Tiki Style

ティキ・スタイル / 1934–1960s / revival / Aesthetic / Pop

The Polynesia dreamed up by American bars and restaurants. Carved figures, bamboo, torches and mai tai glasses gave style to a postwar wish to escape. It is an imaginary South Seas, and it should be read together with its history of borrowing from Pacific cultures.

Tiki Style — Trader Vic's menu cover — Wikimedia Commons / No restrictions — Trader Vic's menu cover — Wikimedia Commons / No restrictions

Tiki Style — Trader Vic's at the Havana Hilton, 1958 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Trader Vic's at the Havana Hilton, 1958 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Tiki Style — Tiki mug — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Vincent Navarro — Tiki mug — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Vincent Navarro

At a glance

Visual cues

Tiki-carving motifs
Bamboo and rattan interiors
Torches and flame
Tropical drink vessels

Best used for

Bar and restaurant interiors sealed off from the day outside
Drink menus designed as experience, each cocktail given its own vessel

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Dictionary entry

Type: Menu lettering carved-looking like wood, lines set close together
Composition: Windows blocked to kill daylight, ceilings built to feel low
Material: Bamboo, rattan and charred wood, lit only by flame and colored glass
Caution: This is an American fantasy and not the living Polynesian and Micronesian cultures it borrows from, so hiding where the motifs came from and treating them as decor puts the venue in question.
Further study: Don the Beachcomber, 1934 / Sven Kirsten's The Book of Tiki / the critique of Pacific appropriation

Related entries

Googie (グーギー建築)Shared effects: Exhilaration / Play.Compare Tiki Style and Googie
Tapa (Barkcloth) (タパ)Editorially linked for a useful contrast.Compare Tiki Style and Tapa (Barkcloth)

Cite this entry

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Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/tiki
Markdown: [Tiki Style — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/tiki)
HTML: <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/tiki">Tiki Style — IndexStyle</a>

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