It’s not every day a Hawaii designer is invited to present at New York Fashion Week. Manaola Yap got the call this summer.

The designs he presented for his Manaola brand during Honolulu Fashion Week last fall caught the eye of scouts for the U.K.-based Oxford Fashion Studio, which promotes new designers.

Every year, the organization reviews the work of 8,000 designers, choosing 24 to present six looks at fashion weeks in New York, Milan, Paris and London. Out of the 24, 10 — including Manaola this year — are selected to present full collections.

Although Manaola was invited to show at each of the European fashion capitals, Yap said he committed to presenting a show Sept. 8 at Studio 450 in New York and is aiming to raise $30,000 to help with expenses.

While Oxford Fashion Studio provides the venue and staging, and manages details from invitations to public relations, the designers must arrange for their own travel and accommodations. For Manaola, that encompasses an ohana of local models, stylists, hairstylists and makeup artists whom he deems essential to telling the story of the indigenous brand.

YAP, 30, was born to a hula family. He is the son of kumu hula Nani Lim Yap of Kohala, and as the eldest child was charged with keeping the family genealogy. He is an alakai (leader) with Halau Manaola, being groomed to one day become its kumu hula.

“I started hula at about 6, helping my mother. She was part of the huge renaissance in hula back in the 1960s and ’70s, into the ’80s. Before then the hulas being done were monarch-based. My mom and others went back to older dances representative of mythology.”

Yap learned to sew from his mother, developing headpieces for ocean goddesses and fiery ensembles representative of Pele, which sparked his love for fashion.

“I’m not formally trained, but I grew up weaving lau hala. I learned to balance acidity and alkalinity in dye baths using plant-based dyes, kukui nuts, bark fibers,” he said.

Growing up with these art forms put him in a unique position in today’s DIY-mad world in which others are playing catch-up, trying to relearn traditional methods of creation. At the same time, fashion observers abroad — long familiar with Hawaii’s floral-print fashion legacy — are searching for authenticity.

Yap launched Manaola two years ago, merging his cultural heritage with a contemporary fashion aesthetic.

“I wanted to figure out a way to preserve native culture, and the way for our indigenous culture to survive is to become a part of the popular culture,” he said.

Drawing on his exposure to hula and the natural world, Yap said his designs are based on sacred geometry and the repetition of designs in nature, as reflected in ohe kapala, the bamboo stamps traditionally used to create patterns on kapa.

“My ideas about fashion began with hula and the importance of adornment put on the body, which is our temple. What we wear attracts and retracts,” he said. “’Fast fashion’ is everywhere, but people are shifting to wanting to put something on their body that has meaning.”

Contribute to Manaola’s New York Fashion Week travel expenses at gofundme.com.