East Honolulu Clothing Co. may not yet be a household name, but it is well known to some well-placed customers, happy pictures of whom fill a cork board at the back of the Waimanalo store.
Hawaiian entertainers Patrick Landeza, Kale Hannahs and Bryan Tolentino were adorned in the company’s boldly printed, moisture-wicking knit aloha shirts onstage at no less than Carnegie Hall in New York for a 2012 concert.
The aloha wear bearing island-inspired screen prints, both for men and women, is favored by entertainers who appreciate the moisture-wicking fabric while performing under hot lights, said company President Andrea Weymouth-Fujie.
WHERE TO BUY
» What: East Honolulu Clothing Co.
» Where: Waimanalo Town Center, 41-1537 Kalanianaole Highway
» Phone: 259-7677
» Hours: Open daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
» Online: www.doublepawswear.com
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Hula halau wore outfits she custom-designed at this year’s Merrie Monarch Festival, not necessarily onstage, but to present a unified appearance in the stands and around Hilo town.
At the same event, she nearly sold out of the new and popular Hula Holoholo garment, which can be worn 25 different ways. She “took a bunch” with her, bringing only one back to Oahu, she said.
The Hula Holoholo, which sells for $159, can be worn as a dress or skirt. As a dress, the ties can be fashioned into a bandeau top, it can be strapless and tied around the waist, it can be worn as a twisted-halter top, or with a one-shoulder design, and other possibilities.
She has copyrighted the design, which she conceived, drew out and experimented with, with some input from Gerdiene Crocker, an employee who lays out and cuts patterns, greets customers and otherwise helps around the store. Crocker was wearing a Hula Holoholo as a skirt earlier this week and recalled with Weymouth-Fujie, amid chuckling, that the first samples were made “doll-sized” as the design was tested.
Off-the-rack clothing ranges from $90 to $100 for wick-away men’s aloha shirts, $60 to $95 for ladies’ tops and $88 to $159 for dresses. A line of T-shirts including designs by husband Maurice “Mo” Fujie are $14.95 for men’s and $18.95 for ladies’ sizes.
An equestrian, Weymouth-Fujie also designs and sells riding tops for women under her Horsechicks Hawaii imprint.
Weymouth-Fujie also does custom orders, large and small, and has designed uniforms for Hawaii Duck Tours and other groups.
For a local Alpha Delta Kappa sorority chapter, she created a screen print, and each member chose the style of garment on which it would be printed, “so each lady would have her own style,” Weymouth-Fujie said. “We make our stuff for real people, not hangers.”
Custom orders reflect about 30 percent of her revenue stream, though it is cyclical, she said.
The 2,000-square-foot space used to be a bank and also was a sumo store run by Pat Rowan, mother of Waimanalo-raised sumotori Chad “Akebono” Rowan, whose statue still stands out front.
Scented by locally made soaps and body products, the store also is stocked with locally made gift items of all sorts, including note cards and locally crafted jewelry, some of it handmade in Waimanalo.
Despite a gentle reminder from a sign-wielding gnome to “buy local,” some items are not made in Hawaii. The store gets a lot of tourists, “so we have to sell some tchotchke-type stuff,” she said.
Many will remember Weymouth-Fujie from her small shop in Kaimuki at Waialae and 9th avenues, she said. It was called Double Paws Wear, and indeed, Double Paws Wear LLC is the corporate entity. The tag line on the sign, now mounted at the back of the Waimanalo store, is East Honolulu Clothing Co.
While in Kaimuki for six years beginning in 2001, people tended to think it was a store that sold clothing for pets. The Double Paws nomenclature actually paid tribute to her “helpers,” her dog and cat, which still are immortalized via tiny paw prints in Weymouth-Fujie’s designs.
“Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.
