Toni Nickens and her dad, Ron Bongiovanni, want to make sure under-dressed men from Hawai'i aren't turned away from the black-tie balls in Washington, D.C., for Barack Obama's inauguration.

They're the father-daughter team of what they call Hawai'i's largest tuxedo rental company, Celebrity Tuxedos, in O'ahu's three Sears stores. They've cut their usual $63 tuxedo rental price to $44 for up to 10 days of rental, to accommodate Mainland travel.

"For the 44th president, we made it pretty simple — $44," said Nickens, Celebrity Tuxedos' marketing director.

They heard stories of Hawai'i men traveling 5,100 miles for President Clinton's inaugural ceremonies only to discover that there wasn't a tuxedo for rent anywhere around the D.C. area. And those who showed up at black tie inaugural balls in their business suits were turned away, Nickens said.

"It's not like black tie here, where you can get away with a nice aloha shirt," she said. "It's D.C. and they dress for the occasion. And if you think you're going to rent there, there's no way in the world."

Celebrity Tuxedos has a warehouse full of tuxedos in Kapolei and can offer a discount during the traditional slow season for tuxedo rentals.

But Nickens has another motive: "We're hoping to bring back dressing up in Hawai'i," she said. "It's unfortunately been a little lax."

Even the organizers of a Honolulu inaugural ball called The Inaugural Gala for Barack Obama on Jan. 20 are calling for attire that ranges from tuxedos to nice aloha shirts. That may work in the Islands, but nothing less than a black tie and tux will cut it for formal functions in D.C., said Jeanette Kennedy, who graduated from Obama's alma mater, Punahou School, in 1993.

Kennedy has been going to Washington, D.C., formal events for the past four or five years and is helping to organize the sold-out Hawai'i Inaugural Ball as a board member of the Hawaii State Society of Washington, D.C.

"Black tie usually means men wear a tuxedo and for women there's a line between cocktail attire and formal dress," Kennedy said. "I'm still local. I probably don't dress as all-out as one could. No. 1 it can get very expensive. No. 2, if I don't have to do it, I don't do it."

The organizers of the Hawai'i Inaugural Ball tried to address local fashion tastes for their Jan. 20 ball by listing the dress code as "black tie or formal ethnic attire" — even they didn't know what that means, Kennedy said.

"We had long conversations about that," she said. "We consciously recognized that the kind of people we want to participate in our ball may have a different interpretation of black tie. There are lots of native cultures across the Pacific and someone may even want to wear a kimono."

One woman from Hawai'i plans on wearing a gown reminiscent of the era of Princess Kaiulani, Kennedy said. And some members of East Coast hula halau will wear formal holoku gowns with long trains, based on the elegant style of Hawai'i's 19th century missionary period.

"Even local people out here are using the opportunity to be creative and tie their roots back," Kennedy said.

But for men stuck with a black tie dress code, Celebrity Tuxedos is trying to make the chore of dressing up easy for Island men.

"We want everybody to look and feel their best," Nickens said.