I have been working on a Hawaii post for a couple of days ( I have been back for four days ). I realized that I have to do it in 3 parts : what they wore, what I wore, and HOLY COW, what a trip !!! ( soon to be in OT for those who are interested. )

There were very clearly 3 subsets of people/cultures. The Caucasions ( "mainlanders", Australians, New Zealanders ), Japanese, and locals. The styles between these three subsets were like night and day. I LOVED it because it made me feel so international !

Le Sport sacs were everywhere…particularly prevalent with the Japanese.

https://www.lesportsac.com/col.....nniversary

I would say that 60 % of the Japanese that I saw were carrying a Le Sport Sac ( even men ). If the Japanese didn't have a LeSport Sac, then they were carrying a Coach bag. Caucasions used mostly cloth totes or backpacks.

Surprisingly, the Caucasion set , despite country, pretty much wore the same “uniform”. A cotton T shirt of some sort and shorts. And white sneakers. Though mainlanders tended toward sports gear too. As far as I could tell, only mainlanders were in "gear". I tried to listen to people to gauge their origin in order to make these sweeping conclusions, btw. ; )


The younger, Caucasion set in Wakiki and Honolulu, wore board shorts, see through cover ups and bathing suits. Everywhere...in restaurants, high end store, low end store...lol. I have to say that made me a little unnerved on a couple of occasions. We went to a “nice” restaurant for lunch and the locals and the Japanese dressed very nicely for it with the women in beautiful summer dresses and men in polo tops or Hawaiian button downs. But there were several young women in bikini tops sitting around these nice tables. Obviously, the place didn’t care…but I didn’t like it. : ( One local woman, probably in her 60s, complimented me on my dress and then went on to say that mainlanders dressed as if a soccer match or swim contest was going to break out anywhere and at any moment. She said that she felt this incredibly disrespectful to the the islanders. Interesting.......

The Japanese women mostly wore beautiful, wispy chiffon like dresses and a heel. Generally a low heel sandal. Maybe 20-25% wore either black or white cotton capris ( not denim ) and a flowy, chiffon top. I was surprised by the make up. It was more than I expected. Even the girls in bathing suits had on a lot of make up. I found that strange for some reason. I was also surprised by the amount of black that was worn. Everything that I had read in preparation for this said that no one wore black and to just bring color. WRONG ! There were black dresses galore and black pants. Traditional neutrals reigned the day with the more “fashionable “ set. I saw no really bright dresses or pants on the women. The bright ( red , kelly green, yellow ) pants were on the younger Japanese male set.

Most of the locals were in JEANS !!! It cracked me up. I was dying of heat and they had a “chill” from the wind. The locals also wore cut off jean shorts. Outside of the tourist areas, it was the only type of short I saw on local women.

I did spot my first Birkies in action. I was so excited. I saw 4 women on 4 separate occasions in Honolulu wearing Birkies. 3 wore them with dresses and one was wearing black, capri pants. 3 of the pairs were Minnie Mouse designs, though not pink, they were black, white, and touches of red. The 4th pair I saw was of Hello Kitty. The women looked great. It was so funny because my head was going , " Really ? I should not like this...but how freakin' great do these ladies look ? "

Part 2, WIW, coming, with pics of outfits, what worked and what didn't.


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11 years ago