The timeless Hawaiian shirt | Beatrice Brandini Blog

Postcard Hawaii

“Accidental tourists” by Beatrice Brandini

I am happy that this summer, thanks largely to Prada that ennobles and makes “cool” everything, is back in fashion the Hawaiian shirt.

Prada Resort 2014 ad campaign, photo Steven Meisel

Prada Men Fashion Show SS 2014

It is a garment a little’ kitsch, especially if you are decontextualized from its natural habitat, or exotic destinations and vacationer, but for me it has always had its own charm, making light-hearted and fun immediately any boy or man who wears it (Messrs a little ‘olders are requested to stay out of it, at least if you are Mick Jagger).

Elvis Presley in Blue Hawaii

Montgomery Clift in From Here to Eternity and Frances Farmer

The first to take and make it famous was Elvis in the movie “Blue Hawaii” (ça va sans dire), I discovered that it was no accident, but the idea of that Hawaiian shirt was the costume designer Edith Head (8 Oscars!) for which no I am surprised that subsequently has become an icon for generations. Other excellent testimonial were Montgomery Clift in “From Here to Eternity”, Frank Sinatra, and others.

Tom Selleck in Magnum P.I.

Another actor who has made it “popular”, a few decades later, was Tom Selleck in Magnum PI, with its irresistible Hawaiian shirts on board a red Ferrari. Today is especially thanks to Jared Leto, Academy Award actor “Dallas Buyers Club”, but especially frontman of Thirty Seconds to Mars, a group that has fans all over the world, who has used repeatedly in recent public appearances.

Jared Leto on the Coachella Festival

Born in the United States as a souvenir that tourists were brought home after an exotic trip, the Hawaiian shirt representing the object “memory” of an unforgettable holiday, the garment that, once back at home and worn again, to those reported nostalgic moments of complete happiness and joy.

Fausto Pugliesi woman fashion show, SS 2014 Casadei for Franco Pugliesi

There are those who collects them, but the purists of the genre looking for the original ’30s (unavailable) or “satisfied” than those of the ’70s, however, are not attracted to those proposed by the designers, too trendy for them.

The examples from the fashion shows that I have proposed here shows how this garment can also be elegant (Van Noten), classical (Ovaida), glamour (Puglia), so have the courage to pull it out of your closets, although dusty and crumpled (in this case even better), or buy it if spotted in a second-hand market, and if you have the opportunity to purchase those signed, you will surely be irresistible.