Vintage Hawaiian Shirts: How to Find, Maintain, and Store a Piece of Hawaiian History
By leahlefler
Beautiful and Authentic Hawaiian Shirts
While many cheap knock-offs are available on today's market, owning a vintage Hawaiian shirt is like owning a piece of island history. Manufactured from 1930-1950, vintage Hawaiian shirts are high quality garments made out of Rayon, cotton, or silk. Brilliant designs and intricate buttons lend quality detail to shirts that are truly works of art.
Determining Authenticity
Authentic vintage Hawaiian shirts will be made out of Rayon, cotton, or silk. A Hawaiian shirt manufactured with Polyester is not vintage, as Polyester did not come into use until shirts were mass produced in the modern era.
Verify the Hawaiian shirt has a tag stating "Made in Hawaii." While some authentic vintage Hawaiian shirts were manufactured in Japan or California, the highest quality (and highest value) shirts were manufactured in Hawaii. Many vintage Hawaiian shirts will specify "Made in Honolulu."
Vintage Hawaiian shirts will have intricate buttons manufactured from coconut, shell, metal, or wood. Shirts from the later vintage period may also contain buttons made from Bakelite. The buttonholes are almost always horizontal in vintage Hawaiian shirts: modern reproductions often have vertical buttonholes.
Quality vintage Hawaiian shirts will be hemmed with a double seam, and will not have collar stays. The earliest Hawaiian shirts were manufactured from silk or cotton, but Rayon Hawaiian shirts have the most value, since they hold up well over time.
Consult a list of authentic vintage Hawaiian shirt manufacturers prior to investing in an expensive shirt.
- Made in Hawaii
- Malihini
- McGregor
- McInerny's
- Musashiya
- Nani
- Okolehao
- Pali
- Paradise Hawaii
- Paradise Sportswear
- Penneys
- Pilgrim
- Polynesian Sportswear
- Ross Sutherland
- Royal Hawaiian
- Royal Palm
- Shaheen's
- Silver of Hawaii
- Surfriders Sportswear
- Waikiki Sports
- Watumulls
List of Authentic Vintage Hawaiian Shirt Manufacturers
- Alii Lole
- Andrade
- Artvogue
- Ashfield
- Campus
- Catalina
- Diamondhead SW
- Duke Kahanamoku
- Hale Hawaii
- Hawaiian Surf
- HoAloha
- Hookano
- Iolani
- Jantzen
- Kahala
- Kamehameha
- Kilohana
- Kramer's
- Kuonakakai
- Lauhala
- Liberty House
- Made in California
A Piece of Hawaiian History
Caring for a Vintage Shirt
Vintage Hawaiian shirts must never be machine washed or dried. Dry clean vintage shirts, or wash them by hand with a gentle detergent. Vintage Hawaiian shirts must always be air dried on a hangar, preferably out of direct sunlight.
Shirts made out of rayon are particularly fragile when wet: rayon has a known tendency to tear easily when the fabric is wet. Never try to wring out a wet rayon shirt - hang it on a plastic hanger and allow it to dry.
Always unbutton vintage Hawaiian shirts prior to washing, and never wring the garment. Use padded hangars when setting the shirts out to dry. Do not use wire coat hangers, because they may leave rust spots on the garment!
Storing a Vintage Hawaiian Shirt
Three methods are available for storing vintage Hawaiian shirts.
- Wrap the shirt in acid-free paper and store in a box in a cool, dry place. This method is only acceptable if the shirt is in an environment with low humidity.
- In arid areas, store the shirt in a dark, dry closet on a padded hangar. If the environment has any humidity or light, do not store the shirt in this manner.
- Wrap the shirt in acid-free paper and store in a vacuum sealed bag, with silica gel packets for extra security against moisture. This is the only acceptable storage method in humid environments.
Remember, the worst enemies of a vintage Hawaiian shirt are light and moisture. Protect this piece of island history from both elements, and the Hawaiian shirt will remain in its original glory.
Vintage Hawaiian Shirts on eBay
|
VTG COOKE STREET HONOLULU REVERSE PRINT HAWAIIAN SHIRT XL
Current Bid: $12.99
|
Finding Vintage Hawaiian Shirts
Authentic vintage Hawaiian shirts may be found on the islands of Hawaii and by stores and collectors throughout the United States. For tourists visiting the islands, this is a wonderful opportunity to bring home a unique and valuable souvenir. The advent of online shopping makes purchasing an authentic vintage Hawaiian shirt possible for anyone on the planet.
The Hana Shirt Company is a well respected seller of vintage Hawaiian shirts. Located in Tucson, Arizona, the company has sold shirts to Jimmy Buffet and Barrack Obama.
Vintage Aloha Shirts is located in Hawaii, and offers vintage Hawaiian shirts from each decade of the vintage era.
Take care when purchasing vintage Hawaiian shirts from eBay or other unknown online sellers: it is difficult to examine the shirt and determine authenticity from online photographs.
Comments
rmcrayne, thank you for the notification the rss feed wasn't working! I tried using "save link location." Hopefully this will work!
Yep, looks like you're all set now.
Thank goodness! I've never included an RSS feed into a hub before: I suppose you learn something new every day!
Great hub, thanks for sharing
take care
Eiddwen
I like the tips for Determining Authenticity, you can extend some of those to other vintage garments.
Hmm...this was interesting.
Do you suppose any might be found in thrift shops, where they may not be too high-priced?
If you're really lucky, you might run across an authentic shirt at a garage sale or thrift store. The vintage shirts are pretty rare, though - collectors snap them up very quickly!
Congrats on the 90+ score. You have been facebooked, tweeted, and blogged. And blue-barred mostly across the board. Blog post will show up shortly; as to Tweet-count update, they have been getting better at that). That's the way it is. :-)
Wow - thanks, paradigmsearch! I feel (almost) famous! Thanks for the facebook/tweet/blog posts!
Interesting hub. My dad had a really cool shirt that I wish I had kept now. I'm not sure if it was an authentic Hawaiian shirt but it sure was cool!
We lived in California for a long time and we used to go down to Main Street in Ventura, where there were a lot of antique and vintage shops - with a lot of authentic Hawaiian shirts! I wish I had bought one back them (live and learn)! Thanks for the comment, Dorsi!
Wow. Liberty House. I remember that store. This reminds me of my dad's closet before we moved house. I should have checked to see if his were "authentic". I think most of his clothes went to charity or was in put in storage. This was an interesting HUB indeed.
I miss Hawaii - I have only been to Hawaii twice (once to Oahu and once to Kauai), but it is my absolute favorite place on the planet. I really want to get back to the islands for another visit, though it is a longer trek from Western New York! Now I have to look for Hawaiian shirts on eBay! Thanks for the comment, gkanekoa!
I have an authentic Hawaiian Men's Rayon shirt hibisus, Light and dark blue large print, buttons are silver, metal buttons with Hawaiian crest, Aloha Hawaii on bottom of each button, custom made by Margo's of Honolulu, Hawaii...I have many more, my Great Uncle Charlie Harris was the very first? or early on Merriemonarch Grand Marshall, He was very good friend with George Naope? Not sure of the spelling but I have Buttons, fliers and other Hawaiian Memorbelia from the late 50's early 60's.
Medorikay, that is so very cool - I absolutely love vintage Hawaiian shirts. There is something wonderful about owning a piece of history! The name is George Na'ope - the co-founder of the Hula festival, right? It is so important to preserve the culture and the art!
rmcrayne 15 months ago
Your RSS feed is not working. Go back to Princessa's link, right click, and select "copy hyperlink", "copy shortcut" or whatever your system says. Merely selecting "copy" is where the problem lies.