Design Characteristics and Development Process of Aloha Shirt

알로하 셔츠의 발전 과정과 디자인 특성

"Aloha" is the Hawaiian word that extends the warmth friendliness, and pride of the Hawaiian people to their island's visitors. The aloha shirt truly symbolizes aloha sprit to islanders and visitors alike. The earliest foreign settlers in the Hawaiian Islands were the Chinese and Japanese. They brought with them their myriad talents and trades, among them the art of tailoring. In July of 1936, a shirtmaker named Ellery J.Chun coined the term "Aloha Shirt" an apt characterization for such an eloquent garment. He was the first to make the shirt on a commercial basis. The shirt sold for as little as a dollar in Chun's own King-Smith store. The genuine aloha shirt is now regaled as a work of art and avidly sought out by collectors. When tourism came to Hawaii in the late 1930s, these unusal shirts were among the first thing that visitors had to have. Local designers and tailors worked quickly to meet the demand and began to expand the range of decoration to include palm trees and romantic beaches, tropical jungles and volcanoes, exotic flowers and scenes from polynesian legend. Therefore the aloha shirt had been born. The functional use of creative colors and amazing artistic renderings in these shirts certainly capture the simplicity and sprit of Hawaii. Aloha shirt is dress that display mystery and charm of Hawaii and cultural symbol of condensed Hawaiian mind. Furthermore, the innocence with which Hawaiians formerly translated their life and heritage onto fabric ranks these shirts with the finest of American folk art. Aloha shirt is made from cotton, silk, rayon in present and past. Most important design element of Aloha shirt is print pattern. Main print pattern of Aloha shirt are all over pattern, horizontal pattern, border pattern, Japanese pattern, picture pattern and back panel pattern. In this study I investigate the design characteristics and development process of aloha shirt.