UH Hilo hosts exhibition of select alohawear from UH Mānoa’s Historic Fashion Collection
The exhibition was held in conjunction with the 23rd New Directions in the Humanities Conference, an international conference hosted by UH Hilo in June.
By Susan Enright/UH Hilo Stories.
The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo hosted a special alohawear exhibition this summer featuring items from UH Mānoa’s Historic Fashion Collection. The collection was curated by Andrew Reilly, a professor of family and consumer sciences at UH Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience, and featured designs from iconic local designers Allen Akina (1940-1991), Puamana Crabbe, and Sig Zane among others.
The exhibition was set up in UH Hilo’s Mookini Library and took visitors through the major fashion moments in alohawear from the 1930s onward. Featured pieces included (see photos and placards below):
- 1930s orange and black vintage holoku with train that was chosen Best In Show
- 1940s purple and blue holomuʻu
- Allen Akina black and white muʻumuʻu
- Puamana Crabbe pink and blue muʻumuʻu
- Navy and blue palaka aloha shirt
- Red and white postcard aloha shirt
- Olive green reverse aloha shirt
- Dark green Sig Zane ti leaf aloha shirt
- Blue and yellow palm wave aloha shirt
The exhibition was held in conjunction with the 23rd New Directions in the Humanities Conference, an international conference hosted by UH Hilo in June.
“Alohawear represents a rich history of Hawaiʻi and we are thankful to have this opportunity to share some of the development of iconic pieces,” says Professor Reilly, who presented his papers on “Paradise Fashioned: Entanglements Between Fashion and Empire in Hawaiʻi” and “Sustaining Kanaka Maoli Values in Fashion” at the conference. “Paradise” was co-presented with Christen Sasaki, a former professor of history at UH West Oʻahu.
Reilly was assisted in setting up and running the exhibition by UH Mānoa graduate student Terri-Lee Bixby.
“The exhibition is such a wonderful opportunity to invite community and conference members to learn more about the history of Alohawear,” says Bixby, who presented her paper, “Our Digital Kuleana: Practicing Malama for Hawaiʻi’s Historic Fashion Collection through Digital Preservation,” at the conference. “I’m grateful for the UH Hilo Edwin H. Mookini Library for hosting this exhibition, and I’m excited to keep bringing UH Mānoaʻs Historic Fashion Collection to the community.”
- Learn more about the UH Mānoa Historic Fashion Collection (which has 10,000 pieces!) on Instagram.
UH Hilo Associate Professor of English Leanne Day, who was on the conference’s steering committee says, “The exhibit was so much fun to set-up and Terri-Lee had the brilliant idea to hang the aloha shirts from the ceiling, which really added a level of depth to the visuality of the pieces.”
Day notes that Mookini Library Hawaiian Collection Librarian Annemarie Paikai helped coordinate the exhibition. “We also borrowed dress forms from the UH Hilo Department of Performing Arts as well as one dress form from Professor Emeritus Jackie Pualani Johnson, who was keynote speaker for the conference.”
In response to one of the survey questions regarding the fashion collection — What exhibitions would you like to see in the future from the Historic Fashion Collection? — one answer exclaimed: “More culturally inspired exhibits such as this! I love the connection with books or magazines and genealogical resources.” Another answer noted, “I loved it! I also checked out one of the books that were shown!”
“We are hoping to showcase more pieces from the alohawear collection in the future at UH Hilo,” says Day.
Story by Susan Enright, public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
