Working out of a loft above the old Wing Coffee Company on Smith Street, Clifford Wong and his wife Lillian produced garments under the Hawaiian Togs label starting in 1947. They sold to the Military PX, Watumull's, Sears, Liberty House, and McInerny's who all requested that they sew the retailer's label into the garment.
Their mostly cotton fabrics came from Japan with island flavored patterns. They also ran hand screened rayon or silk prints, offering print exclusives to their retailers with many of their exclusive patterns.
Referred to as a "private label", they sometimes used a label which combined both their name and the client store's logo and sometimes just the store's label. In 1960 they were producing $150,000 worth of merchandise yearly to mostly local stores such as Liberty House, Mc Inerny's, Sears, Andrade, Kramers and the resort shops in Waikiki. They also had some outer island accounts and distributed to Hawaiian shops on the mainland.
In 1978 Clifford and Lillian decided to retire and liquidated Hawaiian Togs, leaving a legacy of well-designed fabrics with quality workmanship.
They had several Hawaiian Tog labels both with and without the words, "Poi Pounder Tog". In Hawaiian, "Poi" is a Polynesian staple food made from taro root. Poi is made by pounding these roots after they have been baked or steamed, traditionally in an underground oven called an Imu.
