Hawaii: In Real Life ~ Raiatea Helm at LeSportsac

October 17, 2011

Melissa Chang,

LeSportsac, the company known worldwide for its fashionable nylon bags, just launched a line exclusive to Hawaii called “Mele,” inspired by local musician Raiatea Helm (@RaiateaMusic).

The material has a colorful print reminiscent of aloha shirts, with various ukelele amidst flowers and musical notes.

Coincidentally, Raiatea was working on her new “Sea of Love” CD when LeSportsac talked to her about the new line, so they are offering a limited collection of autographed CDs in a Mele zip pouch. These pouches are for sale at LeSportsac’s Ala Moana store for $28, and all proceeds will go to the Japan Relief Fund through the Red Cross.

Even after these pouches sell out, though, you can still buy the exclusive “Mele” bags at all LeSportsac stores in Hawaii. Click here to see some of the photos from the launch party.

We caught up with Raiatea at the LeSportsac store in Ala Moana at the launch party (thus why the video is a little noisy) to talk about the new line of bags and how they came to be.

Want to see Raitaea perform a song? Alan Okami of Koaloha (@Koalohauke) handed her an ukulele and she sang a song off her new CD, which was so beautiful, it almost made me cry. Visit HawaiiIRL.com to hear more about Raiatea and hear her play.