Aloha prints hit Europe

By Paula Rath
Advertiser Fashion Writer

Fashion designers have picked up on this, and they're providing the goods. This was evident in London and Paris, where I traveled last month as a tag-along on a study-abroad trip sponsored by the University of Hawai'i-Manoa Department of Apparel Product Design and Merchandising.

Aloha wear popped up in the most unlikely places, including the Camden flea market, where Jennifer Hasegawa, left, found a rack of aloha shirts. Sadly, much had labels from countries other than the United States.

All in all, more Hawai'i-inspired clothing was in the stores than on people in the streets. However, we spotted people, English and otherwise, young and old, in the London Underground and on the banks of the Thames, wearing aloha attire.

Here are some of the sightings:

• Store windows along Oxford Street, one of London's most popular shopping areas, were filled with island influences — aloha prints, rubber slippers, pareu.
• At "Mamma Mia," the hottest musical in London's West End, five dancers wore vintage aloha shirts for a scene that takes place on a Greek island.
• At Camden market, one of London's largest flea markets, students spotted racks of aloha shirts selling for $8-$40.
• English television commercials for a furniture company featured men wearing funky brown-and-white aloha shirts as they jumped up and down on sofas singing "Celebrate!"
• In London's upscale shopping district, Sloane Square, hibiscus prints appeared on handbags, suits, shirts and shoes.
• In a window display in the H&M department store on Oxford Street, T-shirts and tank tops said "Honolulu" and were paired with pineapple-print capris.
• At Harrods, the Knightsbridge department store, designer Gharani Strok used a photo of a 1940s hula dancer on a frayed cropped T-shirt.
• In the tres chic shopping district of St. Sulpice in Paris, a shop specializing in men's swim wear featured board shorts. However, the prints were decidedly French, with pastel paintings of vegetables such as carrots, beets and radishes, as well as penguins, sand and shells.
• At a fashion show in the swank Galeries Lafayette department store, models accessorized their chic sportswear with silk flower lei.
• In the window of a funky store in Montparnasse was a "Chemisette Hawai" (the French spelling of our state's name has one "i") shown under a fisherman's vest. Price: $20. Label: Lagons et Palmiers.
• Hibiscus is the print of preference throughout Paris this summer. Trendy Sequoia handbags come in blue-on-blue denim and black-and-white canvas, sporting a traditional Tahitian-type hibiscus print.
• Near Blvd. St. Germain, the shop Celio Sport had a window full of board shorts and aloha shirts under a sign that said "Tranquilles ..."