45 years in an Hawaiian shirt

The ideal garment for a sunny day is an Hawaiian shirt. I’ve been wearing them since I was in my early twenties. Soft and drapey, ideally in viscose (aka rayon), they are cool in all senses of the world.

Here I am in the late 1970s in what was possibly my first Hawaiian shirt. I don’t often wear them with a suit. It was almost certainly made of viscose fabric.

This cotton version, from 1977, is more a Hawaiian-inspired fashion shirt than a true aloha shirt, but it’s a jolly print.

Another inexpensive viscose one from the late 1970s, possibly bought at Flip, the large store selling vintage American clothes on Long Acre, Covent Garden, which had tons of old aloha shirts.

A couple more I wore on a road trip to the USA in the early 1980s. The full-length image was taken in Las Vegas, the darker one in Los Angeles.

Another related shirt: This heavy cotton number with the charming and naive print had a label bearing the slogan “Hechado in Mexico” (Made in Mexico). I bought it from a thrift store on a visit to the USA and kept it for many years.

Another favourite aloha from the late 1990s (my son Teddy was born in 1994). This is a very sophisticated print with lots of colours. I probably bought it new in the USA.

On a trip to California in the late 1990s, I bought new some aloha shirts by the Hawaii-based maker Reyn Spooner which today has a website to sell in Europe.

As the label explains, they are made in Hawaii of Japanese spun rayon fabric. My favourite example is one that features a print of Hawaiian shirts. Even the pocket is matched neatly.

This remains my No 1 shirt. All I need is for the summer to arrive and it will be on show again.

If you want to know more about Hawaiian shirts, seek out the book “The Aloha Shirt” by Dale Hope & Gregory Tozian (Thames & Hudson 2002). Its a superb history of the phenomenon with 725 illustrations. Highly recommended.

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