Waipahu High students curate University of Hawaiʻi fashion exhibit for Muʻumuʻu Month

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Fashion Design and Merchandising program is celebrating Muʻumuʻu Month in January with a special Historic Fashion Collection exhibit of vintage muʻumuʻu — chosen by nearly 30 Waipahu High School students, who could be the future of Hawaiʻi’s fashion industry.

Fashion Design and Merchandising — housed within College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience — combines Hawaiʻi’s culture and agricultural heritage with modern design.

Inviting teens into the Historic Fashion Collection introduces them to potential career paths, ranging from designing to entrepreneurship and retail buying to sustainable fashion.

“It is our kuleana to help students succeed and find what they want to do in life,” said Fashion Design and Merchandising professor Andy Reilly. “We do this through the lens of fashion. Fashion starts with ‘dirt to shirt’ — from the people growing cotton to those developing new textiles from coffee beans.”

He wants students to see that fashion isn’t just about what you wear — it’s about culture, history and business.”

“I want to expose them to the history of our state and our fashion here in Hawaiʻi,” said Waipahu High School fine arts teacher Alice Iraha. “I wanted to expose them to the culture and the costumes that we wore here in Hawaiʻi.”

Iraha added that learning about the fashion industry also can help students into many other areas, such as art or starting their own business.

In addition to curating the Historic Fashion Collection, Waipahu High students were introduced to computer-aided design for fashion by Fashion Design and Merchandising associate professor Ju-Young Kang.

The technology allows designers to create digital sketches, develop intricate textile patterns and visualize three-dimensional garments before a single piece of fabric is cut.

Muʻumuʻu Month, which began in 2014 when Kauaʻi designer Shannon Hiramoto challenged herself to wear a different vintage muʻumuʻu every day in January, has grown into a statewide movement to preserve the history of the garment.

The student-curated collection will be on display in Miller Hall at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa throughout the rest of this month.

This collaboration highlights College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience’s commitment to honoring Hawaiʻi’s past while providing local students with tools to build its future.

“I want students to understand how clothing impacts their lives,” Reilly said. “Clothing represents who they are. Their identity, their culture and their history. And I want them to start to think about how their use of clothing can benefit others or tell a story about themselves.”