Hawaiian Holoku man - Hawaiian Holoku man

48a: Male adult, Hawaiian Holuku man, cloth head and body, painted features, yarn hair, yellow felt cape on upper body, yellow felt head dress, brown printed loin cloth, he is holding a long stick, machine-made. Accompanying information describes that the Hawaiian holuku has an interesting history. It was a creation of the missionaries who came to Hawaii about 1820. The good New Englanders were shocked at the happy state of undress in which they found the Hawaiians and they set about it at once to clothe their converts. The trouble was to find a style which would adequately cover those ample brown bodies and yet be simple to sew. After some thought they hit upon the very thing, the Mother Hubbard, a style common to New England of that day. Additions have been made to the basic style since then--a train, a fancy petticoat, ruffles, and so on. But the sweeping princess lines of the original dress remain the same. At pUblic functions and even on the streets you will see these elderly dignified Hawaiian ladies in bright flowered holokus, the train draped over an arm and wearing either flowers in their hair or large hand-woven hauhala hats decorated with a lei of flowers or bright feathers. The holoku is worn by women of every race in the Islands but, none with quite the charm and dignity of the Hawaiians. The word holoku means literally stop-go referring to the movement of the sewing machine. The Muumuu (literally cut off-sleeves cot off) was used originally as an under-garment, a night-gown or even a bathing dress. The modern version has now become as popular a day time dress as its more aristocratic sister the holoku.