Ellery Chun; Popularized ‘Aloha Shirt’

Ellery Chun, 91, the clothing designer who named and then mass produced the “Aloha shirt.” A native of Honolulu, Chun graduated from Yale with a degree in economics before returning to his homeland. He started designing the colorful Hawaiian-theme shirt in 1931 as a hedge against the Depression. Inspired by silk shirts of high school students sewn from leftover kimono material, Chun started small, with a few dozen bright printed Hawaiian patterns with palm trees, hula girls and pineapples. Soon he was mass producing the shirts, which he sold for $1 apiece at his family’s store in downtown Honolulu. In 1936, Chun registered “Aloha” as a trade name. The style caught on with surfers, Waikiki entertainers and Hollywood stars such as Bing Crosby, Arthur Godfrey and Montgomery Clift. More tasteful versions of the shirt have never gone out of style in the Hawaiian Islands, where men often wear them instead of shirts and ties in the workplace and at formal occasions. Chun later went into the banking business and served as vice president of American Security Bank until his retirement in 1966. He continued on the bank’s board of directors until 1980. On May 16, his family reported this week, of respiratory failure in Honolulu.