Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hilo Ohtakagi. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hilo, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
I would like young people in the community I live in get involved to create products that are eco friendly and inspired by the place ( Hana) and start to selling them at my shop to tourists who visit Hana Maui, then eventually that will be their sustainable incomes in the future.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Aloha! I am Hilo, a designer and owner at Ti & CoCo, an eco-friendly lifestyle shop in Hana Maui, Hawai’i. I resides in Hana since 2015. I started run my shop since this February in 2024. Inspired from the surroundings of the tropical jungle in Hana and it’s Hawai’ian culture, I design from greeting cards to Aloha shirts and women’s clothing that are made with eco-friendlier materials. The motive that I started my brand was that I started designing beach pareos (sarongs/ beach coverups) back in 2007, and used to go to Bali Indonesia for the production as most of pareos at that time were made there with a technique called ‘ batik’, the colorful fabric dyes are applied by hand onto each pareo fabric. I started making them a small quantity each time in order to see if they sell and make it as a business. I started to see my customers are growing over the years at the local farmers market and did pop up events as a crafter and wholesaling to stores.
But one day I was in Bali in 2018 for the production work, I noticed that the near by waterways and rivers where I used to work are no longer clear, they are an opaque grey and contaminated. It lingered in my mind, and I started wondering what is making the contamination that deteriorates the environment so badly. Then I eventually learned that the synthetic color dyes that used to paint pareos are one of the contaminations to the environment. It hit me hard, and made me think that I have to change the way I produce items to minimize impacts to our environment. So my research for the cleaner ways to dye/print fabrics was started. It was an eye opening moment while I was reading about the facts of the textile and fashion industry. It said to be they are a second worst industry to impact our environment after an oil industry. As I was getting my mind set for a digitally printing for a new way of printing fabrics for my production as it says to be much less impact to the nature, and it did not take much time for me to come across articles about a scary fact of cotton industry. I was blown away to know that unless cotton is organically grown, the majority of non-organic cotton industry is one of the worst industry to pollute our
environment. At that point, I felt like this is ridiculous, the fashion industry wants only look beautiful while contaminating the environment behind the scene. That’s when I pledged myself to establish eco-friendly lifestyle shop. Using eco-friendly fabrics like linen and organic cotton to make clothing as well as other items like greeting cards are made with recycled paper and using plant-base bags for the wrapping options. It is a continuous learning process how to be more greener business owner, and am happy to see more options of greener technologies are emerging around the world. It is my pleasure to share what I learned and exchange conversations with my customers about greener living is one of my exciting moment while running my shop.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
It is included in the first page how my printing production method had to change in order to minimize the impact to the environment.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
It is the quality control and fabric designs that brought customers I think. I have many returning customers. I think that it is because I keep working hard to keep up the quality of my products and producing something new with designs keeping my customers (new and old) coming back to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tiandcoco.com
- Instagram: tiandcocomaui
- Facebook: Ti & CoCo
