Could an aloha shirt stand for something more than just embracing the tiki lifestyle?
Yes, it can!
I filmed an episode of my YouTube show with my good buddy Mark Whitehead a few months ago …
Mark and I talked about how he started wearing an aloha shirt every day while he was working at the Naval Shipyard in Bremerton WA. It showed his elders that he was a free thinker and he wasn’t going to take their crap, and more importantly it pissed off his bosses! I would have never thought that wearing an aloha shirt could be an act of rebellion, then I started thinking about Val Kilmer …
Back in the 80’s Val Kilmer starred in a movie called Real Genius. The premise was that Val Kilmer’s character was a physics genius but also a rebel that couldn’t be tamed. While all the other smart people wore dress shirts and pocket protectors, Chris Knight (Val Kilmer) wore an aloha shirt. He liked to party and be wild but when it came down to business, he knew his stuff!
The main thing I love about living the tiki lifestyle is the idea of working hard and playing hard. During the week, you buckle down, roll up your sleeves and do what you’ve got to do to get the job done, but once the weekend hits, you throw on an aloha shirt, make yourself a Mai-Tai and relax.
For the longest time, I always associated aloha shirts with Weird Al Yankovic …
Weird Al is known for doing parodies of famous tunes and thanks to Weird Al, I’ll never hear I Love Rocky Road, I mean I Love Rock N Roll the same way again! I’ll never forget seeing Weird Al’s MTV Special: AL TV. It was hilarious and over the top crazy. You never knew what Weird Al was going to do or say next. I guess you could call that punk!
I’ve always been into punk rock. I loved the music but I have to be honest that I never really rocked the punk look myself. I really dug the fashion though, or more importantly what it represented.
The reason why punk rockers wore studded leather jackets and spiked their hair in a Mohawk was to stand out from the crowd. It was to show the world that they weren’t playing by societies rules and norms.
It looks like Wattie, the lead singer from The Exploited …
And Mark Whitehead have a lot in common …
They use what they wear to show the world what they stand for!
Wearing an aloha shirt could show the world that you think for yourself. You’re not going to let society dictate what you can and can’t wear. Needless to say, I wear aloha shirts pretty much all the time …
I used to be a punk back then and I’m still a punk now!
