With her new book ‘Lei Aloha,’ the Native Hawaiian stylist and fashion designer Meleana Estes wants to share her grandmother’s lei traditions with a new generation.
Defined as a garland or a wreath made from different elements of nature—including flowers like pua kenikeni, leaves, shells, nuts, feathers, and seeds—lei are as meaningful as they are gorgeous. In “pre-contact” Hawai’i , Ancient Hawaiians wore lei to symbolize different levels of ranking, wisdom, and royalty. But once vacationers started to travel to Hawai‘i by boat, Hawaiians began to greet them with lei—and lei became symbols of the tourism industry as a result.
Many Hawaiians also see lei as a celebration of the natural world, or an extension of the ʻāina itself. Hula practitioners, for example, believe that when you wear a lei made from natural elements, you actually, hula dancer Kūha‘oimaikalani “Kūha‘o” Zane explains this idea: “When you are a hula dancer, you are an embodiment of the kuahu, the altar we have in the hālau hula , so when you’re interacting and performing, you are actually dressing yourself as an offering.
Today, Estes’ brothers on Kaua‘i still grow their pua kenikeni trees in their tūtū’s honor, and Estes says she thinks of her tūtū whenever she makes or wears a lei; it’s how she keeps her alive. “I used to watch her get dressed, and she’d put on her mu‘u, and then her lei at the end…there was a real regalness to that. We’re so blessed to grow up with these traditions in Hawai‘i, and now I’m so grateful to carry them on, too.
Keiki having just performed in the Pipe Masters opening ceremony, taking their lei out for a quick surf on their alai‘a boards.These days, lei culture in Hawai‘i is thriving. Estes points to her 2008 wedding as a prime example of its recent rise: “When I got married, I didn’t even wear a lei po‘o, but now everyone wears a lei po‘o. Lei culture is so prolific now—and that’s why I wanted to write this book,” she says. “I wanted to show how it’s so celebrated.
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