When it comes to Hawaiian shirts, Reyn Spooner is a renown brand.
An American fashion design company founded in 1956 by Reyn McCullough and Ruth Spooner, the company’s original roots were the island of Catalina.
McCullough had a company called Reyn’s Mens Wear and he wanted to redesign Hawaiian shirts of the time which were poorly-fit and wanted a stylish alternative for professional and casual wear.
For those not familiar with Hawaiian Aloha Shirts of the time, Japanese teens wore rayon shirts, local Filipino boys wore colorful barong shirts and in the early 1930’s, Ellery J. Chun changed his family’s dry goods store name in Honolulu to Kings-Smith Clothiers and sold shirts cut from Japanese kimono material. Chun would patent the term “Aloha Shirt”.
In downtown Honolulu, Koichiro Miyamoto who ran his father’s dry goods shop, Musa-Shiya Shoten since the 1920s, advertised “aloha shirts”, because he was stuck with a stockpile of fabric due to World War I, he got rid of the stockpile by advertising custom-cut shirts on Honolulu newspapers as early as 1922. In the early 1930’s, actor John Barrymore came in and saw a yukata cloth and requested if Miyamoto can use the lightweight fabric and make a shirt out of it and soon enough, these became “Aloha Shirts”.
While it’s not known who is the true originator (we’ll leave that up to debate), Hawaiian Aloha Shirts became popular, even President Harry Truman and other Presidents would sport the Hawaiian shirt. While Hawaiian’s have sported them, there is another side who sported palakas (which I will discuss in another blog post).
Meanwhile, we will move to the 1950’s and back in Catalina Island, McCullough and his wife Deanne visited Honolulu in 1957 and while in Hawaii, McCullough met Don Graham of the Dillingham Corporation, who would develop the Ala Moana Shopping Center and he would be offered a space at the new shopping center.
Reyn would leave Reyn’s menswear shop behind and he would move to Honolulu and open his first retail store in Hawai’i at Ala Moana Shopping Center.
In 1956, Ruth Spooner opened Spooner’s of Waikiki known for manufacturing quality surf trunks and creating it via one sewing machine.
By 1962, these two entrepreneurs would team up and create Reyn Spooner in Honolulu.
In 1964, Tom Anderson, Reyn’s assistant manager at the Ala Moana Store would bring McCullough one of Pat Dorian’s bright pattern shirts, but when it was discussed about a “reverse” print shirts to help mute the color prints, this would “reverse” print shirt would lead to what would be known as “Spooner Kloth”.
And today, the “Spooner Kloth” continues to become the company’s popular product.
And in today’s I review, I take a look at the Reyn Spooner “Year of the Rat” Spooner Kloth button down shirt.
First, let’s talk about the description of the shirt:
When the Chinese Emperor held a competition to determine the 12 zodiac animals, the rat cleverly caught a ride on the ox’s back to cross the river, then quickly jumped off before the ox could cross the finish line. As a result, the rat won the race and became the first of the Chinese zodiac animals and represents a year of new beginnings and opportunities, with good fortune in both love and wealth.
Our Year of the Rat print “cleverly” places five different rats among the lotus blossoms and bamboo stalks, significant symbols of the Chinese culture. See if you can find all 5 rats.
We’ve washed this shirt in our special Weekend Wash, which gives a softer feel and a more relaxed look. Now you can wear your favorite weekend shirt all week long.
The “Year of the Rat” Spooner Kloth shirt is 55% cotton and 45% polyester which means there shouldn’t be much shrinkage. The shirts were designed in Hawai’i.
I went for the button front classic fit, so it’s more relaxing thanks to the side vent and back box please for relax comfort (NOTE: You have a choice of button front, pullover or tailored, I went for button front classic fit).
As with most Hawaiian Aloha Shirts, I go up a size because of my shoulders and depending on the season, never know how my belly will be (2020, fluctuating up and down). So, I purposely like my shirts to be looser than tailored and tight. And glad I did because it fit wonderfully!
I like the print-matched left chest pocket. You’ll notice shirts where the pocket design doesn’t match the pattern on the shirt, but with Reyn Spooner’s, they make sure the pockets match!
Spooner Kloth features that reverse print and it’s wrinkle free and can be machine washed and tumble dry.
The Reyn Spooner “Year of the Rat” Spooner Kloth shirt is a shirt that I absolutely love. I got the Pompeian Red version and wasn’t sure how it would look (as I have brown skin) but may it be paired with blue jeans or shorts, I received plenty of compliments.
Guys! This shirt is highly recommended!
