For at least 25 years, I’ve been listening to designers tell me how they are going to reinvent Hawaiian clothing to be more global.

When I first heard this, I’d say, “Great, I’d love to see that!”

I had no idea what this elusive collection would look like, but I knew I’d recognize it when I saw it.

These days, if a designer says he or she is going to reinvent Hawaiian clothing, I just think, “Yeah, buddy, you and everyone else.”

Well, Sig Zane and his ohana have finally done it for the men’s market, though in a way that echoes the originality of Hawaii fashion circa the 1960s, when designers coming in from out of state embraced prints, cutting and sewing them into modern silhouettes.

I can picture Zane’s latest exclusive Spring/Summer 2016 menswear collection, Forest Cloud, fitting in easily on runways from Asia to Paris. Yet, it is a collection that might not exist if not for a nudge from retail giant Neiman Marcus.

Trouble was, Zane has no trouble saying “no” to work when surf beckons. That, and the limited capacity of his Hilo production line, led him to reject the luxury retailer’s decade-long request to carry his designs.

But persistence paid off, and Zane agreed earlier this year to try his hand at the upscale market. The Forest Cloud collection debuted at NM last week, with prices that range from $280 for shorts to a $600 matching hoodie.

They already tested the upscale market with a limited-edition collection of 30 luxurious wool coats and accessories that were introduced this fall in Hilo. It sold out immediately.

“A lot of our longtime customers were ready for it,” said Zane’s son Kuha‘o, who grew up trying to figure out a way a Sig Zane print could appeal to a larger global market, and looked to Japan for a sense of craftsmanship and family tradition in line with his own upbringing. “If you feel good in our aloha shirts, why not try something that gives you that same feeling when you’re traveling to cold-weather destinations?”

“All of this is outside our comfort zone, so it will be a learning lesson,” Sig Zane said. “It’s still a small-production run because the companies that produce our fabrics are also very small. We wanted partners that share our values. In Japan the crafts stay within a family. You can look at what they produce and you can literally feel the quality. There’s so much integrity in every stitch and everything they do in the same way as the generations before them. It parallels our craft.”

The new collection of cut-and-sew garments takes the Sig Zane print to new heights, crossing over to other silhouettes beyond the simple shapes associated with aloha wear, and able to be integrated into a contemporary wardrobe of casual to designer pieces.

The hoodies, shorts and blazers made from ripstop nylon give them a contemporary feel, while prints honor the Zanes’ roots, as well as the forests and plants that bring life to the Big Island, which they call home.

An uluwehi print is symbolic of the breadfruit tree given to a child on his or her birthday with the notion of feeding the child for life. The olapa print pays homage to the idea of reciprocation. Olapa often graces hula altars as a way of honoring the goddess Laka for her guidance. The olapa’s shiny green leaves dance in the wind, reflecting light in a way that resembles flashes of lightning.

“We go to the forest to gather inspiration, but it’s also a place to study the ecosystem,” Sig Zane said. “The forest pulls the clouds in from the ocean, and the rain flows to the aquifers, feeding the land and the people. When you cut down the forest, you stop that whole cycle.”

The printed hoodie and some of the other menswear garments have a unisex appeal that led some women to ask whether a women’s line is in the works.

“With wahine it gets really complicated. With men you only have to have small, medium, large. With women you have to worry about the bust, the sleeve length, the butt.”

Working that hard, he said, “is not the goal in life.”

Let’s take that as a maybe and check in with Zane in 10 years.