Nat Norfleet was in town to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Kahala, the company his father Nat Norfleet Sr., founded. He's with Michelle St. John of OluKai.
The 75th anniversary of the aloha shirt and Kahala Sportswear marked a homecoming for Nat Norfleet, who returned from California to celebrate the company his father, Nat Norfleet Sr., founded.
A celebration at the Kahala store at Ala Moana Center on Dec. 1 brought out watermen, industry pros and friends of Nat's when he was more serious about the waves than shirtmaking.
Of course, he came around, having, post-Kahala, launched labels of his own—Cooke Street and Norfleet—before arriving at Ocean Pacific, where he continues to innovate.
At the event, he gave props to Kahala parent—it's a long story—Tori Richard, saying he's pleased at the way they've managed to capture the waterman feel and continue the company's legacy.
It was interesting how the company managed to survive in the hands of other local kamaaina dynasties, from having been purchased by Dale Hope in 1986 (son of Howard Hope, who launched Sun Fashions and the HRH-His Royal Highness label), to currently, Tori, founded by Mort Feldman, now run by his son CEO/president Josh Feldman.
When talking aloha shirt history, there are all kinds of island lore about who started this and who started that, and with the principals gone, there are few who could refute or make the case for particular claims. But during my interview with Nat on Nov. 28, just after he arrived from the airport, the one thing he was adamant about was that he was there in the early 1960s, when Kahala came up with the reverse-print shirt, territory that I believed had been claimed by the Reyn's' McCullough clan over the years.
Nat told a story that sounded plausible because of its accidental nature.
Another of Nat's childhood friends, Kent Giles, attended with his wife Barbara. He claimed to have taught Nat to make shirts, to which Nat replied, "They all do!"
I called Dale Hope, to get his take on it, and he said he recalls reading a newspaper story in the 1960s, in which the reporter, writing about the history of the aloha shirt, coyly—or cowardly to me—demurred, "To avoid debate, I'm not going to identify who made the first aloha shirt." That was 25 years after the fact. Today, the reverse-print story dates back 50 years, so it would be great to settle once and for all.
After I'd relayed Nat's story to Dale, he said, "It could make sense."
In his book, "The Aloha Shirt: Spirit of the Islands," he has a photo of Dorian with the history-making shirt, with the label, Hawaiian Ivy by Pat Dorian.
He told another story he'd heard over the years, of Pat Dorian approaching Reyn's assistant manager, Tom Anderson, with his shirts. Anderson was able to get his shirts into Reyn's, and out of gratitude, Dorian offered to give him a shirt. But Anderson thought the shirts too bold for his taste, so Pat had the fabric sewn inside-out.
It comes close to the story posted on Reyn's web site, which says that Reyn McCullough, who started as a retailer, would not allow printed apparel in his store, and therefore, no aloha shirts. His son, Tim McCullough, who provided the information on the site, recalled that his father never embraced the aloha shirt until Anderson showed him Dorian’s original “reverse” print shirt.
So the way I see it is this: Kahala may have stitched the first shirt, but Dorian recognized its alt beauty at the time, and Kahala and Reyn's saw the light in marketing the reverse-print in their own ways, and both are still standing today.
Whew! If anyone has another story, lemme know.
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