How Aloha Shirts are Made

Local clothing manufacturers have been making Aloha shirts and dresses in Hawaii since the 1930s. And although modern computer technology has greatly changed the way designs are created, the actual manufacturing process of the shirts themselves today hasn’t changed all that much. It is still a labor intensive process that requires great skill at certain stages of production. We visited a shirt maker in Honolulu to shoot some video of the various phases of the shirt manufacturing process.

That electric blade in the video is freakishly sharp. At another manufacturer a few years ago, a worker accidentally touched (barely) the blade while it was on and it caused a seriously deep flesh wound. Scary stuff. But it gave me a new appreciation of the kind of time, effort, and skill that goes into making a simple shirt.

The real fun in shooting this video was having an excuse to go to the North Shore to eat shave ice (not that we really need a reason, but it is kinda far) and to go eat and drink at Zenshu. I was especially excited to go back to Zenshu to try out their new Natto Menu with happy hour Kirin beer. Anyways, we felt kinda touristy wearing the aloha wear for the video, but it was fun!

This video was produced by Hawaiian Outpost with special thanks to ZenShu Sake-Sushi-Sports.