A 1940s Hawaiian Wrap Dress For My Wedding Anniversary

When I found this stunning heliconia flower viscose (or rayon) fabric in a Hawaiian shop I didn't know yet what I was going to make. I just had to have it, and - it was on sale! I loved it even more in person, even though I usually try to avoid white and natural backgrounds for large scale prints. (I think the make me look bigger.) I could imagine also some beach pajamas. But, despite global warming and the hottest and driest summer I have ever seen in my life so far, we have no beach, and we don't throw that many parties with occasions for dressing up. So a dress it should be, a flowing, light garment for hot days.

Looking through my pattern collection, I was torn between a true wrap dress pattern (quite rare back then it seems) and a robe, both made before. However, I remembered that piecing elaborated designs with several seams in combination with slippery challis viscose fabric was a nightmare, even though that said dress turned out well and is still a favourite of mine. But I wanted to be reasonable, also, I didn't want to cut the fabulous large scale print unnecessarily, so I picked the much simpler British housedress pattern Style 4673, also because of the circle skirt bottom. I own a viscose circle skirt, it wrinkles terribly, but is fabulous for high temperatures.
This should be an easy project, as I said, last year I made a cozy long-sleeved version with a ponte de roma fabric and knew more or less what I had to adjust back then.

The dress pieces went together easily, however, I realized I couldn't make the tiny rows of gathers with this kind of material. I cut the fron bodice pieces on the bias for a better drape and I just was not able to make those gathered rows, that were not on the grain, in addition with the slinkiness of the fabric, look decent enough. So I changed them to release tucks, which was a good idea as I think it goes well with the draping fabric type. However, I think that cutting on the bias probably was not necessary.

The only trouble was the collar extension in the back neck, the fabric kept shifting and wrinkling and drove me almost insane. I also changed the sleeves and took the slightly butterfly-y ones from Simplicity 1778 which promised to be more breezy than the original short sleeve. And it turned out to be a good decision.

My dress closes with pressing buttons, but I added a belt with an exchangeable buckle instead of a sash. Depending on my accessories, I can switch between different colours. I only ned to find a butterscotch-eggyolk coloured buckle in the right size - there wasn't any in my entire (huge) collection of buckles!

We celebrated our 10th anniversary this week! I sometimes cannot believe how fast the years went by. But I was very happy I finished the dress on time for this special occasion. I wore it to a British car meeting, so the cars in the pictures unfortunately are not mine. I wish they were! It was a sunny, but very windy day, and my dress was so comfortable, but a bit tricky, as it kept ballooning, and I once almost had that "Marilyn moment". But it will be a great staple for hot days!

Pattern: Style 4673, 1940s, probably WW2 (war restriction disclaimer on envelope), sleeves from Simplicity 1778
Fabric: heliconia flower viscose (rayon) from Aloha Outlet, Honolulu
Earrings: Vintage bakelite clip-on screws from FB
Necklace: Vintage bakelite from FB
Bangles: Vintage bakelite from various sources
Buckles: Vintage early plastic ones from various sources
Shoes: Moheda Toffeln from Sweden
Bag: Vintage bamboo from FB
Lipstick:  Kiko Cosmetics

Vintage Style Aloha Shirt For The Best Of All Husbands

In one of my recent posts I wrote a little bit about the history of the Aloha or Hawaiian shirt. All started with my husband's wish to have such a shirt, reminding him to his favourite youth sequel with Tom Selleck as Magnum P.I., wearing the same kind of shirts and having a lot of fun... And who am I to deny to my best of all husbands (BOAH) such a wish?

I already wrote how and where I found the wonderful material for the shirt of his desire.

It was exactly what BOAH wanted: traditional white flowers on a dark blue background. Even if he IS a courageous and very cool guy and wears colours other male probably wouldn't, we didn't want his first Aloha shirt to be too brightly coloured. I think this fabric is perfect.

So I had to find a simple yet perfect pattern with yoke and collar. I found one for free, but it was available only in size S/M. My BOAH is quite a tall guy, and from his belly you can guess he loves good food (as most Italians do) and cooking, so I needed at least a size L. After all the changes I had to make on the pattern, it was almost something new. However, if you would like to use the original small pattern and get help from a nice tutorial, have a look at Melly Sews blog.

I cut the front and back parts longer and sloghtly curved, as BOAH is definitely NOT going to wear the shirt tucked in his trousers as some men do, which is, according to my understanding, bad taste..., so the slightly longer shirt will surely look perfect with short trousers on a warm sunny day.

For a perfect finish, I added mother-of-pearl buttons from my grandmother's stash - all in mint condition.

He loves his shirt, and I'm very proud to se him wearing it. He looked very cool on our Italian vacation at his grandma's home next to the the beautiful palm tree.

Edit: I later shortened the garment a bit as it was slightly too long for a Hawaiian shirt. The shirt is still in use on hot summer days for that special summer feeling.

Aloha - Hawaiian Men's Shirt review

You may ask "What's so vintage about a Hawaiian shirt?" - well, first of all, a Hawaiian shirt is a classic, it never gets out of fashion. And it has a long history!

Hawaiian shirts, or Aloha shirts how they used to be called first, were made since the mid 30s or even earlier, by Japanese and Chinese immigrants - in Hawaii, obviously. They used to be made of left-over kimono fabrics.

 The shirt became constantly more and more fashionable, especially when after WW2 many soldiers brought back the garment to their mainland homes from the service in the Pacific islands. In the 50s, tourism on Hawaii increased due to faster airplanes. And so the colourful shirts with tropical prints became a standard souvenir.

Frank Sinatra, Montgomery Clift (r.) and Ernest Borgnine (l.) in the 1953 movie "From here to Eternity" - Photo: Ronald Grant

Renowned fashion designers and textile manufacturers like Alfred Shaheen raised the Aloha shirt to a higher level. He also produced the fabrics with tropical designs and traditional batiks.

Alfred Shaheen (1922-2008), Photo: AP

In 1961, Elvis Presley is wearing one of Shaheen's shirts on the cover of "Blue Hawaii". And of course in the movie as well...

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty

The Honolulu Chamber of Commerce 1946 funded a study of Aloha shirts and designs for comfortable business clothing worn during the hot Hawaiian summers. The City and County of Honolulu passed a resolution allowing their employees to wear sport shirts from June–October. City employees were not allowed to wear aloha shirts for business until the creation of the Aloha Week festival in 1947. Obviously this helped the textile industries on the islands and made the shirt even more attractive to visiting tourists.

Since the 50s high-end Aloha shirts are produced today by Tori Richard until today. In the 1983 movie "Scarface", even Al Pacino is wearing an Aloha shirt. Unfortunateyl tucked in his trousers. A terrible fashion faux-pas. The same mistake was also made by Mr. Moustache Tom Selleck aka Magnum P.I. in the famous series about a private investigator on Hawaii. Despite this (I guess it was common in the 80s) the Hawaiian shirt became more popular even in Europe. 

Magnum P.I.

Some of the shirts worn in these episodes are still available today. Funny thing: the unforgettable Frank Sinatra is appearing as guest in one of the episodes - again wearing an extremely cool Aloha shirt. Did I ever mention how much I adore Frank Sinatra? Who says men cannot wear flower-patterned shirts?

Don't mess with Frankie Boy (unknown source)

If you are interested in further details about Hawaiian dresses, have a look at Konadlicious' wonderful blog (Vintage Musing of a modern Pinup). Mainly about the most beautiful women's dresses... Awesome!

You may ask, after reading my post, why I am writing so much about the Aloha or Hawaiian shirt? Well, I recently fell in love with a vintage fabric on Etsy.com, and despite my cram-full stash I couldn't resist to buy it. 
It's an Alexander Henry fabric with marvelous, rather traditional white orchids, plumeria and hibiscus flowers on a dark-blue background. Of course I have no idea how old the fabric is, I guess it's from the 90s, not what comes close to the vintage range of my interest, but I thought it would be nonetheless nice to share it with you.

However, after getting my fabric I was talking to my husband about something, and somehow the conversation got to the subject of Hawaiian shirts. My husband is a keen admirer of Magnum P.I., and he told me how much he would like to have such a shirt. He even showed me a picture of his favourite pattern - it was a white hibiscus flower print on a dark-blue background. How cool is that?

So after being absent from my sewing machine for some weeks, this is going to be my next project. It's going to be a gift for my husband's birthday - today!