PACIFIC CLOTHING COMPANY REISSUES AND REFINES A TRUE HAWAIIAN CLASSIC
Surfing is the sport of Hawaiian kings, weather the particular surfers were ever given a title or not is immaterial. Surfing makes you feel like a king, if only for a moment. The Hawaiians were the first to ride the downhill slope of a wave on some form of floating panel, and have been doing so ever since.
Flash forward a large chunk of time from that first wave ridden. We find ourselves on the soft sands of Waikiki beach on a warm sunny day watching young men teaching tourists to surf. They time their launch to the rhythm of the waves, first lying down, and after a few tries, briefly standing. With a few small successes, the lessons end and everyone comes ashore. The visitors go back to their resorts and the beach boys tend their equipment.
An experienced surfer never leaves a surfboard lying flat, someone may come along and trip or (worse) break the board by stepping on it. The surfboards are left to dry standing upright like rows of tombstones. They are never stabbed into the abrasive sand like you see in the movies. Holes are dug, the surfboards stood nose-down and sand is piled around to keep the wind from knocking them over.
This image is an icon of vacations in general and Hawaii vacations in particular. It is natural that it would be used on an aloha shirt.
Pacific Clothing Company is the manufacturer that makes Kahala and Kamehameha shirts today. With a lineup of designs stretching back to when the first Hawaiian shirts were first tailored in 1936, they chose to re-issue their “Longboards” shirt from them all. I interviewed Tim Smith via email and he had some very interesting details about this great Hawaiian shirt.
Hawaiian-shirt.net : Why did the company choose to reissue the design, and why this particular shirt?
Tim : We felt the design was a timeless one, and that it would be a nice complement to the other prints that we carry. Hawaiian shirts and surfing go hand in hand, and this is such a bold print.
Hawaiian-shirt.net : Is this the same as the original design, and in what ways does it differ?
Tim : We made some changes. The original had 5 surfboards, and the middle one matched where the shirt buttons. This was extremely difficult to do, and created many headaches. This new design eliminates the problem of mismatched fronts by adding a sixth surfboard. We also felt that the sand color on the original was too brown, so we made it more natural looking.
Hawaiian-shirt.net : When was the first longboards shirt ‘published’, how many were sold, and how long was its run?
Tim : The first shirt came out around 1997 and the print ran for 4 years. We do not keep sales numbers per design, but we estimate that we sold around 5000 shirts.
Hawaiian-shirt.net : What did people say about the Longboards shirt?
Tim : People loved the shirt. We had reports of people being stopped on the street by people admiring their shirt.
Hawaiian-shirt.net : Will there be other similar re-issues?
Tim : Yes. We are working on a vintage pattern that we ran for several years. It is a Hibiscus Panel, and the panels repeat all around the shirt. (Editors note: this shirt is now available on hawaiian-shirt.net).
Hawaiian-shirt.net : Will there be any different reasons for one re-issue over another?
Tim : When you look back at some prints, they just look dated. Others just seem to have a timeless appeal. It is these shirts that still have a fresh feel today that are likely to be re-issued. Some of the prints that we carry in the Kamehameha line look as good today as when they were originally produced back in 1936.
The full line of Kamehameha and Kahala Hawaiian shirts are available at great prices at http://www.hawaiian-shirt.net, one of the oldest ongoing Hawaiian shirt stores.
<a href=”http://www.hawaiian-shirt.net”>Hawaiian shirt</s> store here.
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