Hawaii’s fashion industry undergoes modern revival

With the help of state Sen. Will Espero, the Legislature and the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, October’s Fashion Month has been a success.

Hawaii’s fashion talent has been shown on Lifetime’s "Project Runway." The Governor’s Fashion Awards are this week. Is fashion in a renaissance?

Our mono-economy cries out for diversification, and here’s a re-emerging industry that fits perfectly with what we have. Could fashion be the next big thing?

The industry has been a faded icon in the history in Hawaii. After statehood, aloha­wear companies sprang up from Keeaumoku to Kalihi. Locally made clothing was in all the stores, and everyone wore it.

But mainland manufacturers entered the market and we started outsourcing to Asia to keep up. We continued to lose ground, and by the 1990s our fashion industry had shrunk to a few survivors.

Decades later, there are signs of rebirth, a new generation of local entrepreneurs who want to make things, including clothing. You can find them in Kakaako and some in Chinatown.

The emergence of the Kakaako Generation suggests that Hawaii fashion can have new traction. We have a number of assets that can help us rebuild the industry. All we have to do is put them together.

We’ve got talented young designers. We’ve got college-level fashion programs. We’ve got a ready local market, and valuable access to the tourist market. We’ve got the University of Hawaii collection of 2,000 historic garments, with obvious design value.

We’ve got our island diversity, and the assimilative process that makes it even more compelling. We can do fusions of East and West, of art, culture and tech, in a world that loves all the things that are Hawaii.

There are no limits to what we can do. We’ll need a place to do it, and Kakaako seems to be that place. But if the landowners want the Kakaako Generation to develop the industry, they’ll have to give them startup rents.

Like sense of place, we need to find a special sense of design. Luckily, we have the colors and textures from our sea, earth, mountains and sky. These can help us design pieces that are likely to appeal everywhere.

A handful of committed individuals can make a huge difference. We have that in Melissa White and Toby Portner, who founded the Hawaii Fashion Incubator in 2006. HIFI now has a network of 3,000 fashion professionals.

HIFI’s "Coop" at Ward Warehouse is a boutique and beacon for designers to gather, create, showcase and sell their work, and a place for classes, workshops and photo shoots — something for everyone.

Can Hawaii sew, as in the old days? Denyse Ray has built the Ease Collection, the one garment factory in Kakaako. Her determination is inspiring. The marriage of tech and fashion is an advantage. New design technologies make design, cutting and sewing much easier. New information technologies make marketing much easier. These technologies empower fashion entrepreneurs as never before.

Tech helps them chose colors, fabrics and textures; design garments and textiles; and make them more efficiently and at lower cost. Labor requirements are reduced, and investors can be more confident.

But the scarcity of capital, the costs of labor and the burdens of bureaucracy make it hard for startups in Hawaii. We must make it easier. Enough said.

SMART fashion magazine was launched in 2005 but failed. We need another fashion magazine to keep track of what’s going on. Anyone up for another try? And how about a world-class e-commerce website?

But the world won’t wait while we find ourselves. As fashion gets more profitable, the competition gets stiffer. New fashion capitals are going gangbuster. If we want a renaissance, we’d better do it quickly.

So Hawaii fashion could be fashionable again. That’s why we need to give it a chance. It’s more than just an industry; it’s a return to earlier times, calling up memories of self-sufficiency and pride.

Let’s all buy Hawaii fashion. That will support the renewal of the industry and our state identity. And let’s send our kids to fashion school, at UH or on the mainland, on the understanding that, yes, they can come back and make a career locally.

We need to make sure everyone knows how important this is. We’re spending $80 million for tourism; how about some real money for fashion? How about protecting Hawaii fashion as a brand?

And how about capital from investors, perhaps under the new rules for crowd funding, and credit from the banks? It’s an investment that keeps on giving; creating jobs and careers for the Kakaako Generation and refreshing the brand we built 50 years ago. The second time should be much better.

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Jay Fidell, a longtime business lawyer, founded ThinkTech Hawaii, a digital media company that reports on Hawaii’s tech and energy sectors of the economy. Reach him at fidell@lava.net.