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The Hawaiian shirt is a feel-good item of clothing. Throw one over a white tee in the summer and it'll be a good day. But once upon a time, the Hawaiian shirt was a niche item, worn primarily in its namesake's country of origin and considered kitsch clothing by anyone beyond the West Coast. Fortunately, one brand helped pave the way for worldwide acceptance of the Hawaiian shirt, and that brand was Reyn Spooner. Reyn Spooner's roots date back to 1949, when a young Reyn McCullough entered the men's fashion game after serving in the military. But how did a former California skydiver end up pioneering the Aloha shirt and earning his brand the nickname “Brooks Brothers of the Pacific”? We answer these questions in our profile of the iconic Aloha brand.
The brand's founder, Reyn McCullough, was born and raised on Catalina Island, off the coast of Southern California. After serving as a paratrooper in World War II, Reyn returned to Catalina Island and got a job at a men's clothing store in Avalon. Reyn immediately immersed himself in the world of men's fashion and proved he had a natural flair for fashion, marketing and design, so much so that he purchased his employer's store in 1949 and renamed Reyn's Men's Wear. Soon after, Reyn developed five more stores in California, each known for its high-quality sports and resort clothing. Before visiting Hawaii for the first time in 1957, Reyn refused to stock aloha shirts in his men's clothing stores, calling them noisy and poorly constructed. For Reyn, the loose shirts in bright island prints just didn't fit with the sleek, Oxford-heavy wardrobes of the 1950s. But after spending enough time on the tropical island, Reyn was truly charmed by the Hawaiian lifestyle, especially with its brightly colored shirts.
During his two-week visit, Reyn befriended a man named Don Graham of the Dillingham Corporation, developers of the soon-to-be Ala Moana Mall. built. With tourism booming in Hawaii, Ala Moana was expected to become the island's premier shopping destination. Enchanted by the Hawaiian lifestyle and faced with a new business opportunity in the form of the Ala Moana Mall, Reyn moved his family to the island's capital, Honolulu, in 1959. Reyn met Spooner While Reyn was to move her men's clothing business to Honolulu, a young seamstress named Ruth Spooner had started a business on Waikiki Beach, making custom surf trunks. Custom trunks and other swimwear, made solely by Spooner on a unique sewing machine, have earned a reputation island-wide for their unrivaled quality and construction. Reyn noticed Spooner's operation shortly after moving to Hawaii and the two began working together. Reyn has partnered with Spooner to ensure premium construction for its activewear lines, which now include board shorts and other surf clothing. The couple officially merged in 1961 and the name Reyn Spooner was born. Although he embraced Hawaiian culture, Reyn still had reservations when it came to traditional aloha shirts. But when a charismatic local bartender named Pat Dorian showed him his own line of backwards aloha shirts, Reyn had an epiphany. The reverse aloha fabric featured soft colors that created a more subtle pattern, which Reyn immediately liked.
Reyn got to work and designed the first Reyn Spooner brand aloha shirts with the help and consultation of the New York-based brand Gant. He also searched far and wide for textile artisans who could dye his aloha fabrics to achieve a sun-faded look. Using his new ‘inside-out’ effect fabrics, Reyn utilized construction techniques of the most sophisticated shirting he pioneered back in California to create a more subtle shirt that combined the essence of aloha culture with ivy-league traditions. In 1964, Reyn Spooner patented his reverse-print look fabric and christened it Spooner Kloth. T.G.I.F. Reyn Spooner’s new aloha shirts became an instant classic, proving popular with the Hawaiian natives, visiting businessmen, and tourists alike. So much so that in 1962, the Hawaiian Fashion Guild began promoting Aloha shirts as acceptable workplace appeal. In a movement they dubbed “Operation Liberation,” the Hawaiian Fashion Guild gifted two Aloha shirts to every member of the Hawaiian Senate. As a result, the Senate recommended Aloha attracts “be worn in summer months for comfort and to support the 50th state’s garment industry”. The Guild then flexed their sartorial muscles even further and lobbied for “Aloha Friday,” a policy which would allow men to wear aloha shirts at work throughout the year. They were successful once again and Aloha Friday officially began in 1966. Hawaii’s custom of Aloha Friday quickly spread to the West Coast and beyond. By the mid-90s, Aloha Friday was in full swing across the globe, known as Casual Fridays or Dress Down Fridays in other countries. In modern-day Hawaii, aloha shirts are worn as workplace attire any day of the week.
After the design of the Reyn Spooner Aloha Shirt, Reyn Spooner's presence gradually grew, and by the mid-1970s the brand was being marketed globally. The brand's flagship store is still located at the Ala Moana Center in Hawaii and its products are distributed internationally.
Today, Reyn Spooner is owned by the Aloha Brands investment group. While most of Reyn Spooner's manufacturing is now outsourced to Asia, all design work takes place in Hawaii, the brand's homeland. In addition to rayon and linen, Reyn Spooner still produces shirts using Spooner Kloth, the “reverse print” fabric. This material is a blend of cotton and spun polyester that is cool, breathable and wrinkle resistant. “Thanks to our unique screen printing process, Spooner Kloth™ allows for perfect ink penetration for that recognizable Reyn Spooner reverse print look. As the ink penetrates the fibers, it also adds a little more structure to the fabric. Therefore, a darker print may seem a little starchy at first. But the pigment fibers relax with each wash so the fabric becomes softer and softer over time while retaining its shape. You can sit on a plane for 12 hours and still get off with a fresh shirt that stands out in a crowd. — Reyn Spooner After collaborating with major labels such as Vans and Opening Ceremony over the years, Reyn Spooner now has an ongoing collaboration with Major League Baseball (MLB). This collaboration sees Reyn Spooner produce a wide range of aloha shirts with designs incorporating the crests of Major League baseball teams.
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