Fashions match elegance of hula dancers

By Wanda Adams
Advertiser Staff Writer

Chrissy Kama's 'auana gown featured a form-fitting aqua top. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Silk (or something that looks very like it): Even one kahiko performer wore a silk pa'u skirt, or so it appeared from the luxurious drape, the way the fabric took the dye and the way the skirt swung out light as gossamer.

Quite a number of contestants wore what appeared to be chiffon: Lauren Buchner of Keolalaulani Halau 'olapa O Laka wore a gorgeous silk princess-line holoku with a matching but more diaphanous chiffon scarf, tie-dyed in all the colors of the ocean; the scarf was draped from the shoulders rather than the usual train. Wendee Lim of Halau Kealakapawa wore an emerald-green silk holoku of the sort that every girl wants to put on just once.

Asymmetrical lines: There were shouts of approval for Kara Chow's one-shoulder gown with a diagonal waistline; the colors again were of the sea, with a solid bodice that was neither green nor blue but someplace in between, and a billowy full skirt of green and blue with touches of golden brown.

Color: A good example was the 'auana ensemble of Chrissy Kama of Halau Ka Ua Kani Lehua, who wore a dress constructed of a light aqua solid top, a tie-dyed (again!) silk skirt the colors of the earth and sea, and, in sharp but somehow beautiful contrast, a crimson lei that fit like a collar on the bodice of the dress.

Body-consciousness: The strapless wrapped pellon tops for kahiko that became common a few years ago are being matched now in 'auana with very body-conscious bodices that bare the shoulders and hug the 'opu, flowing out to large skirts.

The greenery of the weekend?: Lehua (both red and yellow) and liko lehua — if there is one sprig left of either in the whole state, it's a miracle. Almost all of the 16 contestants wore one or the other or both in one or both of their dances, in lei po'o (head lei) as well as adornments at the neck, wrists and ankles.