A good Hawaiian shirt comes down to four things: a camp collar that sits flat and open, a relaxed cut through the body, fabric that moves air, and a print you would defend in daylight. Get those right and it is a shirt. Get the print wrong and it is a costume, which is the entire difference between the aloha shirt as Hawaii wears it and the novelty version sold for stag parties.
In this article
- What makes a Hawaiian shirt
- Where the shirt comes from
- Which print
- How to wear it
- Sizing and care
- Frequently asked questions
What actually makes a Hawaiian shirt a Hawaiian shirt?
Four features, and only the first two are non negotiable.
| Feature | What to look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Camp collar | One piece, no stand, lies flat and open | This is the defining detail. A pointed dress collar makes it a patterned business shirt |
| Cut | Straight and relaxed through the body, boxy hem | Designed to be worn untucked. A tapered shirt fights the shape |
| Fabric | Something that moves air. Rayon traditionally, polyester for a printed shirt | This is a hot weather garment first |
| Edge to edge, running across the seams | A small chest motif is a polo with ambitions |
The camp collar is the one people miss. It has no separate collar stand, so it folds down into an open V whether the top button is done or not. That is why an aloha shirt reads as relaxed even when it is pressed.
Where does the Hawaiian shirt come from?
It comes out of 1930s Honolulu, from tailors working with Japanese kimono fabric, a Filipino habit of wearing a shirt untucked, and a local market that needed something to wear in the heat. The term first appeared in print in an advertisement for Musa-Shiya the Shirtmaker in the Honolulu Advertiser on 28 June 1935. Ellery Chun of King-Smith Clothiers registered Aloha sportswear as a trademark in 1936 and Aloha Shirt in 1937. It is a genuinely multicultural Hawaiian invention, not a costume made up for tourists.
It stayed local until returning servicemen and post war air travel carried it out, and Hawaii then deliberately kept it. Aloha Friday became official in 1966, after a campaign the year before led by Bill Foster Sr of the Hawaiian Fashion Guild to get local men wearing local shirts to the office. It is the direct ancestor of casual Friday everywhere else in the world.
Which is worth knowing before you buy one, because the shirt's own history is the argument against the novelty version. It was designed as workwear for a hot city by the people who lived in it.
Which print should you actually buy?
The rule that holds: buy a print that means something to you, not one that means Hawaii to somebody else. A shirt covered in cocktail glasses and surfboards is a joke told at your own expense, and you will wear it twice.
Our shirts carry Samoan prints on the Hawaiian shape, and we say that plainly rather than dressing them up as Hawaiian design. The silhouette is Hawaii's gift to the Pacific and the whole region wears it. The artwork is elei, which is Samoan printed cloth, and the colourways are named for Samoan places: Lalomanu, Falealili.
That distinction is the reason to buy one. Nobody else at the barbecue is wearing it, and when somebody asks, there is a real answer rather than a shrug.
Seven prints on a camp collar, cut relaxed and printed collar to cuffs. Samoan artwork, named for Samoan places, on the shirt the whole Pacific wears.
See the shirts →How do you wear a Hawaiian shirt without looking like a tourist?
Five rules. The first one does most of the work.
- Untucked, always. It was cut for it. Tucking a camp shirt is the single most common mistake
- One loud thing. If the shirt is the print, everything else is plain. Chinos, dark shorts, denim
- Fit the shoulders, let the body hang. A relaxed cut is the point, not a size error
- Top button open. The collar is designed to sit open. Buttoning it closes the V that makes it work
- Wear it somewhere ordinary. The fastest way to stop looking like a costume is to wear it to the shops, not only to a party
Over a plain tee is the other move worth knowing, worn open as a light overshirt. It works on a cool evening and it halves how loud the print reads, which is useful on the first few wears.
What size should you buy, and how do you look after it?
Buy your normal size if you want it as designed. Size up one only if you want it genuinely oversized, because the cut is already relaxed through the chest and the hem. Sizing runs XS to 2XL.
Care is short. Wash cold and inside out, hang to dry, and never put a hot iron directly on the print. A sublimation print is dyed into the fibre rather than sitting on top of it, so it will not crack or peel, but direct heat on the surface is the one mistake that cannot be undone.
Every shirt here is printed and sewn after the order is placed, so allow about three weeks from order to door for Australia and New Zealand, and closer to four across an ocean. Work back from the date you need it. There is more on why the model works this way in why made to order is the future of sustainable fashion.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an aloha shirt and a Hawaiian shirt?
They are the same garment. Aloha shirt is the Hawaiian name, trademarked by Ellery Chun in 1937. Hawaiian shirt is what the rest of the world calls it.
What is a camp collar?
A one piece collar with no separate stand, so it folds flat into an open V whether or not the top button is done. It is the defining feature of an aloha shirt.
Should you tuck in a Hawaiian shirt?
No. The straight boxy hem is cut to be worn untucked. Tucking it in is the most common way to make one look wrong.
Is it disrespectful to wear a Hawaiian shirt if you are not Hawaiian?
The aloha shirt was made for a broad local market from the start and Hawaii has always exported it deliberately. The thing worth avoiding is the novelty version that treats the culture as a punchline.
What size Hawaiian shirt should I buy?
Your normal size. The cut is already relaxed through the body and hem, so size up only if you want it noticeably oversized.
The shape is Hawaii's. The prints are ours
Seven camp collar shirts printed edge to edge in Pacific designs, XS to 2XL.
Shop Hawaiian shirts →Made to order. Allow three weeks.
Read next: Samoan Patterns and What They Mean · Polynesian Fashion Hub
