Placket Dress Surfboard Red

Western Aloha honors legendary textile designer John "Keoni" Meigs in this edition of Western Aloha’s vintage collection. On the beaches of Waikiki during the late 1940s and 1950s, the guests of hotels like the Moana and the Royal Hawaiian would be greeted with leis and given passes to take surfing lessons from the Beach Boys at the Outrigger Canoe Club. Meigs was almost certainly there too, taking in the scene as inspiration for this "Surfboard" print.

XS (0-2), S (4-6), M (8-10), L (12-14), XL (16)

Fabric & Construction

• Cut and sewn overseas
• 100% Rayon
• Center Front Length from highpoint of shoulder to hem
• 36" for size Small, with a 3/4" grade by size
• Short sleeves, front yokes
• Side seam pockets
• Button placket with real coconut buttons 
• Easy fit, drapes well
• Fabric weight 129 g/sm

The Artist:  John "Keoni" Meigs

John “Keoni” Meigs began his career designing aloha shirts while living in Honolulu prior to World War II. Between 1938 and 1951, Meigs created as many as three hundred different textile designs, many of which are now recognized as classics.  In his prints Meigs tried to depict, in his words, “what’s really Hawaiian without being pedestrian,” including a series of designs based on Gauguin’s Tahitian wood block prints and tapa patterns kept at the Bishop Museum.

Meigs went on to move to New Mexico in the 1950s, where he became a well-received landscape artist. Although he painted the earth tones of the desert instead of tropical island scenes, Meigs kept one part of Hawaii with him: his Aloha shirts. He was often pictured wearing one with a cowboy hat, personifying the connection between western and Aloha.

Fit