Goodwill Goes GLAM! 2025 with Rumi Murakami

For Hawaii fashion designer Rumi Murakami, clothing has always been more than fast fashion or passing fads. It’s a mindful practice rooted in purpose and care.

“As a young person, I was still drawn to trends and trying to figure out my personal style. Over time, you hone it and figure out what’s comfortable and what you want your clothes to say about you,” Murakami says. “I’m lucky enough to have been trained in a very hands-on manner.”

Born to Japanese immigrant parents, Murakami’s fashion education began at home. Her father was a Buddhist minister and her mother was a master of Japanese tea ceremony who practiced ikebana (flower arranging) and made her own kimono. “She also had a subscription to Harper’s Bazaar,” says Murakami, who spent her childhood studying global influences in magazines while learning the basics of proportion and color at her mother’s side.

As early as eight years old, Murakami was adjusting patterns, using the sewing machine, and shopping for fabric with her mom. “I understood garment construction from a young age,” Murakami says. “By the end of high school, I wanted to pursue fashion but knew I wasn't interested in attending a traditional university.”

Instead, Murakami attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in California, a feeder school to the Los Angeles garment scene. She honed her technical skills working with fashion companies up and down the California coast before moving to Hawaii, where she adapted her design aesthetic to suit the Islands’ tropical climate and casual lifestyle.

Murakami’s modern designs reflect her personal philosophy: Thoughtful, intentional, and made to last. Her signature style—modern, soft tailoring—offers relaxed suiting that blends elegance and comfort with a contemporary approach, using breathable natural fibers like cotton and linen that feel as good as they look. “I don’t want to be the label that sits in your closet. I want my pieces to be the ones that you wear until they’re threadbare,” says Murakami.

This year, from August 14 to 16, Murakami takes the helm as producer for Goodwill Goes GLAM! 2025 Fashion Show, presented by Bank of Hawaii Foundation. For Murakami, this collaboration represents a way to weave her commitment to thoughtful design into a cause that empowers others by using clothing, socially and creatively, as a force for good.

“I’ve been to many [Goodwill Goes GLAM!] shows, have designer friends who’ve been featured producers, and I know how important Goodwill is in Hawaii. Their programs help give people in difficult situations real opportunities to become self-sustaining,” Murakami says.

Goodwill’s mission resonates deeply with Murakami. Her mother was a World War II survivor who instilled in her daughter an appreciation for resourcefulness and wasting nothing. “My parents were young at the time but they remember what it was like not having anything to eat,” says Murakami. “My mom saved everything: every plastic grocery bag, every bread twist tie, every rubber band… It’s impossible for me not to consider what it means to produce fashion on a large scale.”

A conservation mindset left a lasting impression on Murakami, who avoids mass production in favor of cut-to-order pieces locally crafted in her Kaimuki studio. Working by hand, making patterns and samples by herself and with one sewer, Murakami produces each garment in small batches. Whenever possible, she also minimizes waste by using surplus “deadstock” leftover fabric that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

“I understand the need for producing clothing on a large scale in factories and that having the time and resources to curate a custom wardrobe is a privilege,” Murakami says. “But I also believe in making intentional choices. More people now are shopping for secondhand clothes that will last longer. Goodwill makes that kind of thoughtfulness accessible.”

For more than a century, Goodwill has empowered individuals who are facing unemployment barriers through job training, placement services, and community-based programs. All of it, funded through Goodwill’s network of more than 4,200 thrift stores nationwide. Since opening in Hawaii in 1959, Goodwill Hawaii has supported local residents for 65 years, helping thousands statewide gain skills and find meaningful work.

In 2012, Goodwill launched Goodwill Goes GLAM!, a three-day gala fundraiser that blends fashion and purpose. This signature event features a runway show and 20,000-square-foot pop-up marketplace filled with secondhand designer fashions, accessories, housewares, and other treasures curated from community donations to Goodwill Hawaii. This annual event supports job readiness programs that benefit more than 7,000 people across Hawaii each year.

This year’s theme is “Common Thread,” a nod to the ties that bind us through shared bonds, recycled materials, and a collective purpose to uplift one another, whether as shoppers, donors, designers, or individuals seeking support.

“Working directly with people in the community is so important. But it can be tough to keep programming going, year after year, for many nonprofits. My goal is for people to have fun at this year’s [Goodwill Goes GLAM!] show, but also for Goodwill to make a lot of money so they can keep providing their services,” says Murakami.

The fashion show and gala dinner begins at 7 p.m. HST on Thursday, August 14, at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall. Tickets to the event include first access to the GLAM! Sale happening from 8 to 10 p.m. HST that evening, while the free pop-up market will be held Friday and Saturday. (Learn more about this meaningful event that empowers local communities in Hawaii.)