The Aloha Shirt That Obama Didn’t Wear
WASHINGTON — The White House repeatedly warned the company that it hired to design special aloha shirts for world leaders attending APEC that the shirts might not be used in the traditional APEC “family photo.”
Indeed, President Barack Obama said on Sunday that to “break tradition” by not doing a photo op in which APEC leaders don matching outfits representing the host location. (Check out a photo gallery of past leaders’ matching outfits.)
The decision got wide play in international news reports, with headlines like and .
Tori Richard’s CEO, Josh Feldman, told Civil Beat that the decision was a disappointment to his company, which the White House commissioned to design and produce the shirts that were not worn. Feldman also said it was not wholly unexpected.
“We were warned of this possibility by the White House on several occasions,” Feldman said in an email. “We knew there was some indecision on the use of the shirt but we had felt the Aloha Shirt’s status as a multi-cultural garment would win the day.”
Feldman offered some insight into the shirt design process. He said the White House asked for custom print shirts with “exclusive detailing, trims and labeling,” and Tori Richard provided the shirts as a gift to the White House.
Because Tori Richard was tasked with producing fewer than two dozen shirts, it had to work closely with the textile mill to ensure that the proper amount of fabric was printed. The company usually prints a minimum of 3,000 yard of fabric per design. This time, they needed just 50 yards, Feldman said.
“Nothing about this shirt was ‘off the rack,'” Feldman said.
The company also faced a speeded-up production time. Instead of taking the usual 10–15 months, Feldman said Tori Richard had four months to complete the order.
“Each shirt was hand sewn in our Honolulu factory and used only the best of materials,” Feldman said. “Our proprietary cotton lawn fabric, authentic mother of pearl buttons, true french seams and custom labeling that read, ‘Exclusively for APEC 2011 Made in Hawaii USA by Tori Richard,’ with President Barack Obama’s signature woven into the label.”
Feldman says he has “no idea” what discussions contributed to the decision not to wear the shirt.
“We suspect and certainly wish to think it went down to the wire as we assume the White House would not have asked us to embark on this project without the intent to use them,” Feldman said.
On Sunday, at wanting to project a more formal, business-oriented image to the world. Although aloha attire is professionally appropriate in Hawaii, it appears the president wanted to make clear that world leaders were not in the islands to relax.
“With respect to this trip, look, this is a pretty nice piece of scenery here and I take enormous pride in having been raised in the state of Hawaii, but we’re here for business,” Obama said. “We’re here to create jobs. We’re here to promote exports.”
Feldman said that despite the “expensive gamble” his company took, he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
“Our employees are extremely proud to have been selected and to have worked on the project,” he said.
