Meet Rocket Ahuna, the Kānaka Maoli Designer Marrying Hula With Fashion

If there is one word to describe Rocket Ahuna, it would be resilient. The 23-year-old Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiian, designer is experiencing a huge career highlight after Apple TV+’s Chief of War stars Luciane Buchanan and Mainei Kinimaka, as well as pro surfer Maluhia Kinimaka, showed up to the show's premiere in his designs inspired by the history of Hawai’i.

For Ahuna and the Pasifika community, it’s a significant moment. To have a new series in mainstream media that focuses on the history of Hawai’i with a majority Pasifika cast (not to mention all the characters speaking ōlelo Hawai'i throughout the series), and to have the two lead actors wearing designs by a Native Hawaiian designer, is almost unheard of. And it is precisely why Ahuna was so keen to work on it, all while quietly going through a battle with cancer.

“When I was 14, I had bone cancer in my brain stem,” he shares with Teen Vogue in July. “Last month, I did a panel discussion in New York. I didn't tell anyone, but right after that, I went to Duke University and had surgery, and I've been recovering since then. Thankfully, due to modern technology and how amazing my team of doctors is, I'm so thankful that they were able to do such a great job with a less invasive treatment to remove my tumor. Throughout all that, I was developing and working on the Chief of War.”

Ahuna decided not to tell anyone until closer to the premiere date. While most of the teams he worked with were shocked by the news and adamant about taking the workload off his plate, he says that designing these looks was the very reason that kept him going. “I kind of told them what was going on after, and I just wanted to be transparent, knowing about deadlines as things that got there. They were adamant about not doing it because they didn't want me to stress about it. But honestly, it was the complete opposite. It just allowed me to truly sit down and reflect on something that wasn't my health at times and allowed me to heal a lot faster.”

Growing up in Hawai’i, Ahuna takes much of his inspiration from the art of hula and the 'āina, or land, to incorporate into his designs. He began dancing hula at a young age, where he learned to create garments and leis for performances, which deepened his understanding of why hula is so important in Hawaiian culture, not just in movement, but also in their regalia, their ahu, and the items they choose to wear. “I want to use fashion as a storytelling aspect purely because I want to represent what my ancestors did so well. They preserved history through fashion and through hula dance and song, and at the end of the day, I feel like a fashion show is one big hula performance.”