Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 9, 1 September 1999 — her dreams [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

her dreams

By Paula Durbin MAILEAMORIN'S Hawaiian designer apparel business, Maile Visions, litErally began with a dream. "At first, I didn't trust what the dreams

were telling me to do," she said of her start, "but then I realized I must not be afraid of them." So she listened to the message. Growing up as a military dependent in Hawai'i, on the mainland and abroad, Amoiin had wiled away her childhood

drawing and cutting out dresses for paper dolls. But when she graduated, after rotating through 18 elementary and high schools, no one suggested she direct her inclinations toward fashion. Instead, she iecalled, "I became a I

hula dancer for my mother, then a poliee officer I for my father." From 1962 to 1969, Amoiin danced at the Hawaiian Cottage in Cherry Hill, New Jersey

and at Philadelphia's Bali Hai Restaurant. When her father passed away, she eame home to be with her mother, and, as a single parent, supported her own daughter with a waitress job. Eventually she moved to Kaua'i, remarried and joined the Kaua'i Pohee Department where she stayed five years before going into hotel security in Po'ipū. Downsizing after a change in her hotel's management cost her job. Out of work, Amoiin, who already knew how to sew, filled her time with classes in pattern drafhng. "And I leamed how to put things together," she continued. "Kalani Flores, a fabric designer had me sew some stuff for him and when he saw what I

did, he said, 'You know Maile, I think you should be doing this professionally.'" MaUe Visions started with a laee gown that took first plaee at Kaua'i's holokū ball in 1987. "This was a ' dream dress," Amoiin recalled,

"from a dream of a mennaieL It had a tail, scallops and the eolors of the sea. I didn't realize the eonneehon between the dream and the dress until the day of the eompeūhon." Thatfirststylehas since been transformed into three popular versions of mu'umu'u. In 1993, Amoiin successfiilly applied for funding from the Native Hawaiian Revolving LoanFund. This allowed her to set up a Honolulu office/studio/home-away-from-home to whieh she commutes from Kaua'i to woik on orders from J.C Penny's and Native Books and Beautiful Things. Tm a lot faster now," she said. "Now when I have a vision, I get

paper and peneil and write it down. I see the fahric design, do a rough sketch and giveit to an artist who does the detail. Ihenl have the falaic printed, design the dress, draft the pattern, cut diedress. I have someone help me with the sewing. An order

for two dozen ■ dresses takes one I month from design to hanger." The dresses retail

■ for $105, men's ■ shirtsfir $45. V Maile 'Asions cre- | ahons approached I aloha wear with a I casual elegance [ appropriate to eontemporary lifestyles. "Iputmy

■ flora] designs on ■ plaids, palaka and I checks and cut the ■ garments on the bias, whieh is really different. The bias cut is my

trademark," she explained. "Itryto make loeal people took taller and ; thinner with clothing that really flatters the body." Amorin usually comes up with s four or five new designs a year. "I would like to be able to develop whatever comes to me, but for now we are just racing to get the orders done. I'm backed up two to four weeks so it's a lot of work. But this is something a really want to do. I feel fulfilled is I ean make a person look good, feel good and be proud to be wearing something I made. I'm also setting a standard for my children by showing them that no matter what you want to do, you ean achieve it. If you want to do t it,youcan." ■ , 3 %

Wearing one of her own designs, Maile Amorin shows off another, her popular sleeved tank mu'umu'u, against a background of Maile Visk>ns aloha shirts.

9"»"P "Kaioiohiaomimaln" Hono^ch ^ue Kenikeni" palaka. ars Maite Vlsion's

PHOTOS: MANU BOYD