The history of the Hawaiian or “Aloha Shirt” can be traced to the early 19th century.
Many have attributed the invention of the Aloha Shirt to Ellery Chun, owner of a Dry Goods store in Honolulu who sold the tropical print fashions in the 1930s.Ellery Chun was born in Hawaii in 1909. He attended Punahou School in Honolulu, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in Economics in 1931. Ellery J. Chun was the first to produce a commercially-made island sport shirt, what he called an "aloha shirt." Chun, working through Wong's Products, had previously manufactured work clothes. The aloha shirt was the palaka, a solid-colored work shirt worn by plantation workers. Aloha shirts featured tropical-print fabrics and a style that was more casual.
Some designers produced custom fabrics for kama`aina families or for special occasions, but soon aloha shirt production expanded to meet the demands of tourists seeking exotic souvenirs to take home with them. The fabrics they used were generally designed in Hawai`i then printed in California and sent back to Hawai`i to be sewn into shirts. The finished product was then shipped again to supply mainland markets.
A shipping strike in 1936 forced the companies to explore the local island market which brought them renewed success. The years 1936-1939 were big growth years for the garment industry in general and each company typically came out with 15 or more new shirt designs each year. After World War II, Hawaii's greater visibility in the world boosted aloha shirt sales and the advent of local events like Aloha Week (begun in 1948) and Aloha Friday cemented the place of the aloha shir. Some designers produced custom fabrics for kama`aina families or for special occasions, but soon aloha shirt production expanded to meet the demands of tourists seeking exotic souvenirs to take home with them.
