Paradise lost has been found.
Tiki torches are burning in back yards across America. Thatched-roof bars are serving mai tais, rumrunners and pina coladas. The hula girl has become the motif du jour–from kitschy lamps to dinnerware.
After a 30-year disappearance, it’s tiki time once again. We have seen some indications of the trend for the past few years, but now the Polynesian drums are beating so loud they can’t be ignored.
Until recently, most folks who wanted a tiki motif had to search yard sales, thrift stores and the Internet. But these days you can find “Polynesian Pop” everywhere–from specialty stores to discounters.
Tommy Bahama, which typically focused on a more upscale tropical look, has added tableware with hula girl chic.
The always on-trend Target recently featured a variety of tiki-themed items for its back to dorm line as well as tiki string lights, tiki mugs and serving trays for at-home entertaining.
San Francisco publisher Chronicle Books has a Hula Honeys series of vintage postcards, coasters, address books, photo albums, stationary and a journal.
If that weren’t enough, VH1 is billing this as the “Big Kahuna” summer.
“There is no question [the tiki style] is back, for how long remains to be seen,” says Warren Shoulberg, editor in chief of the trade newspaper HFN.
“Tropical has become a real staple,” he says. “It used to be something that was just popular in Florida and maybe for an hour-and-one-half up north in July. Now, it’s a year-round seller all around the country. It’s not a novelty anymore, so we have to go further to look for novelty, and that’s the role tiki is taking now.”
The tiki trend has spread from small town America to urban sophisticates. Mark Mayfield, editor in chief of House Beautiful magazine, says he’s been to two or three luaus recently in Westchester County, the New York suburb where he lives. Guests swirled tropical drinks with umbrellas, danced the limbo and listened to Polynesian music. Children wore grass skirts.
Why now? Mayfield says after Sept. 11 people cut back on travel and wanted a casual, relaxed atmosphere at home.
“It’s a relaxed formality that combines a vacation home with their main home,” he says. “All that translates into a lifestyle that looks like you are off to the islands. It’s a nostalgia thing, a vacation-at-home thing and an off-the-wall stress reliever.”
Even some of the folks who bought into the tiki rebirth a few years ago are surprised by its popularity. Kerry Colburn, executive editor of the gift division of Chronicle Books, says the publisher came out with its first Hula Honeys product in spring 2001.
“It really sort of surprised us,” she said. “We thought it was a great collection, but it wasn’t tied to a book or a program. The response was so strong. Now we have several Hula Honeys products, and more are on the way.”
She attributes this boom in Polynesian Pop to old-fashioned escapism.
“When things in the world are as difficult at home as they are now, we dream about an earlier, simpler time. Tiki reminds us of cocktails and hammocks, carving out peacefulness and no stress.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and alBerto Trevino (atrevino@tribune.com)
