aloha shirt

plural aloha shirts · alternative Aloha shirt

1. A collared shirt of a type originating in Hawaii, often brilliantly colored with floral or Polynesian patterns.First known use 1930s

   At this election booth one of the officials wears the popular, brightly colored "aloha" shirt; the other a feather lei about his hat.

   1935, Travel, volumes 76-77

   3 more examples

   No Savile Row suit, no pure silk business ensemble, no costume of any sort, modern or ancient, can possibly beat the traditional aloha shirt for pure form-follows-function glory. Put on a real aloha shirt, with primary colors detonating all over the surface, and you couldn't hang on to a bummer of a mood if your sister was dating Saddam Hussein.

   1996 September, Patrick Mott, “100% Cotton Prozac”, in Orange Coast, volume 22, number 9, →ISSN, page 28

   Emanuel was proud of his image reflected in the glass—tropical blooms covered every inch of his short-sleeved aloha shirt in a busy design of Hawaiian hibiscus, poinsettia, and bougainvillea.

   1999 December 14, Robert B. Stinnett, Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor, New York: The Free Press, →ISBN, page 83

   The design motifs on the early 1930s aloha shirts were generally Japanese or Chinese and applied to the greige goods by roller printing in Japan.

   2006 Spring, Linda B. Arthur, “The Aloha Shirt and Ethnicity in Hawai'i”, in Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, volume 4, number 1, Berg Publishers, →DOI, pages 8–34

   Synonyms: Hawaiian shirt

plural Aloha shirts

1. Alternative letter-case form of aloha shirt.