Parrotheads and Homer Simpson Lose Their Favorite Fashion Designer

Alfred Shaheen, a textile manufacturer who revolutionized the garment industry in postwar Hawaii by designing, printing and producing aloha shirts and other ready-to-wear items under one roof, has died. He was 86.

After World War II, many servicemen and women returned to the U.S. from Asia and the Pacific islands with aloha shirts that had been made in Hawaii since the 1930s. Tourists began flocking to Hawaii in the 1950s as faster airplanes allowed for easier travel and the former U.S. territory became a state in 1959. The tropical-print shirts for men and sundresses for women became standard and sometimes tacky souvenirs, but Mr. Shaheen raised the garments to high fashion with artistic prints, high-grade materials and quality construction.

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