Grad students says ‘Aloha’ to thesis topic
They say clothes make the man. But to Tim Trask, clothes are making him a step closer to a master’s degree.
“You have everyone from CEOs of companies to students who are wearing Hawaiian shirts,” said Trask, a Utah State University master’s student, writing his thesis on the history and cultural impact of the island garb. “The thing I like about the Hawaiian shirt is it says something about you, without you saying a thing.”
That voice tells people one is a relaxed and personable individual, he said.
Trask aspires to teach English and history at the college level and believes the shirts help break down barriers in the classroom between student and teacher. Barriers usually imposed by a professor’s starched shirts and dull ties.
“I like the relaxed nature of the shirt,” Trask said.
Since the shirts’ creation, they have been used as a symbol of relaxation. Tourists visiting the island state have traditionally left behind their business attire to dawn the lively duds.
Movies have also instilled the uniquely Hawaiian image of the shirts — movies like “From Here to Eternity” and “Blue Hawaii” with Elvis Presley. The shirts have become synonymous with Hawaii, and that image has boomed.
Since Trask began college he has dreamed of getting his master’s degree, but feared the rhetoric and complexity of a thesis.
“If I was going to write 100 pages, then I was going to do it on something I love,” he said.
The Logan Fred Meyer helped serve as an
inspiration.
“I happened to be looking for a comfortable shirt and it was just $3.99. Now they’re research material,” he said.
The Hawaiian shirt he bought there in 1998 was made, not in Hawaii, but Korea, a fact that peaked his interest. Upon further research, Trask found Hawaiian shirts aren’t necessarily Hawaiian at all, but Asian. During the 1930s Hawaii became a cultural melting pot of sugar and pineapple plantation workers. Using colorful cloth found on the island, Asian women made themselves kimonos. Remaining material was made into shirts. Like Hawaii at the time, the shirts are a mix of cultures, Trask said.
“Before going to Hawaii [last October] on a research trip, I had never been, but I had always equated these shirts as being Hawaiian,” he said.
Beyond the shirts themselves there are mouse pads, note pads and greeting cards in the shape of the colorful shirts. The Hard Rock Café in Honolulu even makes its own Hawaiian shirt featuring palm trees and the traditional Hard Rock logo.
What’s next for Trask?
“I would love to go to Hawaii and create a Hawaiian-shirt museum,” he said.
–tobyghayes@cc.usu.edu