Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 11, 1 November 2007 — Hawaiian Style [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian Style

Sig Zane's devotion to the hula world has built his lō'au designs into the must-wear label in cultural couture

By Lisa Asatū Publicatiūns Editur Loeal designer Sig Zane has an atypical name, but it's all his. Named Sigmund after a stranger who helped his mom get confirmed

into the Catholic church, he admits that the alliterative artsiness of his name ean surely twist some tongues. "A lot of people get so mixed up that I've even seen checks written out to Zig Zag," said Zane, whose prints of Native Hawaiian plants adom everything from clothing to leather handbags to chaise lounges. Zane is 100 percent Chinese by birth, but has made Hawaiian culture his way of life. After a misspent youth on O'ahu, he found purpose in Hilo, where he met his future wife, Nalani, kumu hula for Hālau o Kekuhi, and another woman who would change his life - his mother-in-law, the late kumu hula and cultural authority Edith Kanaka'ole. "My mother-in-law was just the most incredible woman," recalled Zane. "She had a way of just laughing and laughing, but at the same time teaching you. She made it so enjoy-

able that she had tonf of people just l'ollowin» her because we wanted that magic, yeah?" After 22 years of creating his own special brand of magic known as Sig Zane Designs,

the 56-year-old Zane oversees a $2 million- U operation, two

dozen employees and two stores, in Hilo and Wailuku. And still, customers often ask, "Why don't you open up in Honolulu?" His reply? "I don't want to work that hard." When Zane was in Waikīkī last month to unveil his 2008 Wailani Collection for an O'ahu audience, the visit marked his first selling gig in Honolulu since his Pacific Handcrafters Guild fair days of the 1980s. The visit, he said, renewed his affinity for home, where he grew up adoring Chinatown and leamed to surf at Waikīkī. "Whenever I hear the song Waikīkī, it still yanks at me," he said, sitting in the lobby of the Outrigger Reef hotel. "And now coming back here, it is a love affair." Aunty Edith, as he calls

his mother-in-law, instilled in others the importance of perpetuating traditions and culture by "sharing your knowledge," Zane said. In business, he found a way to marry his love of plants with Aunty Edith's instructions. His plant designs have names and a story, whieh is shared with customers when they patronize his stores. "The significance of eaeh print is where the education starts to grow. It won't be forgotten if we tell that story over and over again," said Zane, who still hand-cuts his designs with an X-acto knife the way he did his first design, a love token for Nalani. In the last year, Zane and his 24-year-old son, Kuha'o, who handles design and

marketing, have added surfboards to the line, designed uniforms for Outrigger Hotels and collaborated with Converse and Kicks Hawai'i on a shoe for (PRODUCT) RED, a campaign of U2's Bono to fight AIDS in Africa. "The neat thing is that we have the opportunity to really do what we love and share it," Zane said. "It's really niee to see Kuha'o now wanting and taking it to the next level with the street wear for his age group. It's really rewarding. Find your love - go do 'em," he said, laughing. Most recently, and with Zane's help, venerable jeweler Tiffany & Co. designed a perpetual trophy for the Moku O Keawe Foundation and its second annual Moku O Keawe International Festival, whieh expects to attract about 12 hālau from Hawai'i and Japan for competition and workshops

in Waikoloa Nov. 7 to 11. Tiffany's also created a pendant for the festival, limited to 200 pieces and attainable through a minimum $1,000 donation to the foundation. Zane and Nalani sit on the foundation's advisory committee. For Zane, embracing the Hawaiian culture was like being reborn. He danced hula for his wife's hālau for 18 years and chants every day. But he also seems inextricably tied to the culture in ways not even he ean explain. At 15, for example, he foresaw in a dream his future marriage to a pure Hawaiian kumu hula, and he has feelings of home while visiting northern Hawai'i Island. "Especially in Waipi'o, when I walk there I'm very comfortable," said the 0'ahu-born Zane. "I think maybe I've walked here before. Maybe I just got reincarnated with slant eyes." I

vPĪ'(|iMNA • B U S I N ESS

Moku O Keawe lnternational Festival

When: Wed.,-Sun., Nov. 7-1 1 Where: Waikoloa Beach Resort Annual hula competition featuring hālau from Hawai'i and Japan, with workshops in oli, hula 'auana, pūniu (small drum), 'ulī'ulī (gourd rattle) and more. Competition starts at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. $15 nightly or $35 three-day pass. Featuring $35 opening night concert by Keali'i Reichel at 7 on the Palaee Eawn and an all-day craft fair Friday and Saturday at Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa. www.mokuokeawe.org

Sig Zane's recent Waikīkī unveiling of his 2008 Wailani Collecfion marks his first selling gig on O'ahu in two decades. His son, Kuha'o, is pictured at right. - Photos: Blaine Fergerstrom