Vacation staple hot off the runway
Hawaiian print shirt—leaner, fitter, trimmer—is suddenly fashionable to wear again
The Hawaiian shirt was the Christmas sweater of summer: deliberately attention-seeking and jocular. Relegated to the back of men’s closets everywhere, it waited to be pulled out for festive occasions. Then two years ago, $850 Saint Laurent versions of the Hawaiian shirt strolled down the Parisian runways in a blaze of brightly colour palm fronds.
Which brings us to the summer of 2016, and the Hawaiian shirt trend has hit the mainstream. It has turned into a much bigger trend now at mass market than it ever was at the rarefied designer level.
“Seeing it on the runways, I knew it was going to trickle down eventually,” says Melissa Austria, the owner of GotStyle, which has a menswear shop on lower Bathurst as well as one in the Distillery that sells both men’s and women’s lines. “There is appeal for real men, in particular younger guys who haven’t worn the look before. This is not your dad’s Hawaiian shirt, though. Or your baggy Tommy Bahama.”
The look now has been refined by its time in France: slimmer fitting, shorter in length, neither boxy nor drapey, and with subtler prints on dark backgrounds. The many navy and black versions are especially versatile. “Summers are getting hotter,” says Austria. “Men need comfortable options for short sleeves. And they want to have a little fun.”
There is a movie tie-in. This spring’s release of A Bigger Splash, starring Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes, features a Hawaiian-style shirt by Christophe Lemaire (a oneoff made for the film, though a similar shape found on his website lemaire.fr retails for 435).
Overall the film’s wardrobe is ’40s retro, but the New York Times called out that single item out as a major fashion moment. Fiennes wears the shirt for a Risky Business-type dance around the house scene, left suggestively open to show off his pecs. Talk about adding heat to a trend.
The retro feel of the shirt is authentic: The style dates back to the 1930s in Honolulu where they were originally produced in kimono fabric by Japanese craftspeople. By the end of the war, servicemen had brought the jaunty, exotic look back to the mainland.
Flowers out of their natural habitat, the screaming tropical prints (think Elvis Presley in Blue Hawaii) came to signify good times. It had a moment in the ’80s (think Magnum PI) and it makes a comeback among frat boys every couple of years.
“This is a generation that does not tuck in,” Shannon Stewart, the assistant general merchandise manager at Harry Rosen, says of the younger demographic market.
So the Hawaiian shirt, in its “leaner, fitter, trimmer,” form, she says, is a much bigger hit in mainstream for the shop than it was when it arrived in designer in 2014.
“When it first came out in designer it was obvious and quite over the top, loud and aggressive with less wearable silhouettes,” says Stewart. “Now the look is more accessible. Menswear evolves a bit more slowly than womenswear. It is not about revolution; looks evolve slowly, as people’s eyes adjust to them.”
Stewart adds the chain has seen “strong sales” in short-sleeve options in general.
“And novelty prints are big. They add an element of wit, and uniqueness to an outfit. Fun without being over the top.”
Good Hawaiian styles can be found from labels such as Robert Graham, Diesel and Bugatchi in the $150 to $250 range.
At GotStyle, options range from $70 for Selected brand shirts, through $149 from Reyn Spooner (the traditional Hawaiian label) and $225 for versions from Haspel, the men’s clothier better known for its seersucker suiting, dating back to 1909.
Austria suggests that the shirts work with the new, slimmer shorts on the market.
“Board shorts and baggy cargos are out. The look is flat front, to just above the knee.” They can also work for office casual. “You could wear this shirt under a casual blazer, with an “air tie” look,” meaning the buttons done all the way up to the top, sans tie.
All in all, says Stewart, “this is a dressier, more pulled together look.”
And one of those bizarre trend loops that happen when your dad is accidentally hip again.
“Seeing it on the runways, I knew it was going to trickle down eventually” MELISSA AUSTRIA GOTSTYLE.COM