From Boston with aloha

By Paula Rath
Advertiser Fashion Writer

Katie Tiger runs Kool Kat, a 2-year-old company that makes "Hawaiian Shirts of Distinction." The shirts are made in Tiger's attic in Winthrop, a seaside town on the outskirts of Boston. Photos by Ted Tiger

Katie Tiger says her tailor-made aloha shirts, at $85 to $165 each, are popular especially among doctors on the East Coast.

Kool Kat embellishments Katie Tiger's aloha shirts are custom-made — "The details make the difference," she said. Here are some that distinguish Kool Kat aloha shirts: • Corded buttonholes • French seams • Real coconut-shell buttons • Matching yokes and backs • Matching threads • Side vents • Matched pockets • Top-stitching • Order shirts at: koolkatfashion.com.

The question: Shall I match the hula girl on the pocket or the back yoke or both?

The location: Winthrop, a small seaside town on the outskirts of Boston.

Wait a minute — Boston? Surely it's Waimanalo or Waikiki?

Uh, no. It's Winthrop.

Tiger is a New England girl who has a love affair with the aloha shirt.

The business card for Kool Kat, her two-year-old company, says "Hawaiian Shirts of Distinction," and the back of each features a different Hawaiian print. But the shirts are made in Tiger's attic in Winthrop. Even more surprising, Tiger and her husband, Ted, had never been to Hawai'i before last month.

So how did this New England girl come to make aloha shirts?

Katie and Ted, both entrenched in Boston's financial world (she as an investment banker, he as a stockbroker), were wandering through Boston's Chinatown one afternoon in 1996. Ted spotted a fabric with a tiger motif, and said, "Hey, Katie, that would make a cool Hawaiian shirt for me" — a reference to his last name, perhaps.

Katie bought some fabric and went right home to sew it up.

Within days, friends were asking for aloha shirts just like Ted's, and Katie was sewing during all her free time.

The shirts remained a hobby until, on a visit to Santa Fe, N.M., in 2001, "I saw the light and decided to change my focus," she said.

Soon she went from the corporate world to small business. She wrote a business plan on 12 Post-it notes.

Becoming a shirt maker "was the best decision of my life," she said. The shirts "put a smile on my face and on everyone else's face."

Dale Hope, author of "The Aloha Shirt: Spirit of the Islands" and director of the Pataloha line for Patagonia, invited the Tigers to dinner at his home. "I think it's wonderful the power of the aloha shirt, and what it has done for an executive in Boston," he said. "She was able to abandon her corporate job to make aloha shirts, and the shirts have made her passionate about Hawai'i."

Over a loco moco at Hungry Lion, Ted wore an ear-to-ear smile as he talked about his wife.

"Katie is happier now than at any time I've known her," he said, adding that on the East Coast, the aloha shirt "has happiness as its persona."

Although Ted has not quit his day job, he helps Katie with the business side of Kool Kat. "He does the numbers; I do the vision," Katie said.

The numbers look good. Her first six months, Katie made 200 shirts. In her second year, she made 600. Thus far in 2004, sales are up 40 percent, half of them return customers.

Who are they? Many are East Coast physicians, Katie said. "They lead such stressful lives and are always expected to be 'on,' so when they want to relax, they want to transport themselves to an Island paradise. When they put on an aloha shirt, they're in paradise."

Much of her business is word-of-mouth. However, her Web site, www.koolkatfashion.com, has brought orders from Britain, Austria, Switzerland and, of course, New England, a region that accounts for about half her business. She recently held a trunk show in Santa Fe, N.M., and has one planned for Chicago in early September.

A Swiss couple reported that they wore Kool Kat shirts for a beach wedding in Australia. In an interesting twist, a Boston bride ordered Katie's aloha shirts for the groomsmen for a wedding on a beach in Hawai'i.

Ted said New England men wear their Kool Kat shirts with khakis and rubber slippers or boat shoes on weekends. Katie said she wears her long-sleeved aloha shirts with silk pants and high heels to special events in Boston.

Everywhere they go, the infectiously enthusiastic couple experience the spirit of aloha. Offers of assistance spring up online and at trunk shows all the time, they said. "There's something special about this shirt that brings us together."

Tiger buys her fabrics from many of the same companies used by Hawai'i manufacturers: Trendtex, Hoffman, Transpacific, Kaufmann.

"I'll buy anything as long as it's tasteful, artsy and cool," she said. She'll make a maximum of 20 shirts with each fabric, so each print is a limited edition. Her most popular so far? "The motorcycle babes. They sold out before they hit the Web site," Katie said.

Her shirts are all custom made, based on a customer's measurements. She does her own cutting and sewing to ensure the prints are perfectly matched, and every stitch is the same length. She works on two Bernina sewing machines, a home machine and an industrial high-speed machine.

Hope remarked on the high quality of Kool Kat shirts: "Matching the yoke and back is difficult. It's truly a custom-made shirt. I don't know of anyone in the world that's doing what she's doing. Someone here should do the same concept."

Kool Kat shirts are not inexpensive. Prices range from $85 to $165. Long sleeves run $30 more. Because each shirt is custom-made, they are more labor-intensive than many shirts made here or in Asia (see box). The engineering also requires 3 yards of fabric, rather than the 2 yards needed for the average locally made shirt.

Naturally, if she could hire seamstresses to sew the garments, Tiger could increase volume and perhaps reduce prices. But Ted said there's one major issue: "Katie can't stand a single stitch being off. Can she ever find seamstresses who demand the same quality?"

Having spent a few weeks in Hawai'i, the Tigers are even more enamored with the aloha shirt and the aloha spirit. They wore fresh-flower lei at every opportunity.

They bought flowers at the Kapi'olani Community College farmers' market. They checked out the vintage shirts at Bailey's Antiques. They renewed their wedding vows at an oceanside table at La Mer.

"We want to learn to play the 'ukulele. Teddy ordered an 'ukulele from Kamaka Ukuleles. I want to go horseback riding on Maui and see the sunrise at Haleakala. I want to eat more shave ice and plate lunches."

The Tigers will return — as soon as Katie sells a few hundred more aloha shirts.

Reach Paula Rath at 525-5464 or prath@honoluluadvertiser.com.