Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 6, 1 June 2010 — Native fashion takes [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Native fashion takes

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Native fashionistas arise ! MAMo (Maoli Arts Month) onee again gave seleet Hawaiian designers a runway for their unfettered flights of imagination and the results at the Hawai'i Theatre were a mesmerizing speetaele of wearable art woven together with hula performanee under the direetion of Robert Cazimero. OHA awarded a Kaiāulu grant of $49,600 to the PA'I Foundation to support the various events of Maoli Arts Month 2010. PA'I Foundation sponsors the annual Wearable Art to help support Hawaiian-foeused programs, and proceeds from the May

zo eveui wm ueip seiiaiNauve Hawaiian high school students to a summer science-learning project at Harvard University.

On the runway, the wide range of creations this year proved that, as with hula, where f all knowledge does not rest with one hālau, there are infinite ways to fuse ieonie Hawaiian imag-

ery and body adornment. As depicted here, MAMo is not about "fashion don'ts," only "do's," as in do follow your Hawaiian heart in fusing native roots with new horizons. ■ - Photos: Kapulani Landgraf

< Nila Pilago of Wahine Toa Designs imprints her mark of Hawaiian grace in the lines of a gown sewn Mrom lndonesian fabric.

>■ A show-stopping designer from Kohala, Carrington Manaola Yap displays his fondness for "found objects" by crafting superbly fun regalia. For more on Yap, see the May Ka Wai Ola Loa at oha.org/kwo/ L loa/201 0/05/ 1 story05.php.

A Wearable art is downright skin tight as interpreted by Keoni Nunes, whose tattoo designs are displayed by a Hawaiian warrior, complete with handcrafted weaponry carved by lua practitioner Umi Kai.

> Malie Boll's T-shirts are modeled en masse by a cavalcade of eool strollers.

A Diva-of-dressmaking Maile Andrade, on stage at right, with her models, also crafted an elegant strapless number at top right, sported by a model whose head pieee is the magnificent lei hulu work of Paulette Kahalepuna.

< Marques Marzan, whose fashion mark is multimedia materials, wili'd together feathers and

netting for an elegant ensemble.