The ʻahu ʻula is a chief's cloak built from tens of thousands of bird feathers knotted onto a net of olonā fibre. Scarlet ʻiʻiwi feathers make the field; golden ʻōʻō and mamo feathers draw crescents and lozenges across it.

The system inherits that order exactly. Red is ground, never ornament. Gold is the figure, spent sparingly because it was expensive in birds and in years. Everything else — the tan netting, the glossy black bands — finishes edges.