HIDESIGNCOMMUNE debuts

Nineteen new and established Hawaii designers banded together to launch the inaugural annual design and retail event, HIDESIGNCOMMUNE, a fashion show and marketplace promoting local design talent. The free event took place June 27 at Kakaako Agora.

"We hope this event will build connections among designers, foster growth for small businesses, and increase public engagement in local design and fashion," said event director Reise Kochi, bringing up a weak spot I’ve noticed whenever and wherever fashion events take place.

That is, the shortage of public engagement with fashion and design. I started thinking about this last fall during Hawai’i Fashion Month and Honolulu Fashion Week, when, as important as the showcases were, most of the audience comprised friends and family of the designers. Where were the "regular" people, those with no connections to the fashion, design, beauty or media industries?

One of my thoughts was that the fashion set can be off-putting to people who don’t want to feel alienated in a room of so-called "beautiful people."

Then there is the notion that this may be the result of budget cuts leading to lack of arts education and appreciation in the schools, and people growing up with the idea that things like art, design and fashion are unnecessary luxuries only meant for the wealthy.

When I think back on my childhood and how I got to this place of appreciating beauty, the arts and the hands that create, I realize how fortunate I was. Unbelievable as it seems today, attending humble Waipahu Elementary was much like attending a private school. We had a tremendous arts program, so I grew up drawing, painting, throwing pottery and handbuilding clay, producing puppet shows, performing in band, exploring bookbinding, and many, many other such areas of study. More important than learning an artistic skill set is that such classes also encourage a sense of play and imagination.

I took it for granted that every school had these programs, but in talking to many other people who are products of our public schools, they had no such programs, and I think it shows in the lack of imagination to solve this state’s many problems.

Solutions, instead, must come from all of us at a grassroots level, and in the case of supporting local talent it’s easy. Wear local. This is another weak spot I noticed during Fashion Month, when I make an effort to wear creations by local designers only to observe that few others do. Maybe local fashion needs a movement similar to that of the food industry, which has been very successful in promoting the "eat local" idea.

While the idea of island apparel might have been perceived as kitschy and unfashionable before, what we saw during HIDESIGNCOMMUNE were styles that transcend the islands, and can be worn anywhere in the world, created by people with a contemporary, global outlook.

Participating designers were Common Goods, Rumi Murakami, Allison Izu, Reise Kochi, Gillia, Salt Liko, Moon Collective, Evening Invitation, Issa de’ Mar, M33Ms, Chad Aoyagi, Ten Tomorrow, Ryan Ota, Mojobeebee, Spark, Andy South, Virginia Paresa, S.tory Standards, B. D’Angelo and Tutuvi.

As the world grows warmer, there’s no reason Hawaii can’t be at the forefront of warm-weather clothing trends. We’ve had decades to practice.

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