Art Direction, behind the scenes

Behind the scenes from our Charlot House shoot in Honolulu. We made a whole deck. We described it at length. And then somehow, it actually looked exactly like what we imagined. Straight magic.

All the Wrong Reasons

New plans for this year. We are bad at quitting. Is it stupidity or genius, you decide.

Alewa: History in a Print and a Pleat

the strangely anachronistic watteau pleat persists on the modern holokū form. Its stubborn resilience intrigued me. I knew it must have some strong semiotic meaning to survive unaltered for 200 yea...

Rainbows: the Original Hawaiian Supergraphic

I have a tendency to overthink things. I decided I needed to make a simple print. I was hoping for a “banger” print. So I decided to work with rainbows.

Pareo, A Print Odyssey: PS

Please see Pareo Part I and Part II for context. At long last I have found an original fragment of one of the pareu prints that I couldn’t find in any collection - only in photographs being worn...

Pareo, A Print Odyssey: Part II

This is taken from the essay “Pareo Print Narrative” — part of the RISD Museum’s collection along with samples of this print. Please read Part I first. A Slight Detour During my research I stumbl...

Pareo, A Print Odyssey: Part I

This is taken from the essay “Pareo Print Narrative” — part of the RISD Museum’s collection along with samples of this print.I am indebted to Dale Hope who brought a wealth of knowledge in his gene...

the rules

Respect the ancestors.  We tie our lineage back to the history of feminism and the “reform dress.” We take the essence of historic Mu’umu’u forms and make them current. Don’t cut the print. ...

The Origami Dress

the form A classic 1970’s halter dress ready for your grand entrance. Origami is a true labor of love for us, trying to capture that 70s sense of glamour. With its complex pleating and inte...

The Margrethe Dress

the form A shirt dress meets a smock for all your day dress daydreams. The Margrethe dress; artist smock meets shirt dress. With classic menswear details and an easy one piece body, this dr...

The Long Dress

the form Simple a line dress built for your endless summer. The long dress is a dead simple a-line maxi dress made in mid weight cotton twill. But of course getting a simple thing right is ...

The Kaftan Dress

the form Or you call it caftan. Our version has unexpected shaping to make it that much cleverer. This kaftan has been with us since our earliest season because it is a versatile, easy to t...