By Ruthanne Tarantino, News Correspondent
Think of Hawaiian fashion. What comes to mind? A hula girl with a grass skirt, lei, and a coconut bra? Before I arrived in Hawaii on my second trip to the island of Oahu, I knew this caricature was incorrect. Although fashion across the United States stays relatively consistent, there are regional differences. Does Hawaii, our 50th state, fashionably stand out? During my two-week stay there, I kept a fashion eye out to observe any major differences. For those of you who who don’t know, grass skirts are actually Tahitian, not Hawaiian.
Upon arriving in Oahu, My friend’s family greeted me with a lei. Leis, typically a garland of flowers, are traditionally given as a symbol of affection upon a person’s arrival or departure. The lei they gave me had pretty orange and yellow flowers and a strong, but unassuming floral smell.
The Honolulu Airport has lei stands with a variety of garlands you can purchase for your visitors before they arrive. You can buy leis that are scented or unscented. In my opinion, scented leis are the way to go. I loved having the floral scent surround me everywhere I went, and my lei put every perfume I’ve ever worn to shame. I was sad to take my lei off before I went out to dinner, but the friend I was visiting confirmed it would have looked funny if I wore it out to a restaurant. I didn’t want to blatantly look like a tourist.
My visit made me wish that I grew up in a culture in which leis were also given to people on occasions such as graduations and airport arrivals. Heck, I wish that I could wear a garland of fresh flowers everyday. The many attractions I visited over the two weeks gave them out freely but I did not receive any when I returned to the mainland.
Although I left the touristy areas during my stay, it was still very hard to leave the tourists and their unfortunate vacation fashion decisions. I observed fat tourists, skinny tourists, foreign tourists, happy tourists and crying tourists (mainly baby tourists). Just a tip: If you are going to wear your four-inch stiletto heals and heavy makeup in downtown Waikiki, you are going to look like melted, wobbly tourist in downtown Waikiki. But you won’t look out of place, because you’re a tourist in downtown Waikiki.
I may have had a love of wearing the fresh flowers, but other tourists love wearing fake flowers in their hair. It seemed like every souvenir shop in Waikiki sold these fake flowers, and women tourists of all ages donned them. Further research informed me that wearing a flower behind your right ear means you are single, while a flower behind the left ear means you are taken. Everyone is entitled to express their aloha spirit as they wish, although I did not like the trend.
A trip to downtown Honolulu pointed out the biggest fashion difference between the main land and Hawaii residents. Sitting in a coffee shop, looking out the window, I noticed a business man dressed in an aloha shirt (that’s a Hawaiian shirt, to us mainlanders) with dress pants and shoes. He appeared to be in his business clothes, expect for his aloha shirt. I had seen many men wearing aloha shirts in more casual settings, but in the workplace? Sure enough, with further inspection, it seemed that almost every man (and some women) in downtown Honolulu were wearing aloha shirts. A sea of dressed up aloha shirts! They did not look out of place in this particular American downtown, but I could only imagine if a Northeastern student showed up to his first day of co-op in a Hawaiian shirt. I don’t know this for sure, but maybe the aloha shirts bring a sense of relaxation to a stressful day at work. Don’t tell your co-op adviser I told you to do so, but next time you’re having a stressful week on co-op, wear one and let me know if my theory is correct.
