HONOLULU Magazine’s Publisher Receives Prestigious Governor’s Award

Congrats to our publisher, Alyson Helwagen! And the team!

Photo: David Croxford

Here at HONOLULU Magazine, we love what we do, but it’s great to get recognized along the way. So we congratulate our publisher, Alyson Helwagen, who was just recognized by the Retail Merchants of Hawai‘i’s with its Governor’s Award, for exemplary service to the retail industry.

The association lauded Helwagen as an industry leader, and noted the string of contributions Alyson has made to the Islands’ local fashion and retail industry, ranging from the creation of shopping newsletter Lei Chic and overseeing HONOLULU Shops Magazine to helping launch HONOLULU Fashion Week, now in its third year, “to bring fashion and retail coverage to life, in ways never before seen in the state.”

Helwagen says, “It’s a huge honor! And there’s nothing mentioned that isn’t 100 percent done by the team here—Donna [Kodama-Yee] and Jeff [Alencastre] and the sales team, and Brie [Thalmann] and Stacey [Makiya] our fashion editors, and so many others who support the shopping and fashion businesses here in town. The award really goes to the PacificBasin team!”

Previous Governor’s Awards have gone to such notable community leaders as former Rep. Barbara Marumoto, Barbara Campbell and Watanabe Ing LLP.

Congrats, Alyson—this is only making us more excited for the upcoming HONOLULU Fashion Week event, happening Nov. 10, 11 and 12 at the Hawai‘i Convention Center! For more information on HONOLULU Fashion Week, visit honolulufashionweek.com.