Growing up in Hawaii, Meleana Estes was immersed in the traditions of lei making, thanks to her tūtū, or grandmother, a seamstress and costume designer who took up lei making in the 1960s, when traditional Hawaiian skills were re-emerging throughout the islands. Her tutu became an expert over the years and passed this knowledge to her family and to Meleana, who, after a career in fashion, who went on to become an expert lei maker and teacher of the craft, running workshops first in Honolulu and eventually abroad. Brought to the Hawaiian islands by Polynesians hundreds of years ago, leis have their own sets of legend, cultural meaning, and ritual significance, and were made with seeds, shells, feathers, leaves, and flowers of near infinite variety and combinations, though what most…
