shirt. Did it spring forth late one night from the hand-operated sewing machine of a Japanese tailor? Was it inspired by the tail-out shirts of the Philippines, elegant kimono cloth from Japan, or vivid floral prints for Tahiti?

There are well-documented stores from the pre-World War II years of teenagers buying wonderful, finely printed Kabe crepe material, imported from Japan, in the dry-goods stores of downtown Honolulu. These young men had their mothers sew beautiful shirts from the fabric. That tradition of beautifully sewn printed shirts spread from the Asian dry-goods merchants and home-sewers to the tailors and dress-makers of Hawai’i’, creating a new style of colorful clothing.

This all took place in the late 1920s and early 1930s, at the same time that Hawai’i’ was emerging as a paradise for tourists with the building of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu and the christening of the trio of magnificent cruise ships by Matson navigation, opening this majestic string of island to the world. Boatloads of visitors were charmed by hula dancers swaying to the rhythm of a lone ‘ukulele, enchanted by Waikiki Beach boys riding the waves on their great wooden surfboards. For those who came from afar, nothing painted a more vivid picture of Hawai’i’ than these bold shirts with their vibrant island imagery.

The early Aloha shirts most often depicted ancient symbolic imagery of the Orient. Pine and plum tree prints represented long life, good fortune, and success. The images of a tiger symbolized strength and courage. Prints of bamboo denoted strength and flexibility. Early designs were also graced with traditional images of Mount Fuji, ornate temples, or peaceful landscapes.

It was not long before local artist began to design textiles that captivated the dreamy, romantic lifestyle of their island home. Early prints that were intended for home interiors soon made their way into clothing. Elsie Das designed beautiful botanical prints of native plants ? hibiscus, breadfruit, night-blooming cereus ? as well as a humorous pattern incorporating hula girls. Ethel Chun Lum designed shirts sold by her brother Ellery Chun at his store, King-Smith Clothiers. Ellery Chun was the first person to officially register the name “Aloha Shirt.”? Ether produced designs based on her first cruise to the mainland U.S., including flying fish seen from the deck of a Matson liner.

Garment manufacturers including Kamehameha and Branfleet? (later know as Kahala), which initially produced Aloha shirts with Asian motifs in their humble factories in the mid-1930s, began to commission designs from local artists. Soon, visitors and locals alike were donning these wearable postcards awash with coconut trees, surfers, outrigger canoes, hula girls, and endless varieties of colorful tropical flowers, birds, and fish.

“Aloha shirts put Hawai’i’ on the map,” says renowned fabric designer John “King Keoni” Meigs. “The first thing people did when they arrived was to make a beeline for a department store to buy one.”

Meigs was one of many flamboyant designers in the Gold Age of Aloha shirts, which ran from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. for inspiration, they shared the sunsets, beaches, flowers, and rainforests of Hawai’i’. They and their visionary colleagues – manufactures, artists, and retailers – formed the community that created this memorable art form.

Celebrities of the time – such as John Barrymore, Bing Crosby, and Elvis Presley – were widely photographed wearing the shirts. Duke Kahamamoku, Hawai?i?s most beloved surfer and Olympic swimming champion, was the earliest and greatest promoter of the Aloha shirt. Duke even had his own line of shirts, which are widely coveted by collectors today.

Whether you fancy a collectible from the 1930’s or a modern style of? today, the Aloha shirt remains a symbol of the casual, carefree, and graceful Hawaiian lifestyle.

Reprinted from the Artful Living, The Legacy of Kukui’ula magazine, Spring, 2007. Dale Hope and Gregory Tozian are the authors of The Aloha Shirt, (Beyone Words Publishing, 2000).

Adrienne Uncategorized

This one makes me laugh out loud when it happens. And, it does happen about once a month. I get an angry email or phone call on this.

“I opened my shipment box and I received only one shirt.” Or, “the pants in my cabana set are not in the box.” Or, “I bought two dresses and there is only one in the box.”

And, so on. 100% of the time the second item is folded into the first item or the small pants are inside the shirt. People love to rush to judgement. All the customer has to do is really open the box and unfold the contents.

For some unknown reason they rush to judgement and think someone is trying to gyp them. Or, the packer is missing one eye. Or, a mistake has been made. I have packed over 30,000 boxes. I do not let anyone pack my shipments except me. I do make mistakes. I’m human, you know. The exact weight is taken of each shipment. It is easy to prove that all items have been placed into the shipment box by simply duplicating the contents.

In every single instance, I have to duplicate the contents to make sure. I take my time to do this sort of thing. I call them back or email them back and tell them to unfold the contents, shake it out, etc. 100% of the time, the customer is embarrassed and apologetic. So, what is the moral of this short story. Most people don’t know a good deal even if it slaps them in the face. They are looking for trouble. If you look for trouble, believe me, you will find it.

Adrienne Uncategorized

If you have no sense of humor and find my comments offensive, please go away. If you have thin skin, please do not read my blog. If you can’t find humor here, you have a serious problem. I’m not your doctor or psychologist. I have no cures for you here. If you have something to say that is negative, please post it here. This is a public forum. Other people might like to laugh with you or at you, as I do and can. We are selling Aloha Wear here. What is the RUSH! This is my web site. I can say whatever I want. Let me repeat myself. If you can’t find humor here then please go away. Go buy some polyester garment made in Pakistan. Shop at your local supermarket for your Hawaiian shirts.

If you can’t read the information on the web site that is in your face about the time it takes to fulfill your order and how much it cost to ship, and how things should be sent back for exchanges and all the other easy to locate information, then I have no qualms what so ever to blast you here. Say what you want. Don’t take your silly, unfounded complaints to the Better Business Bureau and threaten me. Get a life !!! I am proud of my memberships and affiliations. I pay and donate thousands of dollars a year to other organizations. There is always, (ALWAYS), one bad apple in the barrel who wants to spoil the rest of us. There are a lot of evil, vindictive people out there. Remember this. Ignorance is bliss. It can be educated upon. Stupid has no cure. Stupid is forever.

Here is one customer’s complaint:

I ordered a shirt on Saturday because I needed the shirt by Thursday the 24th. I called to check the status of my order and it went downhill from there. I got an awful voice mail saying he doesn’t have time to answer the phone. Just an awful message. I was speechless after I heard him rant & rave. I had called the number last night and there was a feminine voice on the answering machine reminding callers that they are 3-6 hrs. different than the mainland. So I called back today and got the owners message about why is everyone in such a hurry on the mainland. Just because you ordered a shirt 3 days ago doesn’t mean you’ll get it that soon. Well had I known that I wouldn’t have paid the 2-day postal fee. I wouldn’t have ordered it at all. I went to his web site and clicked on MauiShirts.com BLOG. After 2 or 3 lines into it I knew I wouldn’t be getting my shirt on time. Not one time in the ordering process did it say 2 day service doesn’t really mean 2 days. Anyway his blog just rips his customers and I don’t think it’s a company that the BBB would want to have their emblem on.

My comments to this silly, Scurrilous complaint:

Let me set the record straight. This customer ordered a $ $ 29.70 shirt after hours on a Sunday, not Saturday. Her order shipped out 4 days later. (That is not too bad). She called on a Tuesday to check out the status of her order. Sheesh. She did not leave a message with any information pertinent to her order. She did not leave her full name, phone number or order number. I remember her comments on the telephone. Something like … ” you are mean and rude…” They were just silly. There was no way to respond to her. The exact wording on the shipping page, and in no less than three other areas of the web site, clearly states: “2nd Day Air DOES NOT necessarily mean that you will receive your order in 2 days!” She failed to read it. (I should have been there to hold her hand). She had to check mark the shipping box in the shopping cart when she checked out. There is no way to check out and process the order unless she check marked the box. It was there in bold letters.

I am a small business that offers the finest made in Hawaii aloha wear on the planet. I’m inundated and overwhelmed with orders 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I receive over 10,000 page views per day. That computes to 500 to 1,000 unique visitors every day. My web site is the 7th ranked Aloha wear site in the world.

My blog is a tongue-in-cheek representation of people like this person. People who are thin skinned and in a rush and expect everything must go their way.

I am unable to satisfy all of the people all of the time. I can satisfy most of the people all of the time. My repeat business is enormous. MauiShirts.com is in the top 3% of all of Yahoo merchants with respect to customer satisfaction. My Amazon.com rating is 95%. My eBay rating is 99.8%.

Here is the Better Business Bureau’s response to this customer:

From: Pearl Malalis
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 10:45 AM

Thank you for the information you provided regarding the above-mentioned company. Your correspondence was received by the BBB on May 23, 2007 and has been assigned case# 52004089 in our files.

We appreciate your effort in bringing this to our attention. Information from the public is always valuable to us.

Per your request, I reviewed this company’s website www.mauishirts.com. Immediately a pop-up appeared that stays up saying “Important notice. Please read the information on the above page links before you place your order. If you do not READ the Important Information you will have nothing to complain about if things do not go your way.” To close the box, you must click on “Close Box”. I clicked on “Important Information and Shipping, where I read a warning not to expect shipment in just a few days and the reasons why. I found the information, explanation and reasons frank and to the point, and helpful to consumers who are considering ordering from this company. Since all this information is given before the ordering process, it does not appear necessary to repeat the same information during the ordering process.

As you have not requested our mediation services in regards to this issue, this will become a part of the BBB’s internal file on the business to monitor possible patterns in complaints.

Sincerely,

Pearl Malalis
Service Representative
BBB Complaint Department

Keeping the Aloha in Business

Adrienne Uncategorized

I’m not your maid, servant or valet

What is wrong with you people? Why are you sending back your shirts and dresses unbuttoned, unzipped and stuffed into a used box sealed with duct tape? There has been a rash of this lately. How would you like me to send you your shirts and dresses all crumpled up and wrinkled, unbuttoned and shoved into a box without any concern? I rarely invoke the $ 7.50 steaming fee, especially if the items being returned are for an exchange. But, I’ll tell you this. Your refund will be issued to you when I find the time to steam your garments. Your refund will go to the bottom of the stack. That’s for sure!

I send your purchase folded flat, wrapped in tissue paper and placed securely into a box. I take great care to get your items to you in the best possible condition.

Don’t you folks have a table at home? It only takes a few seconds to lay something flat and fold it. What’s the big deal?

Adrienne Uncategorized

Now here is one for the books.

A man purchased a few shirts close to over a year ago. He sends me an email and says the shirts he purchased less than a year ago have manufacturing defects and flaws. The threads around the collar and button holes are unraveling. He wants to exchange them for new shirts and he offers to pay the shipping. The shirts arrive in a used shipping bag, (one that was previously used to send him something else), totally and unbelievably crumpled, unbuttoned, smelling from laundry detergent like they just came out of the washing machine. In my nine years in business, this was a first. What nerve. No wonder the threads were unraveling. You can?t mistreat the rayon shirts by putting them in a washing machine. My goodness, you are paying $50 to $60 dollars for a quality shirt. You need to take care of it. Don?t toss it in with your underwear. You must cold water wash or send to a dry cleaners. I sent him an email answer when the shirts were logged in on Maui. I told him that I would not issue a refund and I would not send them back to him. I told him they were in such poor condition that should be in the trash can. I?m sure I?ve not heard the end of this. Oh, well. Just another day in paradise on the valley isle of Maui.

Adrienne Uncategorized

Now we have the small minded customers who, for what ever reason, do not receive the email I send them that informed them that their selection was either sold out or was temporarily out of stock. Is it my fault if they delete or miss my email? Is it my fault that their rush order did not get filled? Is it my fault that they wait until the last minute and have poor planning? Is it my fault that someone else purchased the last one of the item they wanted?

Hey! Did you ever hear of a thing called a TELEPHONE. There is a toll free number on the bottom area of all 2,500 pages of my web site. Call, you silly screw ups. Get off my back.

I do answer the phone when I’m not packing your rush orders. Leave a message and don’t just hang up. And, don’t forget I don’t answer the phone between 3 A.M. and 5 A.M. when most of you like to call. Bah! Mainlanders.

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Here are some examples of what I deal with on a daily basis. “It’s Tuesday. I need my dress on Friday!” Or, I like these. “I’m getting married next week. Could you please stop what you are doing and take care of me, NOW.” “Please ship my wedding dress so I will have it in three days!” “I know you are 9,000 miles away from me in New York, but I don’t care.” Or, how about this one. “I don?t understand your size charts. I’m going to buy three sizes and expect to send two of them back to you.” (They will come back unzipped, unbutton, crumpled up and shoved into a box). I think I will also buy a couple of different styles too. And, I don’t want to pay any re-stocking fees. I don’t care if I take away the ability for someone else to buy these dresses. It makes no difference to me that you only have two or three of each in those sizes. I’m only interested in taking care of me. Everyone else can go screw themselves. And, by the way, why is your shipping charges to much money. Sheesh. Get a life.

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They send me nasty email about my poor customer service. They point their finger at me. They shout with bold letters and complain that my customer service is poor. They go out of their way to leave negative feedback in the public forum. They say I communicate poorly.

Well, when I run up on a goof like this, I simply block their IP address, place their email in the spam blocker and get on with life and real people. I have tried to deal with these negative people. I try to reason with them. It’s simply a waste of my time. They are bent on screwing with me. I will not deal with people who want to bring me down to their level of incompetence.

These people should shop for their Aloha wear at Sears or J. C. Penny or even better, Hilo Hattie.

Go buy your made in Pakistan polyester garments. Leave me alone. Go anywhere, but not on my web site.

No one works harder than me when it comes to taking care of my real customers’ needs. I work seven days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day. 99% of my customers are people who are reasonable and appreciate top of the line aloha wear, at some of the lowest prices on the planet, and know I offer the best customer service a person could ask for.

READ MY FEEDBACK. The wonderful things people say didn’t get there from having poor customer service. Look at the Kudos page. For every screwed up customer there are 1,000 good ones. Thank goodness.

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Adrienne Customer's Communicate

You?re going to love this little tidbit. In my nine years of doing business on-line offering returns and exchanges I?ve literally received hundreds of boxes, bags, packages, envelopes of all kinds, shapes and sizes. I hate them when they are sealed with duct tape. You would be surprised how many people just crumple up their return apparel as if it was someone?s laundry and shove it without any care into some bag or envelope. Put some stamps on it and drop it into the closest Post Office box on the corner of some street.

The other day a lady returned a Long Tank dress folded and rolled so small that it barely squeezed into a box a little larger than a deck of cards. How she managed this feat is hard to imagine. This was, by far, the worst case of a returned item. Where was this person?s common sense? The creases and wrinkles in this dress took over 45 minutes to steam out. When I deducted the $ 7.50 from her refund she sent an email telling me that this information should have been told to her before she made her purchase. She also said that the dress and shirt she purchased were received by her in wrinkled condition. She accused me of not doing the math correctly and demanded I refund an additional $ 7.50.

Let me state, without any BS, right here and now. All apparel is folded and neatly wrapped in sheets of tissue paper with great care. They are placed into a large USPS Priority or Federal Express box for protection. Some wrinkles will occur. After all, these are rayon clothes. They wrinkle.

Not only did this tiny wrapping person not read the information in the email sent to her when she asked for the return, she did not see it on the check out page either. There is no small print. I do not try to hide anything from anyone about these sort of things. She did not read it from a link on the top of all 2,500 pages. It?s called RETURNS / EXCHANGES / REFUNDS. No other web site makes this information so easy to find. And, to top it off, she did not read the 8 ?” X 11″ color letter head notice on how to send things back to Maui she received in her shipment box. The information was in her face in RED. She not only ignored all this information, she sent the package back via First Class mail. This cost her a couple of extra dollars instead of using Priority Mail that is suggested in the email she received and recommended on the returns/exchanges/ refund page. She did purchase another item that she kept and did not exchange or return. I felt sorry for her that I had to deduct 15% restocking fee along with the $ 7.50 steaming cost. I gave her a coupon code worth $ 10.00 for any subsequent purchase. I?ve not heard back from her.

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Package Manager, M.S.O.I.

Adrienne Uncategorized

Why is everyone on the Mainland in a rush? 90% of all orders state they need their Aloha Wear in a few days. Why? What?s the rush? Aloha and Rush just don?t line up. It doesn?t make any sense. Is it the first thing you need because you are coming to the Islands and the last thing you purchased? Did you get some sun tan lotion?

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I?m one man doing the job of three. I pack 200 to 300 or more boxes of Aloha Wear every freaking week. I work 12 to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. If I leave at 5 PM, I going home early. I ship more boxes via Federal Express 2^nd Day air from West Maui than anyone.

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It?s all good. I?m not complaining. I?m living in Paradise.

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What irks me is the phone calls and the emails asking “Where is my order. I placed it two days ago. I selected 2^nd day Federal Express, etc.” First of all, let me make this perfectly clear, (and it?s stated in several areas on the web site pages), 2^ND DAY AIR DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN YOU ARE GOING TO RECEIVE YOUR SHIPMENT IN TWO DAYS! It?s just the way things are shipped from the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There is no bridge or tunnel to the Mainland. And, please take note of this; It is virtually impossible to stock every print, in every color and in every style and size all of the time. Please consider this. The web site is updated every day through out the day to reflect on-hand stocks and inventory, exchanges and refunds. Many things have to come in from the factories in Honolulu. (That?s on Oahu – another island). I stock over 5,000 shirts and dresses all of the time. I would need a showroom a Mainland city block long to keep every item in every size and color in stock. And, I would need, my best guess, at least two million dollars to buy and stock all these things so you can get you Aloha Wear in RUSH time.

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So, stop sending email and making the toll free phone calls to check on the status of your order two days after you placed it on line. The phone starts to ring here at 3 a.m. in the morning. Don?t you know that New York and all dem Eastern States are SIX HOURS ahead of us folks on Maui? Hawaii time does not change. All you Mainlanders change your clocks a few times a year. It?s got to a point where I simply can not answer the phone to answer these ?check on my order? questions, nor can I ever empty my Email In Box, because there is not enough time in the day to pack your rush orders and answer the silly questions.

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So, you say, “hire some help”. Sheesh. This is Maui. No one wants to work here. Surf?s up! Sorry, boss I can?t come in today. This is the real Blue Flu. Ocean Blue flu. Maui has the lowest unemployment rate anywhere. You can?t find dependable people to work. I have to start pay at $ 15.00 per hour to find the same kind of person that slings cheeseburgers or pizza. Quality help is rare and few and far between.

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Read my feedback. It?s on the top left of every page. YOUR ORDER WILL SHIP OUT AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. This is Maui. Chill out. Relax. You are going to get what you ordered in a very reasonable time frame.

Adrienne Uncategorized

Re-stocking fee? What in the world is that? I?ll tell you. It’s not just a re-stocking fee. It’s a handling, re-listing and re-stocking fee. It helps defray the cost of re-listing that item you purchased. It probably made no difference to you that the item you purchased?was the last size or last color. Why should you care??The small 15% fee?helps defray the cost of un-listing the item you purchased and it helps defray the cost of re-listing it when you return it because you didn?t bother to use the published size charts. The paperwork you create is in itself a little nightmare. More times than not, you fail to mention your order numbers. You use two different email addresses. You don?t follow the simple instructions in the email you receive. You write cryptic notes and enclose them in your return box. You need an email sent to you for clarification. You enclose your phone number. What a joke. Maui is 3 to 6 hours earlier than you from the Mainland. There is no time for phone tag. You think that you are the only customer I have? You think I can remember every transaction? Think again. Please, pretty please. Every week, over 200 transactions or more?occur. It is impossible to remember every nuance of every transaction. There are literally over one thousand new transactions per month.

There is no automatic magic button that updates and deletes and adds these things to the web site pages. It?s done with time and care by hand. It?s labor. Tedious exacting labor. Oh, it didn?t fit. But, what about the other person that wanted that item. It might have?have fit them.

You are buying high quality apparel that is hand made in very limited quantities. The size charts are accurate, much to your dismay and chagrin. If you are one of those people who will not admit that you can not fit into a 2X size, please shop somewhere else. Try a Mu’uMu’u or consider Hilo Hattie for your next purchase. If you are a woman who is 150 lbs. and 5′ 1″, I doubt if any item offered here will fit you. Get real. If you are difficult to fit, then you know you are wasting your time and mine.

Re-stocking fee. It helps pay for the steaming and ironing of the items that you stuff into a box, unbuttoned or unzipped and put into an envelope and send back as if I were your valet. Well, I?m not your personal valet and I?m not happy for the dozens of items returned each month for exchange that are sent back without any care what-so-ever. I?m not your mother. If I have to fold your clothes and hang them up as if you were a little child, I must charge you for the time it takes to do this. If you begrudge the 15% fee, then, please, I beg of?you,?shop somewhere else.

And, most important, for those folks that fold and ship with care, I salute you. You are NOT the majority. You are the exception. I love you. I move your exchange, return to the top of the stack. You get your refund very quickly.

I take great care in folding and packing your items. Please do your best and return your items in good condition so I can re-stock and re-sell it. Please. Pretty please.

Adrienne Uncategorized

Aloha world,

Let it be public knowledge that there are no two manufacturers of apparel on this planet that can agree on size measurements. The measurements in the size charts on MauiShirts.com pertain ONLY to the apparel Made in Hawaii and, quite frankly, I doubt if they measure up to any other manufacturer who make their garments in Pakistan, Honduras, Mexico, China or any third world nation. PLEASE use the measurements in the size charts published on just about every single page here, to help determine your size. We all know that there are no two people built the same way, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But, these size charts will help you make an educated decision. Don?t think that the size you purchased from some department store is going to be the same. Most size measurements are meant, with all good intentions, for the average person. But, then again, what is average. Remember there is no re-stocking fee for exchanges.

Adrienne Uncategorized