Nakeu Awai
"Having some exposure into fashion life during my Hollywood residency, I returned home to Honolulu to capture a local audience with Island Alohawear. A line with palaka fabric was my first creative goal but could not do simply because SurfLine had a wholesale clamp on palaka. Undaunted, I produced a khaki collection which was not the best move and was not picked up. I then showed my first collection using rose fabric to Carol & Mary and a seer-sucker holoku to Liberty House. A new designer had made his entrance into Honolulu retail." -Nakeu Awai