This document provides a summary of attractions in Hilo, Hawaii and discusses Sig Zane's clothing designs that celebrate Hawaiian culture. It recommends visiting Hilo Farmers' Market, Lili'uokalani Gardens, and Wailuku River State Park. It then discusses Sig Zane's clothing company that creates dresses, shirts, and pareus drawing on Hawaiian botany, mythology, and hula. The article provides an example of the story and meaning behind the names and designs of specific clothing items like the hulale'a dress. It recommends visiting Sig Zane Designs in Hilo to learn about the cultural significance behind each design.

1. October 2008
A T r a v e l e r’ s K n o w - I t - A l l
updates Happening Hilo
Visit friendly Hilo
for these attractions
and much more.
Get fresh, locally
grown produce
and flowers at Hilo
Farmers’ Market
on Wednesdays and
Saturdays at the cor-
ner of Kamehameha
Avenue and Mamo
Street. Across the
way, vendors sell arts
and crafts. Majestic
banyan trees line the
Hilo Walk of Fame
(Banyan Drive),
shading plaques
dedicated to
celebrities who
planted them,
beginning in 1933
with director Cecil
B. DeMille. Nearby
is Lili‘uokalani
Gardens, a formal
Japanese garden.
Just outside town at
Wailuku River State
Park are Rainbow
Falls and Boiling
Pots (pools formed
by lava cooling).
bigisland.org/parks
Designs With Depth
ITO
Design of
the Times
Put the spirit of aloha in your wardrobe with Sig Zane apparel.
Like the enchanting hula, Sig Zane’S deSignS means “celebrating the hula.” The dress allows the hips
tell a story. His Hilo-based company (sigzane.com) to echo the timing of each foot movement, embodying
on the Big Island sells pareus, dresses, and shirts that the swaying motion that is part of the foundation of
draw on Hawai‘i’s culture, botany, and mythology to hula choreography. Its kahiliki fabric design (in rich
create meaningful—and beautiful—garments for men red and coral) represents one of Zane’s favorite ti leaf
and women. Zane, a kuma hula, dancer, designer, and varieties, kahili, a Hawaiian royal standard. Inspired
O‘ahu native, studied Hawaiian culture in the 1970s. by the ivy-league shirts of the early 1900s, the men’s
He later joined the Hilo company Halau O Kekuhi, puhala pullover aloha shirt ($79, above) in deep blue
P
h oto g r a P h y
where his immersion in hula formed the core of his and sky shows off the puhala, one of the most cultur-
understanding of native plants ally significant trees in Hawai‘i. The tree supplies the
and their significance to Island cybersidebar
cyber basic raw materials for many products such as lauhala
culture, which he now infuses Watch a for plaiting baskets and a unique lei symbolizing grad-
/ M
into his clothing and home- video about Sig uation, retirement, and the passing of life. Give your
a r k
furnishing designs. For example, Zane and his pas- Hawaiian holiday extra meaning by visiting Sig Zane
the name of the hulale ‘a dress Designs in Hilo (122 Kamehameha Avenue; Tel: 808-
W
sion for the Islands
a g o n e r
($105; fitted bodice with a at hemispheres 935-7077), where knowledgeable staff members share
flared, full-length, A-line skirt) magazine.com. the story behind each design. u—Annie R. Ferguson
34 h e m i s p h e r e s m a g a z i n e . c o m