The muumuu or muumuu () is a loose dress of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

an origin that hangs from the shoulder and is like a cross between a shirt and a robe. Like the

aloha shirt The aloha shirt (), also referred to as a Hawaiian shirt, is a style of dress shirt originating in Hawaii. They are collared and buttoned dress shirts, usually short-sleeved and made from printed fabric. They are traditionally worn untucked, but ...

, muumuu exports are often brilliantly colored with floral patterns of generic Polynesian motifs. Muumuus for local Hawaiian residents are more subdued in tone. Muumuus are no longer as widely worn at work as an aloha shirt, but continue to be the preferred formal dress for weddings and festivals such as the Merrie Monarch hula competition. Muumuus are also popular as

maternity ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestati ...

wear because they do not restrict the waist.

Etymology and history

The word ''muumuu'' means "cut off" in Hawaiian, because the dress originally lacked a Yoke (clothing), yoke. Originally it was a shorter, informal version of the more formal ''holokū''. ''Holokū'' was the original name for the Mother Hubbard dress introduced by

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

missionaries to Hawaii in the 1820s. The ''holokū'' featured long sleeves and a floor-length unfitted dress falling from a high-necked yoke. Over the years, the ''holokū'' approximated more closely to European and American fashions. It might have a fitted waist and even a train for the evening. As the ''holokū'' became more elaborate, the muumuu, a shortened version, became popular for informal wear.

Etymology and history

References

Further reading