Vitals

Sidney Poitier as Homer Smith, helpful handyman

Arizona, Summer 1963

Film: Lilies of the Field
Release Date: October 1, 1963
Director: Ralph Nelson
Wardrobe Credit: Wesley Sherrard

Background

Happy first day of summer! As the Northern Hemisphere officially enters its warmest season, menswear retailers have been dutifully swapping out their pea coats and sweaters in favor of tropical-printed short-sleeved shirts.

While some prints are wild and some just get weird, the most timeless styles of floral or natural patterns have remained the same in the more than eight decades since Ellery Chun first advertised his Aloha shirt in The Honolulu Advertiser in the summer of 1935.

Even the famously fashionable Sidney Poitier wore a classic Aloha shirt for his Academy Award-winning role in Lilies of the Field as Homer Smith, the traveling handyman whose brief stop outside of Tucson for water for his station wagon turns into an extended job as he eventually takes on the task of building a new chapel for a group of nuns. Continue reading →