In the late 1940's American soldiers passed through Hawaii on their way home from War. They caught up with needed R&R and could not leave the islands without a liberating Aloha Shirt.
Film classics like "From Here To Eternity" were made with Montgomery Clift, Ernest Borgnine and Frank Sinatra wearing Aloha Shirts. Large companies like Made in California started to produce summer lines with printed casual and relaxed printed shirts. They would work with talented Hawaiian designers like John "Keoni" Meigs to purchase authentic island-inspired designs.
Keoni worked with larger fabric houses and manufacturers and once said, "A lot of kooky things were designed, but I always tried to be a purist when it came to using motifs from Hawaiian sources." When Keoni had sold all the designs he could in Hawaii he would go to the mainland and work with the larger companies in California and New York.
