From Kitsch to Chic: The Transformation of Hawaiian Shirt Aesthetics

Abstract

The Hawaiian shirt originated in the mid-1930s as a commodity for the tourist market. Unique elements in its design, including tropical print motifs in cartoon-like renditions, brilliant colors, and silky rayon fabrics made the shirt instantly recognizable and contributed to its status as both an essential souvenir purchase and the quintessential element in the stereotype of the tourist as sartorial nerd. An analysis of the transformation of the shirt - from tourist kitsch to highly valued collectible, and from collectible to global fashion - is framed on rubbish theory. The transformation is traced to an assortment of myths that reconstitute the souvenir commodity as an indigenous ethnic art form and a scarce relic of Hawai‘i’s romanticized past and to a surfeit of publications that position the shirt as a collector’s item. The merits of rubbish theory as a framework for the analysis are assessed, and apparel scholars are asked to consider the influence of myth and scholarship on changes in the aesthetic codes of other fashion and appearance-related commodities.

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