Alumni News

10 June 2024

Identity and Aloha Shirts

Identity and Aloha Shirts

Andy Reilly, profession in FDM, gave a gallery talk at the Honolulu Museum of Art on June 8 as part of the Fashion Aloha exitigion gallery talks.  His talk, "Identity and Aloha Shirts" was the result of research he did on aesthetic preferences of aloha shirts by Hawaiian, Local, and haole men.  Dr. Reilly found that while Hawaiian and Local men select shirts that reflect the Hawaiian Islands accurately to identify themselves as not-tourists but as residents, haole men upon moving to Hawai`i go through a process of learning about shirts and change their aesthetic preferences to demonstrate they are the good haole.  During the talk, model Makana Gomes modeled different shirts as he talked about them.  Dr. Reilly will be giving this talk at an upcoming symposium in NYC in November.  

By Andy Reilly​

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