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For Molokai designer, the spotlight keeps getting bigger

PoMahina Designs is set to debut at London Pacific Fashion Week

Kanoelani Davis, owner of PoMahina Designs, models one of her creations. Next month, Davis’ fashion line will debut on the runway at London Pacific Fashion Week, part of the prestigious London Fashion Week event. She will be the first designer from Hawaii “to fully represent a Hawaiian collection in London,” according to organizers. Photos courtesy PoMahina Designs

When Kanoelani Davis was learning martial arts and hula as a kid on Molokai, she didn’t have much access to practitioners who could make kapa cloth, dyes or other traditional resources.

So, her family learned to make their own weapons, hula implements and clothing.

“At the time it just felt like a lot of work,” Davis said. “As I reflect back now as an adult with 38 years under my belt of training, I am completely grateful for all of those sacrifices and trials and tribulations, because it’s really grounded me in who I am, and it allowed me to value and honor so many parts of our culture traditionally.”

Creating things in connection to her culture has always been central to Davis’ life, and that talent has caught the attention of fashion experts on the international stage. Next month, Davis, the owner of Po-Mahina Designs, will make her debut at the London Pacific Fashion Week as the first designer from Hawaii to “fully represent a Hawaiian collection in London,” according to organizers.

Missing Polynesia’s fashion collection was featured in London in 2015, but the designer couldn’t appear in person for the show, Davis explains.

Swimwear from PoMahina Designs’ fashion line is pictured here. Owner Kanoelani Davis said her designs are inspired by the elements, like rain, clouds and wind.

London Pacific Fashion Week takes place on Sept. 13, part of the prestigious London Fashion Week that stands alongside New York, Milan and Paris as one of the most highly touted fashion venues.

“The reality is we’re doing great work on our island, and people are watching and they’re seeing what we’re doing, and we are making a difference just being who we are,” Davis said Sunday from her home on Molokai.

PoMahina Designs started with Davis’ hula halau, Ka Pa Hula O Hina I Ka Po La’ila’i (meaning “Hina who sits in the serene and calm night”). She wanted her students to remember the names of particular elements and stories that they were learning about at the time, so she had them create dyes and practice the art of kapala — bamboo stamping — on little drawstring bags that they would give away to people. From there it moved into emblems and artwork that they started to put on their clothing.

But as older students started moving away to attend school or take care of family, Davis wanted to find a way to keep the artwork going. So, she started creating hats, each with a special design inspired by Hina, the moon goddess recognized in Molokai tradition as the mother of the island.

“If you were able to get each Hina design and you put them on a wall, it would tell a complete story,” Davis explained.

Kanoelani Davis holds up the “Ku Kia‘i Mauna” symbol in support of the movement to stop the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea while at the inaugural Fashion Hawaiian Style event in Washington, D.C., in July.

From there her designs evolved into leggings; leisure, casual and evening wear; and eventually footwear. What began as a part-time venture in 2009 blossomed into a full-time business around 2014-15.

“Being on Molokai, there wasn’t many jobs, and it was a choice I had to make as a single mother to either go full time or work three or four jobs to make ends meet,” said Davis, who has four daughters. “Because my passion was in our culture and our kupuna and our traditions, there was no choice but to continue PoMahina with full force.”

In 2015, Davis was featured in the MAMo Wearable Art Show on Maui and Oahu. Then in 2017, she got an invite to the Pacific Fusion Fashion Show in Aotearoa (New Zealand), her first big step onto the international stage. Last year, she was invited to New York Fashion Week and Miami Swim Week. But between the flooding on Kauai and the Kilauea eruption, Davis decided not to participate in the shows and put the funds she’d raised toward causes at home.

In July, she was the main artist at the inaugural Fashion Hawaiian Style event, put on by the E Ala E Hawaiian Cultural Center at the New Zealand Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Davis’ designs emphasize the elements, like rain, clouds and wind, and they draw from a lifetime of learning, dancing and creating on Molokai. Raised by her grandparents Francis and Nani Wong, Davis started training in both mixed martial arts and hula from the age of 2. As the older sister to three younger brothers, she saw herself as protector of her siblings.

Her grandfather, a master of Chinese and Hawaiian art forms as well as traditional medicine, took his students through stages, from karate to kung fu, tai chi, qi gong and lua (Hawaiian martial arts), a level that not everybody achieved. While Davis reached the final stage around her early 20s, she said she feels “like I’m still going through it.”

Davis calls her grandfather “my connection to the past,” and the traditions and artwork she learned from her kupuna influence the ancient and contemporary styles that she infuses into her designs.

The 15 fashion garments that will debut in London will feature “four major feminine elemental forms of Hawaii.” The event’s theme is climate change, which is “perfect” for someone whose designs celebrate the islands from mauka to makai.

“The most important part of honoring our elements is that we’re not here to change them,” Davis said. “We need to work with the elements themselves.”

Davis said the show will be broadcast live on KHON2. And, with her collection scheduled for the show’s finale, she hopes to do something to recognize the movement to protect Mauna Kea, perhaps a rendition of “Ku Ha’aheo E Ku’u Hawai’i” that Hawaii residents can join in and sing along to on the other side of the globe.

For more information on PoMahina Designs, visit pomahinadesigns.com.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

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