MAMo on Maui: Wearable Art Show on Saturday

MAMo on Maui: Wearable Art Show. Courtesy photo.

By Maui Now Staff

MAMo on Maui: Wearable Art Show. Courtesy photo.

Chant at MAMo on Maui: Wearable Art Show. Courtesy photo.

The MAMo on Maui: Wearable Art Show is scheduled for Saturday, June 20, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Yokouchi Pavilion.

Participating designers include Maile Andrade, Koa Johnson, Anna Kahalekulu, Lauwaʻe, Lufi Luteru, Manaola, Marques Marzan, Maile Na‘ehu and Wahine Toa.

Tickets are $35 and $45 (for the show only). Premium tickets at $65 include the trunk show and meet-and-greet with the designers at 6 p.m.

“He ‘a‘ahu kino ke ao ‘ōnohi: The ‘ōnohi cloud is a garment for my body,” is  the kind of environmental expressions often used as inspiration for Hawaiian designers and their works of art.

The ‘ōnohi cloud is a cloud with rainbow colors, seen as “clothing” the sky and mountains.

“Patterns appear on the clothing we wear and kākau (tattoo) on our bodies, and our ili (skin) and kino (body) are the canvas for adornment,” said Vicky Holt-Takamine, executive director and founder of the PA’I Foundation, who launched Maoli Arts Month (MAMo) on O‘ahu, to celebrate and promote the work of contemporary Hawaiian artists and designers.

Part of that celebration is the MAMo Wearable Art Show, which has taken place annually in Honolulu since 2006.

This year, the event returns to Maui for a second consecutive year, presented by The MACC in collaboration with the PA‘I Foundation.

The event features the designs of contemporary Island designers whose creations extend from comfortable to traditional to cutting-edge to downright fantastical.

But MAMo Wearable Art is more than a fashion show.

“We realized that art is not just what we frame and put on a wall,” said Holt-Takamine. “It’s the culture, principles and values that are at the core of who we are, that get transferred to the things that we wear.”

This facet of the MAMo celebration came about to showcase Hawaiian design in fabric and clothing specifically in terms of cultural motif, in a way that makes it more than just a runway fashion show.

Many traditional Hawaiian patterns and designs–in kapa and weaving, in weaponry and tools, in tattoo and adornment–take their visual clues from nature.

The clothing and fabric designs at the MAMo Wearable Art Show include a wide array of styles, influences and philosophies, covering the rainbow spectrum of Hawaiʻi’s people–everything from ready-to-wear active clothing to art pieces.

Some designers use botanical and environmental patterns as a design motif, some pay tribute to the land and its creatures, or mark inspiration from ancient chants, including the Kumulipo, and others make their creations with full knowledge and implementation of the spiritual and ancestral connections.

Nāpua Greig and Hālau Na Lei Kaumaka O Uka will open up the event with a hula presentation and Pāʻū O Hiʻiaka, led by kumu hula, Hōkūlani Holt, will perform at the beginning of the second half of the show.

Call The MACC Box Office at (808) 242-SHOW or purchase tickets online.