What’s Behind Your Clothing Label?

What’s Behind Your Clothing Label?

Over the years the apparel industry in the United States has taken a pretty severe beating, much of that can be attributed to the cheap foreign labor and government trade agreements that reward businesses for taking their apparel manufacturing out of the country. Personally I think it’s just plain sad that companies like Wal-Mart and Kohl’s have set up camp in places like Vietnam (actually whole cities), where the average monthly wage is about $45 USD a month and then have the balls to further leverage that by bringing the cheaply made garments back to the USA for sale and distribution.

We are sure that you noticed during the holidays that those stores were selling shirts and outfits for as low as $5, but have you really thought about the real story behind those clothing labels with crafty designer names that for the most part do not even exist? Probably not, but envision yourself as a seamstress that works in often appalling conditions with a sign above the room that counts down the daily quota that needs to be met before your shift can go home, you have to endure that 6 long days a week and for just a couple of bucks a day. I call that corporate exploitation of human species.

So you think that couldn’t possibly be the case with companies that make Hawaiian shirts and apparel? Wrong, while you may see the name of some person that rings a bell like Tori Richard etc. or a label that says Aloha Island or something, you probably don’t think about where it was actually made and by whom. Looks can be deceiving and that applies to clothing labels. While Reyn Spooner may state to operate out of Hawaii, the fact of the matter is that the colorful silk garments are 100% made overseas, as are all other shirts made from silk. No aloha there folks.

Then we have the shell game called re-labeling which is rampant throughout the apparel industry and not just limited to Hawaiian apparel manufacturers and distributers. Put it this way, there are over 100 Hawaiian and tropical themed clothing labels and just a handful of actual manufactures in the USA; you can see how it’s hard to keep track of who makes what.

Your best bet is taking a moment to turn over the label and look. If you can’t find a country of origin then we strongly suggest you take a pass on buying the garment. Secondly give thought to whether or not you will be able to sleep at night knowing that a human being was exploited to offer you a Hawaiian shirt for $14.95

Ok it says made in the USA or Hawaii or San Diego, it must be ok to buy. Not necessarily because while a company may say that it makes something in the USA isn’t always as straight forward as it appears. Case in point, a company named American apparel that on numerous occasions has used workers that are here illegally to manufacture their products, is that what you would call American made? Source

So what do we do now? Be assured that any Hawaiian shirts that carry the Wave Shoppe label are actually made by Wave Shoppe. We do not have any distributers, do not practice re-labeling, nor do we employ any workers or seamstresses that do not have legal residency in San Diego, California or Hawaii. The Wave Shoppe label is also proudly sewn on our muumuu and Hawaiian dresses.

But let it be told that cotton Hawaiian fabrics of any quality are almost exclusively printed overseas with cotton imported from the USA. While we are aware of a couple U.S. based textile printers the quality of the fabric and dyes used is beyond atrocious and at nearly $25 a yard you can hardly justify using it to cover a chair not alone produce apparel. So when you factor in that our branded clothing utilizes cotton from the U.S. and all of the cutting and sewing and distribution are done on American soil with American workers its about as close as you are going to get for being American made Hawaiian clothing.

Clothing label images courtesy of Clothing Labels 4 U

Don’t be Hawaiian shirt ‘less

Don’t be Hawaiian shirt ‘less, many people wear them, more than a few people collect them, and a few people (in Hawaii and the mainland) consider them cultural artwork. I consider them my shirts of choice. There are multiple forms of Hawaiian shirts, some that came about from rebellion, from hardship, and of course born from meeting a personal need to wear vivid color. Some are even worn as island symbolism while shooting at bad guys in other countries. Run Forest run!

When the Hawaiian shirt was first being born in the late 1920’s/early 1930’s, the beachwear of the day was white. White pants, white hat, white shirt, white shoes. Before that evolution occurred and probably the beginning of the origins of the Hawaiian shirt, the shirts were mostly worn by vast numbers of Hawaiian field laborers from China and Japan. The early plantation workers shirts were often made from checkered designs (a woven checkered pattern of dark blue and off white like their summer kata’s were made of back home) at times called palaka shirts. But many very early field shirts were just bits and pieces made from parts of other garments. What mattered most was that they kept the hot sun off the workers backs.

You could keep them clean by washing them in a lake or a bucket of water by hand, and then letting them simply air dry on the branch of a tree, regardless of how you washed them they would keep you cool in the hot fields. Whatever the benefits, the dull checkered patterns were too much like a uniform for many, but with the introduction of colorful Asian fabrics, Hawaiian shirts of bright patterns and colors were most widely adopted for sales to eager to shop tourists.

Celebrities of the day such as Bing Crosby, Elvis etc. wore them (celebrities were probably the few that could afford to travel to the Hawaiian Islands at that time), and their popularity became more mainstream once their fans saw their favorite celebrities wearing one.

During times of hardship such as World War II and the depression, petroleum based fabrics became scarce. To make ends meet and keep business coming in, some merchants ingeniously used upholstery and curtain fabrics in their shirts and it wasn’t uncommon to see other shirts cut up and recycled into a Hawaiian style cut shirt.

In the late 1960s (after the royal Hawaiian females no longer dominated surfing) when the world was in the grip of the first surfing craze, the beach boys and other gnarly surfer dudes wore their shirts in the salt and sun so much the shirts would be sun faded and have a natural washed out look. This was a badge of honor among some male surfers (go figure), and as you can guess some of the entrepreneurial island shirt makers emulated it by making shirts with the patterns inside out! God even wears one!

Wave Shoppe - 15% Off Sale - Coupon Code: NOEL

Wave Shoppe is the place to shop if you’re looking to save money on Hawaiian shirts and apparel this holiday season. We offer a great selection of popular designs in sizing that will actually fit you.

Take advantage of free Priority Mail Shipping with any $75 purchase and for a limited time if you use coupon code NOEL during checkout you will also receive 15% off your entire order!

Shopping for aloha in southern California? Swing by and visit our showroom, here are the directions to the store, we would love to meet you in person! Childrens clothes available in-store

From all of us at Wave Shoppe, mahalo and have a wonderfull Christmas.

Patterns and Cutting Hawaiian Shirts

Patterns and Cutting Hawaiian Shirts

This is the second post of the series on Hawaiian shirts which is appropriately called Patterns and Cutting Hawaiian Shirts. Assuming you got past designing and printing your fabric outlined in phase one and have received your new Hawaiian print fabric, its time to take out the cutting saw and cut it all up. So its off to fabric storage to get a few roles of your favorite design and deliver them to the cutting room.

Now while it all sounds easy so far, you are reaching a critical stage in making Hawaiian shirts. This is where the tires meet the pavement and any mistakes can and will completely ruin your new Hawaiian fabric.

So before you do anything more you need to inspect your Hawaiian shirt pattern. At Wave Shoppe Hawaiian Shirts we use commercial grade patterns graded by a professional pattern maker.

These are not the Hawaiian shirt patterns you see in Wal-Mart. Patterns do degrade so you need to make sure that they do not show any signs of damage, as well as makeing sure no pieces are missing.

Make sure you store your patterns in a dry place because the pattern paper will absorb moisture and shrink significantly.

The next step setting up for the cut. Once you have loaded the roll of fabric on the rollers and you have the table prepped it time to lay down the layers. Depending on quantity needed we cut anywhere from 18 to 100 layers at a time. I want to take a moment to give credit where credit is due, and thats to the cutters who have a thankless job. We all agree that sewing makes or breaks a shirt but its our personal opinion that the Hawaiian shirts develop their distinct personalities on the cutting tables.

At the point of setting the patterns and creating the marker, a good fabric cutter in San Diego will take into consideration how the completed piece will look when sewn together. Where you position the pattern piece is crucial to achieving the desired effect in the finished product.

Ok we now have the fabric setup and the marker is completed and weighted and or clamped, looks like we are ready to rock. Depending on the amount of layers you can either use a rotary saw or my personal favorite, a super sharp 8” knife saw. At this point is the men are separated from the boyz. Start following the lines and cut out every required piece, remember that a single mistake like a deep or off marker cut will make the entire layer unusable, were talking total scrap.

When you have completed your cut you tie the size together and move on to the next cut, and you continue to cut until your back starts to hurt, which usually sets in pretty quickly. That basically sums up cutting, we hope you found it informative enough to make the determination that you don’t want to do it yourself. Our next post in the series will be sewing Hawaiian shirts, the final yet most critical phase in making a Hawaiian shirt.

Mahalo!

Charlie Weis in a Hawaiian Shirt

Its almost the end of the year, a signal for those that sell products that its time to start the daunting task of taking a physical inventory. But first, we want to make a quick post to congratulate the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on their first postseason victory in 15 years. We are not big football fans, but due to the fact that we were the supplier of the Aloha shirts A.K.A Hawaiian shirts for the Notre Dame staff, we made an exception and watched the game.

Above and below are game pictures from the 2008 Hawaii Bowl and some pictures of Charlie Weis, coach of the University of Notre Dame, as well as Greg McMackin, coach of the University of Hawaii.

While it’s my understanding that the Hawaii Bowl is not considered a big time event, I think that this is the way every game should end (as deplicted below).

Men acting like real men, what a concept.

But you cant help but wonder what Charlie Weis was really thinking.

"Look at me brah, I kicked your ass while in crutches”

This is my favorite picture of Charlie Weis. With all of the negative stuff I have read about him on the web he still manages to muster up a big smile.

Charlie and his team deserve that trophy because they simply outplayed UH.

Congradulations Charlie!

Ok, I know you are saying to yourself "where can I get a blue Hawaiian shirt like the one Charlie Weis wore in the Hawaii Bowl?"

Well it just so happens that we have that design in 2 colors, a red, and the now semi famous blue. While you missed our shirt sale that we had in October, you can still pick one of the Mauna Loa shirts from the shirt store.