A fashion company that hasn’t added new designs since the 1980s, filling a style niche that’s been on the wane since then, wouldn’t appear to be the best of investments.

Nola Nahulu admits that if she and her sister Linda had been more business-oriented, they might never have bought the Bete Muu company. After all, how many women still wear muumuu?

But at stake was the colorful fabric of Hawaii fashion history and Nola, artistic director of the Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus, Kawaiahao Church Choir and several other choirs, said, "We were coming from the side of passion and perpetuating the line. Neither of us are business people and my father tried to warn us, ‘You guys doing what?’"

Designer Elizabeth Manchester launched the Bete Muu company in 1959, and two years later hired Rene Kubo as a cutter and right-hand person. When Manchester died in 1984, Kubo carried on, but in 1991 when she reached retirement age, she started looking for a buyer for the company. The search lasted three years.

The Nahulu sisters met with Kubo on Black Friday, 1994. The next Tuesday, Kubo said she wanted to sell the business to them.

"I think she felt comfortable with us, and we felt comfortable," Nola said. "Our mother is Japanese and all the ladies there looked like they could have been our aunties. Japanese radio was on, and Bete Manchester always said she wanted her company to one day be Hawaiian-owned."

They felt a further connection to the company because they wore white Bete Muus at their graduation from Kamehameha in place of graduation gowns. Their mother was a seamstress and the sisters had sewn from childhood, so they respected the quality and timelessness associated with Bete Muus.

"Our philosophy is this is a very traditional line, and we want to keep it going," Nola said.

There are still many people who appreciate Bete Muus, although Nahulu admits it’s a generational thing.

Maile Meyer, founder of Na Mea Hawaii/Native Books, which has carried Bete Muus since its opening, said she grew up with Bete Muus and loved to sleep in them because they’re so comfortable. Now, she said, the dresses have become the uniform for many a Hawaiian civic and choral group, as well as those who like a vintage look associated with the poise, manners and grace of women of old Hawaii.

"When you’re in a Bete Muu, you’re not running around, honking your horn or screaming at anyone," Meyer said.

Nola sees proper dress as intrinsic to manners and doing the right thing.

"Who even gets dressed up for a baby luau anymore? It comes from adults. If children are expected to dress appropriately, they do it and they learn," she said "The Japanese have a saying, ‘okage sama de,’ we are the product of everyone around us."

Although the Nahulus grew up in Makaha, Nola said her parents gave their children every opportunity available, whether it was from a neighbor teaching piano or ballet.

"From there you learn what is appropriate costume or clothing, so you don’t show up at the ballet in shorts and a T-shirt."

At Native Books, shopper Carole Ayakawa walked in wearing a Bete Muu Pantaloon-style sleeveless top and short set.

"It’s been one of my favorites for 20 years," she said, attesting to its durability. She said she also has other styles that are more than 30 years old. "They’re sewn so well, when they have to be altered, it’s difficult to take them apart," she said.

"It’s my uniform," Ayakawa said. "I know I have more than 30 Bete Muus. I never get tired of wearing them, they’re so comfortable."

Every once in a while, she hears from a friend frantic over the loss of another Bete Muu vendor. "I just tell them to come to Native Books," Ayakawa said.

HEIDI MEEKER, said that her mother, Amy, once interviewed Manchester for the alumni magazine of an American School in Japan that Bete had attended.

"She told my mom her inspiration was her grandfather’s night shirt," she said.

In addition to styles that ranged from play sets to missionary-style Mother Hubbards and muumuu, Bete garments were known for their dainty calico prints that the designer dubbed "ditsy" prints.

"They’re hard to find, but when we can find them, we do it," Nola said. More recently, they’ve entered into collaborations with local textile designers like Nake’u Awai and Colleen Kimura of Tutuvi.

The heyday of the Bete Muu lasted through the 1980s, when the muumuu could be found at what were then Honolulu’s chicest stores, Carol & Mary, McInerny and Liberty House.

The retail landscape also changed beginning in the mid-1980s with the arrival of European luxury boutiques, then, spurred by styles seen on MTV, younger, trendier boutiques selling Madonna, New Wave, punk and street styles. It coincided with the rise of gym culture and women who wanted to show off their hard-earned bodies.

When Macy’s bought out Liberty House, Nola said they tried to adapt to the national vendor’s practices, which are driven by sales volume and sale schedules unforgiving to small vendors. Macy’s dropped the Bete Muus about a year ago.

Smaller vendors have stepped in to fill the void, including Princess Kaiulani Fashions, which in an earlier time might have been seen as a competitor.

"I think what we want to show is that this is part of Hawaii," Nola said. "Fads go in and out, but if you want the flair and culture of living in Hawaii, that’s what the muumuu represents.

"What we shouldn’t do is perpetuate the notion that muumuu are all big and they’re only for fat people."

She said that although the Bete Muu company is best known for four styles of muumuu, Bete Manchester came up with more than 50 designs reflecting the 1950s through the ’80s.

"She did it all, from minis to beach cover-ups in the ’60s, she did a wrap dress in the ’70s, and a whole ethnic line. We haven’t had to add any styles because there are so many styles, including those people don’t even know are Bete Muus. Sacred Hearts Academy’s choir wears Bete Muus, and people don’t even realize it."

Nola said she is heartened that the Bete Muu is finding new fans among Japan-based halau and travelers.

"The Japanese are coming in and looking at Hawaiian culture as culture, whereas Americans come in and look at it as kitsch."