The aloha shirt (what many people call the Hawaiian shirt) is a wearable, collectible piece of art. The best ones are made in Hawaii, although I see many all the time made elsewhere that are also good shirts, most of what I collect and sell are made in Hawaii. If you are going to collect you should have a reference, The Aloha Shirt is a good reference for these shirts. A major portion of the book is about the history of these shirts, where the manufacturers came from, some of the most prolific and artistic designers, it even has a section on materials and how they came about. It has a whole chapter on buttons, mostly devoted to the coconut button in all its permutations and another complete chapter on labels, which many times were elaborate and distinctive, especially in the early shirts although several manufacturers still do their labels up artistically. Tori Richard, for example, started out with fairly plain labels and now has a little guy playing a ukelele in a hammock on many of their shirts. Many shirts can be dated somewhat reliably by their labels, for example, a Reyn Spooner label with the nude girl standing in the foreground is older than the label with the girl in the red bikini (although the girls are posed somewhat the same) and the Spooner label with Diamondhead on it came after the girl in the red bikini. The Aloha Shirt is heavily illustrated although not indexed which would would make it a better reference, it is, however, a great coffee table book. It also is not complete as to manufacturer, it leaves out several of the best but to be fair, these shirts were made by many different companies and to include them all would be difficult. There are several other books out there which cover this shirt, I can't recommend them since I haven't been able to acquire copies, they are not sold in most bookstores but can be bought online. Some of my favorite manufacturers: Jams World- very artistic, painted on look to the fabric, signature painted or splattered buttons, early ones were often in cotton but nowadays they are almost always in spun crushed Rayon, a wonderful silk-like fabric. Reyn Spooner-oftentimes the conservative aloha shirt, started by Reyn McCullough in the '60s who came to Hawaii from Catalina Island where he had a men's store. I am especially fond of their artists' series, I like the idea of wearing a garment designed by a well-known artist, plus they are so whimsical and interesting, I especially like the Guy Buffet shirts and he is not designing for Spooner anymore making them even more valuable. Kahala- has been around longer than Jams World or Reyn Spooner, also does an artists' series, probably their best known artist is John Severson, who I think was a professional surfer and now lives in Hawaii. I love their little surfboard labels, they tend to do a lot of different labels but they are all clearly Kahala shirts. RJC, Ltd.- they have also been around a long time, they do most of their shirts in cotton but I have seen a few in Rayon and Rayon blends also, their forte seems to be the scenic shirt, I am always impressed by the detail in their shirts. Paradise Found- they are the classic aloha shirt for birds, they do lots of shirts with tropical birds, their pink flamingo shirts in particular are the best I have ever seen and so collectible and saleable. Their other hallmark is their bamboo buttons. Care of these shirts: I wash most of my shirts in the washing machine on a gentle cycle in COLD WATER ONLY. I would never for any reason put one in a dryer. I occasionally will have one of my Rayon shirts dry-cleaned but usually hang dry all of my shirts and iron with a cool iron and pressing cloth. I prefer the padded hangers for my Rayon shirts; I would fold one up before I would put it on a wire hanger. Time was, aloha/Hawaiian shirts were only seen on T.V. or luaus but many people wear them everywhere nowadays. Most of them are unisex, especially Jams World, although I have seen lots of Kahalas that were distinctly masculine rather than unisex. All of the shirts in my collection button men's but I wear them anyway.