Love it or hate it with a passion -- the Hawaiian shirt has carved out its own little quasi-gimmicky place in the museum of fashion history. This week, we mourn the man who was credited with bringing us the ubiquitous button-ups: Alfred Shaheen. The Honolulu-based designer -- some may even call him a genius -- built his career on exporting the idealized laid-backness of the Pacific islands in the form a tacky little flowery shirt that changed resort styles forever.Notice that we didn't use the words Hawaiian shirts and resort couture. The resorts we're thinking of are more on the order of cheap getaway resorts filled with gung-ho frat boys in Cancun. Still, the Hawaiian shirt as we know it is apparently not a great representation of Shaheen's original concept.
Shaheen hired serious professional artists, imported the best materials, and used over 1,000 dye colors in his shop. His studio consulted museums, libraries to come up with their designs -- sometimes traveling to visit native island cultures for inspiration.
Elvis wore one of his shirts on the cover of his 1961 soundtrack for Blue Hawaii. That was presumably the first time the "aloha shirt" jumped the shark. Since then, these gaudy shirts have reemerged -- despite our discouraging -- thanks to celebrities like Magnum PI and Matthew McConaughey. Aloha, Mr. Shaheen.
[via Jezebel]