Kahala opening a reunion of isle fashion dynasties
By Nadine Kam
Nadine Kam photos
From left are Tori Richard, Ltd., president and CEO Josh Feldman, Kahala store manager Krishna Chatterjee, and Kahala creative director Dale Hope.
The Kahala Store celebrated its grand opening with a blessing and pau hana celebration at the Ala Moana Center June 19, with entertainment by Makalei, and kalua pig springrolls and fish and poi on the menu.
It was a kamaaina gathering with all the “kids” — Josh Feldman, son of Mort of Tori Richard; Dale Hope, former Kahala owner and son of Howard of Sun Fashions; Pua Rochlen, son of Dave of Surfline/Jams World — all-grown up and in charge. You can read stories I’ve written about them here: Tori Richard, Kahala, Jams World.
The Kahala brand has been reinvigorated under Tori Richard, revisiting its surf roots. In keeping with the theme, guests left the party with a bar of surf wax, among other things, including an inspirational booklet bound to leave some thinking about the things we take for granted, like grace, family, honor and aloha.
I was just thinking about that this morning, when I was driving and came upon a coned lane, one of many on our roads, and a driver with a bumper sticker that read “Drive with aloha,” sped up to cut me off. I was so mad I took down the license plate number, NWS 836. It wasn’t getting cut off that bugged me as much as the hypocrisy of appropriating the word “aloha,” when that woman clearly had none.
But, I digress. The store, at 800 square feet, was too small to accommodate all the well wishers, so expanded into the mall’s common area and Blue Hawaii Surf across the way. And with an abundance of ginger and maile lei, it was one of the sweetest-smelling parties I’ve been to in a while.
I thanked Mark Cunningham for being a vision in orange in his Kahala shirt and color-coordinated cords. He said, “I’m not afraid of color. Color can’t hurt you,” joking that most people would only wear these colors at Halloween and Thanksgiving, if that. Katye Killebrew sneaked into the picture.
State Film Commissioner Donne Dawson with Rob Harrison, a waterman and sometime model for Kahala.
Pua and Heather Rochlen were among the attendees. Pua, president of Surf Line Hawaii/Jams World, said seeing the new Kahala store has motivated him to try to build the same for his company. He has a store in Lahaina but there’s nothing like being in Ala Moana, the mother of all Hawaii malls.
Artist Yvonne Cheng, right, with Michele St. John, a representative for OluKai (more on them soon), whose footwear is carried at The Kahala Store. Years ago, Cheng created some of the artwork for Kahala.
Artist/designer/producer/stylist/go-to-for-anything guy Amos Kotomori also dropped by. He’s heading to New York in a few weeks to work as a video stylist for the Four Seasons. Can’t wait to hear his stories when he gets back.
