Awai’s signature style informed by years as a stage performer

As a performer, Nake‘u Awai sought the spotlight on New York stages and Hollywood sets. But as a designer, he’s been content to remain behind the scenes, orchestrating fashion shows and selling out of his hole-in-the-wall Kalihi boutique while putting customers’ happiness first.

The designer, 77, celebrated his 40th anniversary Sunday with a sold-out holiday fashion show at the Dole Cannery Pomaika‘i Ballroom.

Chalk it up to his love of theater, but his shows are not your typical catwalk, with models walking a straight line. Instead, they are musical extravaganzas that feature Broadway tunes and, this year, Hawaiian music — both contemporary and ancient — that described some of the history of Hawaii and Waikiki, celebrated the alii and friends who have died, and explored lyrics of Hawaiian songs we take for granted.

“Runway, to me, is boring,” he said during an interview at his shop, stuffed floor to ceiling and corner to corner with 40 years of photos and memorabilia in addition to his clothing and merchandise from other creatives.

“When models come in they always want to show me their walk. I just smile and tell them I hate that point-and-turn. They try to come off as high fashion, and island fashion is not high fashion. In my shows the women play all kinds of characters who might wear the clothes. They might be a public school teacher or a hustler on Mamo Street in Hilo.”

Awai’s career as a fashion designer was a natural extension of his first career as a dancer/performer in the 1960s. He moved from Hawaii to study dance at the University of Washington, where he considered himself destined for Broadway.

“I thought I was hot stuff. My first Broadway audition, there were 250 guys, and I found out I wasn’t that hot after all.”

To add to his dilemma, Broadway casting at the time was largely white.

“I didn’t understand until I left New York that they never would have cast me because I would have stood out too much as a person of color.”

Even so, he considered the five years he spent on the East Coast as his happiest years, when he began performing in children’s theater and met members of Frank Sinatra’s “Rat Pack” while performing at the singer’s 500 Club in Atlantic City, N.J.

But he tired of New York winters, and about the time he could finally afford an electric blanket, he began making his way back West, first spending five months in Reno performing in “Hello Tokyo” with Jimmy Borges before arriving in Hollywood during an era of television music specials hosted by performers like Petula Clark, Dionne Warwick, Jack Benny and Ann Miller.

“I’d audition, work, pau work. In between jobs I’d run into everybody in the unemployment line.”

In his downtime he learned macrame techniques from a friend. Soon his macrame belts were being sold in Beverly Hills and sought by performers ranging from the Sylvers, a family act from Watts that rivaled the Jackson Five, George Chakiris of “West Side Story” and Elvis Presley.

In his search for side jobs to make ends meet, Awai also worked for Bob Mackie, an illustrator-turned-designer who gained notoriety in the 1970s for the flamboyant TV costumes and red-carpet ensembles he created for Cher.

“Meeting designers, I became more aware of fashion, and more choreographers wanted me to design costumes for them,” said Awai, who quickly learned what a lucrative business it could be after being paid $4,000 to create five costumes for Sammy Davis Jr.’s Las Vegas dancers.

A stage production of “Flower Drum Song” brought him back to Hawaii when he was in his 30s, and his father helped him finance his first collection of fully lined holoku, which he sold to Liberty House for $60 each. The retailer marked them up to $120, a luxury price at that time.

He also sold designs to Carol & Mary, another high-end retailer, only to find that this particular segment of the market needed extra coddling, which did not appeal to him.

A turning point in his progressive direction came after he created a collection with khaki fabric, only to be told by a buyer, “Vogue magazine says the colors for fall are rust, oatmeal and hunter green.”

“They talked like that, and I said to myself, those are not local colors. To a certain extent you have to play the game, and I didn’t want to. I moved out of Waikiki to Kalihi, where I’ve been ever since,” Awai said.

“I was doing dramatic fashion that wasn’t for everybody. I wanted to do something for the local people.”

He began creating muumuu, holoku, holomu, aloha shirts and a handful of rompers compatible with local lifestyles, using commercial fabric. But, inspired by his friend and fellow designer Allen Akina, who had also returned home following a successful career as a Hollywood hairstylist, he soon began creating his own prints on fabric. These ranged from delicate line drawings of Hawaiian women and island flora, to bold graphics rendered from ohe kapala, or bamboo stamps.

While other designers sought media attention, Awai never went asking for publicity. “If it happened, it happened. I didn’t need the limelight. I just liked working on things that I liked and shows I liked, for local people, which energizes me.

“I never thought about retiring. I look forward to working every day. I still get up at 5.”

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Nake‘u Awai’s boutique is at 1613 Houghtailing St., Suite 5. Open 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays. Call 841-1221. For video of the fashion show, visit honolulupulse.com/fashiontribe.