Great line of Muted Hawaiian shirts at Penneys

I'm not the type who posts about every tiki shirt I purchase.

But I just returned from J.C.Penneys at the nearby mall, and they have some great Hawaiian shirts now on sale. It is the Solitude brand, very plush 100% cotton (made in India), with great vintage-y patterns, with the pocket pattern lining up correctly. I ended buying three of these shirts (pattern names are Tiki Palms, Polynesia, and Waikiki) - I consider these to be some of the best Hawaiian shirts I have ever seen in a mainstream store in the last 10 years or so.

I tried taking a picture of some of the above patterns, but you really have to see them in person.

Pay a visit to your local store, to get the best selection while the shirts are on sale (regular price is $42, now on sale for $25).

Penneys also had a wide variety of other Hawaiian shirts for sale - casual business buttown-down shirts, lots of rayon (some good quality, some poor) and several tiki t-shirts too, but the Solitude brand shirts were the best by far.

I know many of us try to avoid the big shopping malls, but it might be worth your time to stop on in soon, to get the best selection.

Vern

[ Edited by: ikitnrev 2008-04-24 16:50 ]

Vern,

I agree with you... the wife and I happened in there a couple weeks ago and I picked a nice one up.

Kohl's also has a nice selection of tropical/Hawaiian print shirts out right now in the Men's Dept. by Croft & Barrow. I picked up a couple of those also.

Vern isn't kidding, they have some really nice shirts. I also ended up getting the Tiki Palms pattern:

Closeup of the pattern:

Vern, thanks so much for the tip...and let me know which day at the Hukilau you're wearing yours so I don't wear the same one :lol:

I dunno, Vern, to me the offerings looked more like the same muted, monochrome, palm trees galore for old guys fare that has been out there for years (waitaminnit..I AM an old guy! ). Maybe as work shirts, but not for the Ti or Hukilau.
So.... you like your Aloha shirts muted, and your Tikis brightly painted, huh? :D

Again it just boggles my mind that, with that huge, creative, unique arsenal of art that traditional Oceanic culture offers, only a tiny facet is utilized and reproduced again and again. But this is the difference between today and the Tiki period of the 50s and 60s: Back then it was a cultural phenomenon that people and designers really engaged themselves in (only up to a degree, yes, but..), nowadays it's not present in the general public's consciousness any more, there is no mystery surrounding it, no desire for it in particular...except here, off course.

Sears has a smattering of shirts... a few with a great Moai pattern. They were on sale for $25 last week, but yes, I just couldn't get past the muted blue or green. ack!

This brings me to an interesting question that I don't actually know the answer to.......

Since I'm living in Hawaii, I only see what's offered here in the shops. In Waikiki, and a few select other locations, you can find, along with the muted designs, the typical 50s-60s style highly colorful whimsical Hawaiian shirts with tikis, cocktails, hula girls, Pearl Harbor, fruit bowls, volcanoes , etc on them. In the more residential shopping venues there is plenty of "aloha wear", but it's mostly of the more muted "Tommy Bahama" "tasteful" variety, also suitable for work here in the islands.

I'm wondering if at the mainland regular retailers (Sears, Pennys and such) if they regularly offer any Hawaiian shirts and if they do, are they normally the muted variety?
I'm curious too, as I've seen a few typical brightly colored "Hawaiian" shirts that had Caribbean islands on them, if these types of shirts are commonly sold in the Caribbean isles as well? I know the "Hawaiian" shirts are sold at all the vendors in "Tropical China" (Sanya) now and they are calling it "Hainan wear." It appears the same as what's sold here in Waikiki, with I imagine, with a change in words/phrases on the shirts. Miss World was held there again recently (Sanya, China), and the mayor or governor of the region was onstage presenting awards in aloha wear...interesting.

I would expect a lot of the "native souvenirs" and shirt fabrics (that I dearly love) sold in Waikiki, the Caribbean, Tropical China probably all come out of the same factories in Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines..:)

Or India and China, yes. That muted stuff has been the norm now for years here on the mainland (California), too, so it must be what the public buys. In the late 90s/ early 2000s there was a phase where some shirt companies were doing the classic colorful Aloha shirt look, some with cool abstract patterns, even some Tikis, but I would say since 2003 it's been muted monochromes all the way...and if there is any color, the motifs repeat the usual floral/surf board/ palm tree story.

Pennys SURF Shirts

Went by local Pennys yesterday & saw the shirt & others of the brand shown
above. IMO they were kind of so-so, they also had other brands limited
selection same old-same old, NO fabric/design creativity. In other words
around here don't look for Avanti or Sun Surf 1940's retro styles.

Thortiki

Interesting points, bigbro. The Penneys shirts ARE muted, and it does make me realize that I can't recall a time when high quality Hawaiian shirts with LOUD prints were available for sale in mainstream stores. Most of the brightest shirts tend to be of the cheaper rayon fabrics or of the Caribbean design/colors. I will await the arrival of high quality cotton shirts with bright festive colors to re-enter the market, but until then, will appreciate the Penneys shirts while they are here. I might even start to interpret their muted colors as an attempt to replicate the look of the 'reversed' Aloha shirt.

By the way, I just celebrated a birthday this past Monday, so am definitely one step closer, if not already immersed in, the old guy category. Perhaps my own appreciation of tiki will change just as the original Polynesian Pop era did during its own lifespan. Rather than to concentrate, focus, and try to stay in tune with one golden moment, my own taste in things might also de-evolve, in a life-long performance art effort to recreate in real-time the decline of a movement. My shirts will become even more muted, my music preference will change from Martin Denny to that 1972 Lawrence Welk in Hawaii television special, I will leer at the hula girls in even more spectacular dirty-old-man fashion, my tiki mugs will be converted one-by-one to vases for standard houseplants, and my mai-tais will slowly lose their color and potency. When I die, only the presence of my brightly colored tiki poles will signify to others that other tiki relics might be found in my home.

Bigbro - you should have had a chapter on Hawaiaan shirts in one of your books! If a space alien were to arrive, armed only with the Book of Tiki/Modern Tiki pair, and try to deduce the everyday costume of a tiki-appreciating guy, he/she/it would assume that the standard wear consisted of a business suit and tie, and that the louder shirts were worn mostly by either the wait staff or the musicians.

Fortunately I have the Hope/Tozian book titled 'The Aloha Shirt' (and Thortiki's nudge that inspired me to recheck the Avanti/Sun Surf websites) to remind me of how vivid and wonderful those old shirt colors were.

Muted Vern ( bastard child of a man in a grey-flanneled suit)

[ Edited by: ikitnrev 2008-04-24 22:23 ]

<I will leer at the hula girls in even more spectacular dirty-old-man fashion, >

I thought you were just concentrating on the moves.
I see so much more clearly now.

So - we gonna get a Mystery Drink together this Hukilau?
I want to be the first person to ever speak an intelligible sentence at the end of her performance instead of mutely obliging the hypnotic effect and slavishly sipping the potion as dictated.

I was thinkin' ... "Hey, that was nice - can I have 7 more please?"

Either way - I'll watch you more closely now and avoid the punishment my own leer could bring from the Amber Love Goddess.

That was nicely said, Vern. Reminds me of your musings on the occasion of your post jubilee. It would indeed be funny if we in our old age would loose the stylistic edge that inspired us at the discovery of Tiki, sort of like Swing revival guys getting into 70s Big Band music.

Sam's Club has a couple of Speedo brand t-shirts with tikis. this is one:

Does Speedo have the right to use the famous Warrior Mug design designed by Squid?