July 2022 – Kaʻahele Hawaiʻi

The Holokū and Muʻ umuʻ u

Kalākua Kaheiheimālie actually started the muʻ umuʻ u trend.

By the time the missionaries got here on 4 April 1820, Hawaiian women were very familiar with European clothing and fashion. Remember, Europeans had been coming in increasing numbers since 1778, so we’d been familiar with Western garments for over 40 years. They were nothing new. The “upper crust” already were using quantities of imported fabrics in making pāʻ ū and malo because they were status symbols, much like high-end import goods today.

Hawaiian people already had been wearing European clothing, occasionally as full suits, more often individual pieces as fashion accessories, for decades. Kamehameha, himself, often dressed in European clothing.

Drawing by Louis Choris from sketches made from life in 1816.

Despite the “common wisdom,” I sincerely doubt that the missionary wives were the first European women that Hawaiians met in person, though I am sure that coming in such a large group as they did, and with the intent of staying, they were a great curiosity.

Women at sea was not the rarity the common English narrative would have us believe. Most of us have heard the stories of women who disguised themselves as men and went to sea. There also were many women who sailed as women, to the extent of captaining their own ships, though that was more common in Asia than in Europe.

A number of ship captains, both merchants and whalers, sailed with their families on-board. A captains wife often trained in navigation. Many kept the ship’s financial records, acting as purser and chief steward.

In 1846 a smallpox epidemic broke out aboard the whaler Powhaton, out of Martha’s Vinyard. Caroline Mayhew, wife of Captain William Mayhew, knew navigation and practical medicine. She took over as captain and cared for her husband and those crew who were ill, saving their lives.

Also, since the first European ships came to replenished their water barrels in our rivers and streams, Hawaiian men had been working on sailing ships – they were considered some of the world’s best sailors and highly desired – for decades – so they were quite familiar with fashions around the world. I’m sure more than a few of them brought home fabric and garments as gifts for nā wāhine in their ʻ ohana.

In this watercolor, we see a fashion-forward aliʻ i wahine (noblewoman) sitting for a portrait wearing her European style blouse with a traditional pāʻ ū (skirt). We know her high rank by the lei niho palaoa (carved whale-tooth necklace) she wears. Louis Choris painted this in 1816, four years before the American missionaries arrived.

*Femme des iles Sandwich*
1816 watercolor by Louis Choris

We can see that Hawaiian women already were interested in world fashion well before the missionaries arrived. The world had changed, and artists such as Choris were having a hard time finding the untouched Hawaiʻ i of the past.

Kalākua Kaheiheimālie
watercolor by Clarissa Chapman Armstrong.
This may be the first holokū made in Hawaiʻ i.
Her necklace is a lei hala, fashioned from the keys of the hala (pandanus) tree.
In her hair is a large comb, possibly of shell or ivory.
After the death of Kamehameha, Kalākua later married Ulumāheihei Hoapili.

When this whole batch of foreign women showed up, they were quite the curiosity. Kalākua knew that people would be intrigued with them.

She wanted to be in the lead of the fashion trends and made a point of greeting them as soon as possible. Immediately, she had the missionary women make her a gown. To be sure to could be done, she brought her own cloth. she then arranged to have all of the women sit and sew her new gown. It would take all of them, as she wanted it complete so that she could wear it when she disembarked from their ship. This was a huge status and fashion coup for her.

Lucy Thurston wrote:

“Kalākua brought a web of white cambric to have a dress made for herself in the fashion of our ladies, and was very particular in her wish to have it finished while sailing along the western side of the island, before reaching the king.”

“Monday morning April 3d (1820,) the first sewing circle was formed that the sun ever looked down upon in the Hawaiian realm. Kalākua was directress. She requested all the seven white ladies to take seats with them on mats, on the deck of the Thaddeus.”

It would be comparable to a former US president’s wife going on board a visiting ship from China and coming off wearing a custom gown in Chinese silk. All of a sudden, that garment and fabric is all the rage and all the upper class want them.

I think it was a masterstroke of fashion diplomacy. This was the year after her husband, Kamehameha Paiʻ ea had died. The various chiefs were jockeying and re-establishing status and alliances, and the same was happening among the many wives Kamehameha had left behind. In one move Kalākua established that she could make the missionary women work for her, that she was a trendsetter, and placed herself in a powerful position of diplomatic friendship with the missionary wives. By bringing her own fabric, she assured that none could think she was impressed by trade cloth and trinkets handed out. She needed no handouts. She would allow them to do her bidding.

Her own experience living in the highest circles of political power had taught her how and with whom to make alliances. As Kamehameha had used relationships with newcomers to up his own political game in his rise to power, developing a relationship with these newcomers gave her greater negotiating strength with Kaʻ ahumanu, the most powerful of Kamehameha’s wives, in establishing herself in the hierarchy of the new political paradigm.

On the missionary side, the women immediately took the opportunity to use teaching sewing these new garments as a ministry. Women who converted to Christianity did, indeed, adopt the holokū for daily wear, but it took over a decade for other women to follow the trend in daily wear. It was almost 1840 before women in general wore the garment. Like other fashion trends around the world, the early adopters tended to be the more affluent / higher socially placed, and the more urban dwelling people. Outlying areas tend to be more conservative regarding change.

Even at that late date, Clarissa Chapman Armstrong who sailed for Hawaiʻ i in 1831 and taught literacy and Bible study classes for women for the next couple of decades (interspersed with a trip to the Marquesas) wrote that “Week after week passes and we see nothing but naked, filthy, wicked heathen with souls as dark as the tabernacles which they inhabit.”

If the missionary women had ever truly attempted to cover the bodies of Hawaiian women to keep the pure eyes of their missionary men from being tempted by lusts of the flesh, they failed miserably.

What succeeded in clothing both Hawaiian women and men was fashion’s fancy and sartorial aspiration.

The days of Hawaiian women being content with a simple wrap skirt and shawl were gone forever.

*Femme des iles Sandwich*
Portrait of a woman from the Hawaiian Islands, wearing a cloth wrap skirt, a pair of earrings, a whale tooth shaped necklace, and her hair short with a section of hair limed at the front.
1822 lithograph, brown and yellow tone with additional red tone.

Missionaries preaching in a kukui grove. Drawn 1838-1842, published 1845.
Note the variety of clothing styles, from Hawaiian to European.

The holokū, so named due to its ability to make the wearer appear “evenly plump, stout, symmetrical,” was not worn alone. Under it, a loose-fitting shift absorbed perspiration and gave some shape and body to the garment. Cut to a similar pattern as the holokū, this shift had shortened sleeves and no train or trailing hem. Thus it was named the mu‘umu‘u (cut off / amputated). As time went on the muʻ umuʻ u also became daywear instead of just an undergarment.

I think the old narrative of missionary women covering the Hawaiian women to hide them from their men is giving too much power to the male gaze. It really disenfranchises Hawaiian women who had a great deal of agency prior to westernization/colonization. If my own relatives are any example, I really doubt that anyone has ever been able to force Hawaiian women to wear something they didn’t want to.

You can help support this research by subscribing to my Patreon blog, The Adventures of Kamaka Holmes, and/or by purchasing my books (written under my pen name of Fevronia Watkins).

Resources

Newspapers
Ka Elele, 26 Aug 1848
Ka Hae Hawai‘i, 19 Dec 1856
Ka Hae Hawai‘i, 1 Jul 1857
Ka Hae Hawai‘i, 2 May 1860
Ka Hae Hawai‘i, 10 Oct 1860
Ka Hoku o ka Pakipika, 28 Nov 1861
Ke Kumu Hawai‘i, 1 Feb 1837
Nupepa Kuokoa, 12 Jul 1862
Nupepa Kuokoa, 22 Jul 1865
Nupepa Kuokoa, 9 Jun 1866
Nupepa Kuokoa, 23 Feb 1867

Manuscripts
Arthur, Linda Boynton; Fossilized Fashion in Hawai‘i; Washington State University

Books
Grimshaw, Patricia; New England Missionary Wives, Hawaiian Women, and the “Cult of True Womanhood”; University of Hawai‘i at Manoa.
Robert, Dana Lee; American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice; Mercer University Press.

Hawaiian Fashion – The Beginning

by Leilehua Yuen

At one time, the people of Hawai‘i nei used leaves of mai‘a (banana), hala (pandanus) and kī (cordyline) to clothe themselves. At this time, a man named Maikoha lived in Nu‘uanu Valley at Pu‘iwa, beside the waters of a stream. Maikoha had two daughters, Lauhuiki and La‘ahana who were hard working and obedient.

The three lived for many years, planting and farming beside the stream, catching river shrimps to eat with their vegetables, and trading with the neighbors when they wanted fish from the sea.

Eventually Maikoha became old and knew he would soon die. He told his daughters to bury him beside the stream, and that soon after his burial a plant would grow from his body, and this plant would be useful to them.

The young women followed his instructions, and soon a plant did grow. Their father came to them in dreams and taught them to strip the bark and pound it into large sheets, which could be fashioned conveniently into clothing and coverings. They learned to take the sap of plants and make beautifully colored dyes to decorate this new kind of garment.

Pāʻū and kīhei, and details of kapa made by Leilehua Yuen in 1999 at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park. It was part of a project to recreate clothing worn by residents of the area prior to 1778.

Image showing use of ʻohe kāpala — Leilehua Yuen stamping a kapa malo (Hawaiian bark cloth loincloth), at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical park at a cultural festival.

Young woman beating kapa — Jessica Yuen beats kapa, Hawaiian bark cloth, at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park. About 1995.

Men in hula attire wearing dog tooth anklets. They are dancing a hula ʻ ulīʻ ulī.
*Men of the Sandwich Islands Dancing*, watercolor painting on paper by Louis Choris, 1816, Honolulu Museum of Art, accession 12155a

A depiction of two male inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands (now known as the Hawaiian Islands).
1816, Louis Choris.

Nā Lani Laʻ a – The Holy Sovereigns

na Leilehua Yuen 2017

He lei keia no Nā Lanilaʻ a
Elua ʻ oi o ke ao nei
E mau ō nā kapu ʻ ihi lani
Ō nā lei lili makaʻ āinana

E lilo ana na kāhiko ʻ Emalani
Kūkulu ana ka hale lapaʻ au
Ola hou nā pua o ka ʻ āina
Na ka akamai o ʻ Iolani

Ua kau ō lei i ka waha
I ka nuku o nā pua
A me nā kumu kula o ka ʻ āina
A he aloha laha ʻ ole i ka uka

Ua pono nō ʻ olua ke lilo
Ua lohe nā kupa o kahiki
I ka hana lokomaikaʻ i nui
A nā naʻ au lani haʻ ahaʻ a

Pehea mākou nā pua o ka ʻ āina
He aha ka hana i keia lā
E hoʻ opaʻ a ana, ʻ ohi kākou nā laʻ au
E kōhi ana nāpele ʻ āina

He inoa no Nā Lanilaʻ a

Image illustrates Hawaiian royalty, King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma. — King Kamehameha IV of Hawaiʻi and Queen Emma

The Holy Sovereigns

This is a lei for the Holy Sovereigns
Two foremost of the world
May your sacred heavenly kapu be eternal
Your lei is the anguish of the people

The jewels of Heavenly Emma were transformed
A hospital was built
Life was restored for the flowers of the land
By the acumen of the king

Your fame is much discussed
Even from the mouths of children
And the teachers of this land
A love unmatched on these shores

It is right you are transformed
The people of distant lands heard
About the many good deeds
Of your humble souls

And what of us, the people of the land
What work for this day
Learn steadfastly, harvest the healing herbs
Heal the wounds of the land

In honor of the Holy Sovereigns

Though their lives were filled with personal sorrow, the Hawaiian King and Queen strove always to do their best for their people.

This mele is based on He Lei Keia no ʻ Ema, one of the lei songs written for Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻ ea Rooke. I wanted to retain much of the feel of the songwriting of her era, and for those who know the mele, bring it back so that they can see that imagery, as well as my own. Lines were selected from throughout the original mele to act as the haku of this lei, with new verses braided in.

The first verse takes its first line from the original, but is dedicated to both Emma and Alexander ʻ Iolani Liholiho. The verse references the attention that Hawaiʻ i was receiving on the world stage, and the difficulty of retaining sovereignty. The difficulties of the people were taken to heart by the royal couple.

The second verse references the diligence with which ʻ Ema and ʻ Iolani worked to create hospitals and health care for the people of Hawaiʻ i. When the missionary-influenced legislature refused to work to create health care, the Queen sold her personal jewelry, and called on her friends to do the same. The King worked with local business people to fundraise. Through their personal networks, they raised the funds to create what is now the Queen’s Health Care System.

The third verse honors the royal couple as strong proponents of education. At his funeral, some 800 students and teachers processed to the funeral to offer ʻ Iolani their aloha.

The second to the last verse is almost the same as the second to the last in He Lei Kēia no ʻ Ema. Here, I use it to reference the honoring of them in the liturgical calendar of the Anglican and Episcopal communions as the Holy Sovereigns. They are heard of in distant lands, wherever the Anglican and Episcopal calendars are observed.

As the last verse of the original mele called for people to rally to support and vote for ʻ Emalani, to continue her work, the last verse of this mele calls us to rally and carry on their work of education and healing.

Even after the death of their son, little Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa a Kamehameha and then the November 30, 1863 death of her husband, ʻ Emalani remained dedicated to her people, taking a personal and active interest in healthcare and education.

Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha in his fireman outfit.
by H.L. Chase
Hawaiʻ i State Archives image

In 1865, on the advice of her physician, ʻ Emalani voyaged from Hawaiʻ i to improve her health and in support of the Anglican church in Hawaiʻ i, which she and her husband had been instrumental in formally establishing in the islands.

She traveled first to England, visited London, and then spent the winter at Hyères in the French Rivera. From there she went to Northern Italy and Southern Germany, and then to Paris. She returned to London in June 1866, and then went sightseeing in Ireland before sailing for New York and then traveling on to San Francisco.

In this tour of Britain and Europe she met with Queen Victoria, Emperor Napoleon III, Empress Eugénie of France, Grand Duke Frederick II and Grand Duchess Louise of Baden, and other European royals, government dignitaries and Anglican clergy.

*Queen Emma: A Narrative of the Object of Her Mission to England*, a pamphlet describing her travel and mission in England, was published in London in December 1865 by Day and Son. American missionary Samuel C. Damon re-published it in his newspaper *The Friend* in June 1866, pointing out some errors in the work.

ʻ Emalani became an especial friend of Queen Victoria. The two women had much in common. Both were of island kingdoms. Both had lost sons. Both were widowed. They already had exchanged letters for some time and at last them met on September 9, 1865. In November, ʻ Emalani spent a night at Windsor Castle.

Queen Victoria recorded in her journal on the afternoon of September 9, 1865:

After luncheon I received Queen Emma, the widowed Queen of the Sandwich Islands or Hawaii. Met her in the Corridor & nothing could be nicer or more dignified than her manner. She is dark, but not more so than an Indian, with fine features & splendid soft eyes. She was dressed in just the same widow’s weeds as I wear. I took her into the White Drawing room, where I asked to sit down next to me on the sofa. She was moved when I spoke to her of her great misfortune in losing her only child. She was very discreet & would only remain a few minutes. She presented her lady, Mrs. Hoopile whose husband is her Chaplain, both being Hawaiians….
Kanahele 1999