News

Nakeʻu Awai Designs was thrilled to be a part of an unforgettable night at the Honolulu Night Market Mahina Māhealani hosted by Our Kakaʻako! 

The pop-up booth in the The Barn at SALT at Our Kakaʻako was abuzz with people of all ages shopping featured designs from the Spring 2023 Microcollection, as well as vintage pieces from Destash Hawaiʻi. 

Nakeʻu Awai Designs is honored to be highlighted by KHON2 in its Business Matters news segment. 

In the feature, “Nakeʻu Awai is the grandfather of Hawaiian fashion”, Nakeʻu, met with Howard Dashefsky to talk about the history of his iconic designs, his passion for keeping things local, his secret to success, and the importance of creating a legacy.   

Nakeʻu Awai Designs was in Hilo at The 60th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival Arts & Crafts Fair from April 12 to April 15 to release its 2023 Spring Collection, with five bold prints in five fresh colorways to celebrate the brand’s five decades of creating fashion for Hawaiʻi’s people.

Mahealani Richardson visited Nakeʻu in his Kalihi shop where she talked with him about her own history with the brand, the origins of some of his prints, and how 50 years later, the ‘grandfather of Hawaii fashion’s’ designs remain classic mainstays in the community. Also, enjoy a quick ‘catwalk’ of Mahealani in Nakeʻu Awai Designs’ popular romper. 

To commemorate its 50^th Anniversary, Nakeʻu Awai Designs is excited to introduce Nakeʻu Awai Designs Gold Label. Gold Label pieces are designed in Hawaiʻi and produced in Los Angeles, California, bringing consumers additional styles that add to its signature Aloha Wear collection.

Nakeʻu Awai Designs is honored to be featured in Honolulu Magazine’s coverage of the recent Mu‘u at the Museum event held January 7, 2023, at the Queen Emma Summer Palace. Honolulu Magazine began as Paradise of the Pacific, a magazine commissioned under King David Kalākaua to promote local business and tourism in the continental United States.

To start its historical 50th year off strong, and to honor Queen Emma’s 187th birthday, Nakeʻu Awai Designs joined the Daughters of Hawaiʻi in celebrating Muʻumuʻu Month with its 2nd Annual Muʻu at the Museum by putting on a Fashion Show on January 7, 2023.  

Nakeʻu Awai Designs is turning 50 in 2023.

To kick off its historic Golden Anniversary year, the brand has collaborated with Aloha Collection, a company founded by two Native Hawaiian women, to create the 50th Anniversary Collaboration Aloha Collection Day Tripper.

Nakeʻu Awai Designs recently debuted its 2022 Fall and Winter Collection, Iconic Prints on Cotton, yesterday at the Nakeʻu Awai Designs Mākeke, a collection of Nake‘u’s favorite artisans and friends, and through its sold-out Fashion Show, both held at The Pacific Club in Honolulu.

Nakeʻu Awai Designs recently debuted its 2022 Summer Collection, Archival Prints on Linen, at the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) 21st Annual Native Hawaiian Convention in July and at Bloomingdale’s Ala Moana Center’s Kamaʻāina Pop-up Event in September.

Nakeʻu Awai Designs is honored to be featured in the September/October 2022 issue of Modern Luxury Hawaiʻi, a bilingual, bi-monthly magazine dedicated to Hawaiʻi events, style, fine dining, and culture. 

Nakeʻu Awai Designs was recently featured alongside Marion Jones, Founder of The Muʻumuʻu Library, on PBS Hawaiʻi’s Home is Here’s episode about Hawaiian fashion both past and present, and the women who are making a mark here and abroad preserving, promoting, and pushing homegrown Hawaiʻi fashion forward.