NAWILIWILI — Tamalyn Hasegawa, Kaua‘i High School alumnus, never expected to own her own business, much less a fashion store. “In high school and college, my first thought was to become a professional soccer player. I was a tomboy. I
NAWILIWILI — Tamalyn Hasegawa, Kaua‘i High School alumnus, never expected to own her own business, much less a fashion store.
“In high school and college, my first thought was to become a professional soccer player. I was a tomboy. I never thought I’d open a dress store,” said Hasegawa.
Today, Hasegawa, 24, owns Nui Fashion, a retail dress store in Anchor Cove shopping center in Nawiliwili, specializing in a specific dress style already being referred to in local dress circles as “a Nui.”
The style is simple yet both casual and elegant, basically consisting of a black spandex top, like a bandeau, attached in an Empire style to a handpainted rayon skirt.
The design was incubating while she was pregnant last year.
“I couldn’t fit into my clothes,” she said. “I found tops and materials like the rayon pareos and I sewed them together. I never felt so comfortable. I was wearing it every single day.”
Others noticed her dresses and asked where they could buy it, she said. After a couple of months designing the perfect dress, she enlisted the help of her mother, aunt and grandmother to put it together in the garage of the family’s home in Wailua Homesteads, where they house five commercial sewing machines.
“It became a Nui,” she said. “Nui,” which means “great,” is part of her grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s name, “Wahine Nui,” a royal name given to the queen of Hawai‘i, she said.
Having a grandmother with years of experience in the garment industry has its perks. Thirty years ago, grandma Lisa Garma owned a men’s aloha shirt store named Shanora in Ching Young Village in Hanalei. Prior to that, Garma said she managed the production end of Kaua‘i Casuals, a clothing and accessories store.
Last March, with $200 under her name and a $500 birthday present from her grandma, Hasegawa was able to buy enough fabric to create ten dresses. Within two days, the dresses were all sold. She reinvested the money to buy more fabric and the business was under way.
It’s a simple but stunning look that has been copied by other makers, and similar dresses are now being offered at craft fairs and stores around the island.
But when Hasegawa first started selling her dresses at craft fairs, customers bought the dress off her back because there wasn’t another one just like it at the time.
“It was a one-of-a-kind,” she said, adding that she tries to keep the fabrics fresh, bringing the same ones back months later.
After attending more craft fairs and receiving more special orders, she was ready to offer her dresses to the public in a convenient retail setting, which she could now afford to do.
The opportunity came last October, at the same time she was giving birth to her son at the hospital. “Right from delivery, I said ‘I’ll take the lease,’” she said. The lease was for a small space on the makai end of Anchor Cove, just enough space, with a beautiful ocean view.
She named her son Nui. She named the store after him, her grandmother and her great-grandmother.
For the 2012 Merrie Monarch Festival in April, Hasegawa received the honor of providing the traveling uniform for around 40 hula dancers from Hala‘u Ka Le‘i Mokihana O Le‘ina‘ala for their trip to the Big Island. The hala‘u won fourth place in the contest and the exposure further boosted the popularity of Nui Fashion.
Another special order for nine boys and 25 girls came in for the Queen Liliu‘okalani Ke‘iki Hula competition on O‘ahu.
These special orders coupled with local and Mainland sales continue to secure Nui Fashion’s business in Hawai‘i. Even without a Web site, sales last month increased 100 percent over last year, she said.
“It’s not how many people we sell to. Each person will buy five, eight dresses at a time,” she said. “A Kaua‘i girl now living in Arizona recently purchased 10 from us. It’s hot in Arizona and she said it’s all she wears to work now.”
Nui Fashions offers children’s and adult dresses and shirts, ranging in price from around $25 to $69, with no additional charge for a custom order.
These prices are attracting retailers across the Mainland, including Washington, D.C., Oregon, Washington state and Los Angeles, she said. But wholesaling is not an option because she wants to attend shows and interact with her customers.
“I want to travel,” she said. “I want to experience this myself, take mom and grandma with me.”
Garma doesn’t think Nui Fashion’s refusal to expand into wholesale orders will affect Nui Fashion.
“We welcome the competition,” Garma said. “We can sell 1,000 or more in a month; we’re capable of making it.”
Other reasons she gave include that the garments are home-made, yet they have the quality and consistency of those that are commercially made; that they are consistent on sizing unless they’re custom jobs which can be sewn within 24 to 48 hours; and Nu‘i Fashion has exclusivity on Kaua‘i to purchase the rayon fabric.
Hasegawa plans to attend the Made in Hawai‘i Festival in August, which is expected to draw 10,000 attendees, and the Hawai‘i Woman Expo in September, both at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center on O‘ahu.
With all of this success, Hasegawa wants to give back to the community and what better way than to help coach students in soccer, her passion. After three years of helping coach soccer at Kapa‘a High, she is applying for coaching positions on O‘ahu, where she lives with Nui’s father when she’s not shuttling to Kaua‘i and helping to finish off garments.
“I’d like to give back more than I get,” she said, something else that has been handed down from all of the Wahine Nui in her family.
• Jane Esaki, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext 257) or by emailing jesaki@thegardenisland.com.
