Kapa Lapa | Bralette - lavender - ALL SALES FINAL

Original price was $45

cotton spandex | adjustable straps | full coverage | lined | Designed in Hawaiʻi | Made in the USA

Sewn from an all over Kapa lapa print design, each piece is unique in its art placement, which will vary from what you see in the photos. 

Ou kino, e Kāne i ka ʻōlapa o ka uila, i ka lapa mauna e kū ai ka ʻohe niolo, i ka lapa ʻohe miu e hoʻonani ai i ka ʻaʻahu o ke aliʻi! ʻO ko mākou wahi kānaenae e kau aʻela i luna, he aloha a he mahalo ia i ke akua nona ka ʻohe. ʻO ka lāʻau nō ia a nā loea e hoʻolilo aku ai i mea hana no ke kaha hoʻonaninani ʻana i ke kapa, ʻo ia hoʻi ka lapa. Lapalapa ke ahi o loko ke ʻike aku ka maka i nā lau kuapapa a kupanaha a nā kūpuna i hana aku ai me ua mea hana ʻohe nei, a pēlā i ulu aʻe ai ka ʻiʻini haku lau i loko o mākou. ʻO ka mea hilu loa, he wahi ʻāpana ʻohe ka lapa akā he kini a lehu nā nani a ka lima mikiʻoi e hana aku ai ma o nei kinolau nohea o Kāne. ʻAʻole naʻe e poina a hoʻohemahema i ka inoa o Laʻahana, kekahi o nā kaikamāhine o Maikohā i lilo i ʻaumakua no ka poʻe hoʻonoʻenoʻe a kāpala i ke kapa. Iā ia paha ke kalokalo ʻana i nani kūpono kahi lau, i maiau a maʻemaʻe nō hoʻi ka hana a ka lima. A pēlā nō nā kūpuna nāna nā kapa nani ʻoi kelakela e waiho nei ma nā hale hōʻikeʻike o ka honua. Ma laila nō e ʻike ai i ke kūlana kiʻekiʻe o ka hana lapa, a he hōʻike nō ia i ka noʻeau a me nā ʻano nani i mahalo ʻia e nā kānaka ma mua o ka hiki ʻana mai o ko waho. Ke ʻike kākou i ia mau kapa kahiko, he mea paha ia e hoʻākea aku ai i ko kākou manaʻo no ia mea he kapa, a no ka mea ma mua o ka laha ʻana o ka ʻohe kāpala, ʻo ka lapa ka mea i hoʻohana nui ʻia.

If we look back to the earliest roots of kapa designs, we find the visually stunning aesthetic our kūpuna created with lapa. Lapa are bamboo tools (aka “liners”) used to decorate kapa. Some resemble a knife and are used to make a single line. Others look like forks with anywhere from two to eight “tines” (prongs), or possibly more, for making multiple lines at once. They are dipped into printing ink then pulled across the surface of a kapa. The tines also vary in thickness and spacing, allowing for endless combinations of lines. The oldest surviving kapa show us this was the prominent technique for applying design before any outside influences and prior to ʻohe kāpala becoming predominant. Some pieces were decorated exclusively with stripes of varying widths and colors. Other times an artist used a straight edge (also bamboo) to lay down bold geometric shapes, then filled them with more lines (straight and wavy), dots and other hand-accents. These techniques produced a spectacular array of designs, many of them several layers deep. The sophisticated compositions of these early pieces challenge our perceptions of Hawaiian aesthetics and show us just how intricate and imbricate design was prior to western contact. Unfortunately, many of the best examples of designs made with this simple, but elegant technology now live in overseas museums and photographs are our only point of access.