Sears Hawaiian Fashions

Do any of the aloha shirt afficinados know anything about the Sears Hawaiian Fashions line?

I usually don't deal with shirts, but I picked up a blue polyester shirt with the 'Sears Hawaiian Fashions' label at a thrift store. Does anybody know when Sears offered this line? I have seen online, other examples of clothes from this line. They had some really cool designs for both men and women!

And does anybody know if there is a tie in with the SHF clothing line and Sears selling the Hawaiian-themed August Holland prints?

Big Bro ????

On 2006-06-17 16:24, tikipedia wrote:
Do any of the aloha shirt afficinados know anything about the Sears Hawaiian Fashions line?

yes.

I only have one Hawaiian shirt, but I've recently been thumbing thru some books of shirt collections and found the following info about Sears:

In addition to the "Sears Hawaiian Fashions" line, there were also the "Sears Hawaii" and "Sears Sportswear for pool, beach and patio" lines. A book called "Tropical Shirts & Clothing" by Nancy Schiffer has photos of shirts from both of those lines.

Another book called "The Aloha Shirt" by Dale Hope & Gregory Tozian has a writeup on self taught artist John Meigs whose line of textile designs, "Keoni of Hawaii", were ordered in 1951 by several fabric firms in New York, including Tanbro Fabrics Corporation.

According to the authors of "the Aloha Shirt", a Sears catalog of that era featured rayon crepe sports shirts with Tanbro's prints created by Keoni. The label on the shirts was "Pilgrim" and they were priced at $2.59 for one, or $5.00 for two. Apparently, Meigs, a bit of a character, wasn't too thrilled that some of his designs ended up in Sears Roebuck.

From this I gather that Sears was offering shirts before the August Holland prints, so the only connection was the fact that Sears sold whatever had mass popularity at the time, and this motif, as we know, was popular for several decades.

This one feels like a heavy cotton, with a zipper front. No content label or washing instructions, so I'm guessing its from the 1960's.

I have two Sears Hawaii shirts (same label as ookoo lady's above). I asked a Sears catalog collector to see if she could find them. She told me they were mid to late-'60's vintage , that the better ones were hand painted, and that the blurb for the shirts left one to believe at least that they were made in Hawaii and imported for Sears. I have yet to find one in a catalog myself, though. Anybody?? Anybody?

Thats a sweet shirt Ookoo. Really like the print.

Here's my beat up Sears shirt to add to this online collection. All I know about it is that I didn't get it from Sears.

Is that a Sears poncho? :lol:

On 2006-06-18 22:34, cynfulcynner wrote:

Is that a Sears poncho? :lol:

I'm happy that you are so Frank.

I just noticed another Sears label aloha shirt in my closet. This one is barkcloth and seems newer than my other one.

The label is hard to photograph, but it says "Kings Road" and "Sears The Mens Store"

I know that Tikipedia was just asking about the "Sears Hawaiian Fashion" line, but its a slow night here.

I had a sears shirt! much like the brown one silverline posted. It's difference being the shirt was made with the fabric wrong side out ( so it looked much like you were wearing it inside out) these were very popular at the time! I was sooo disappointed. My parents went to Wakiki Beach...OOoooo us kids asked for shirts & they bought them at sears! "We have Sears here mom!" but not like that one. I wish I had it now! THAT WAS THE SUMMER OF 1974