Jakarta Fashion Week Struts Over the Finish Line
Sylviana Hamdani | November 20, 2011
JakartaGlobe
The glamorous, catwalk-strutting extravaganza of Jakarta Fashion Week 2012 wrapped up on Friday in the Fashion Tent at the Pacific Place Mall. It marked the end of the annual, week-long event, showcasing the latest collections of 180 Indonesian and international designers in 50 shows.
Jakarta Fashion Week celebrated the country’s up-and-coming fashion designers, featured celebrities, socialites and fashionistas and linked international buyers with designers, offering fledgling labels the chance to find retailers for their products.
On Friday, JFW 2012 presented the highly anticipated Dewi Fashion Knights. Themed “Celebrating Women,” more than 600 attendees saw special collections from five top names in Indonesian fashion that have made headlines in the local scene during 2011.
New York-based Indonesian Auguste Soesastro presented his latest collection titled “Restu Bumi” (“Blessings of the Earth”). The items in the collection were made of pineapple and water hyacinth fibers. “I’m an environmentalist,” Auguste said. “I only use natural fibers as they’re biodegradable. What springs forth from the Earth will return to the Earth.”
Auguste illustrated his craftsmanship in his haute couture collection, showcasing jackets with seamless sleeves that highlighted the perfect physical contours of the models — well-tailored pants also accentuated their limbs and added a strong sense of confidence in their gaits.
Sally Koeswanto’s collection “Love, Passion and Lust” invited longing stares from the ladies in the audience. The line was inspired by the legend of the Fenghuang (Phoenix), which symbolizes femininity in Chinese mythology. It featured 10 pieces of evening wear that brought out a strong and sexy aura of modern Asian women.
“Modern Asian women are strong and smart,” Sally said. “Yet they still uphold the old, traditional values in their lives.”
A cocktail dress made of blue denim and overlaid with creme brocade emphasized the look of the modern, independent woman. Another evening item, a gold-and-lilac long dress was embellished with scale-like appliques along the bodice and glimmered seductively under the lights.
Sapto Djojokartiko wowed the audience with a dark, mystical aura in his collection, “Sang Radeng Girah.” Inspired by the work of Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s “The King, the Witch and the Priest,” the designer created a collection of evening dresses that were bold, cutting-edge and unusual — and inspired by witches.
Pale makeup and straight, long hair framed the faces of Sapto’s models, and his first outfit, a sheer black lace kebaya (traditional blouse) paired with a silver-sequined long skirt, was stunning and elegant. An evening gown, also made of sheer black lace, was embellished with long and thick human hair along the hemline — the thick tresses swaying seductively as the model sashayed down the catwalk.
According to Sapto, the dress impersonates the character of the witch in Pramoedya’s novel. “[The witch] is vengeful, fierce and powerful,” he said.
Dewi Fashion Knights finished with designer Tex Saverio’s new collection. Earlier this year, American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga wore one of Tex’s dresses in a fashion shoot for the US magazine Harper’s Bazaar. For JFW 2012, the 26-year-old designer prepared a special collection themed “Revelation.”
“I’ve employed metal craftsmen especially for this collection,” he said. “We prepared this collection in eight months.”
The new collection boasted sexy and glamorous evening wear in glittering golden hues. Tailored in a body-fitting mermaid style, the dresses were quite different than Tex’s previous collection of voluptuous ball gowns, but his signature style of metallic corsets and feather embellishments remained. One of the metallic corsets attached to the dress featured an angel extending her wings across the bodice.
“I was inspired with a verse in the Bible: ‘And there was war in heaven,’ from Revelation 12:7,’’ Tex said. The show ended with an angel-like figure with fully extended golden wings emerging from center stage. The audience broke into rapturous applause.
This year’s Fashion Week also saw a number of top international designers gracing the runway. In an opening night show themed “Alliance of Beauty,” Singaporean designer Ashley Isham, Malaysian designer Bernard Chandran, Thai pret-a-porter (ready-to-wear) label Tube-Gallery and senior Indonesian designer Biyan Wanaatmadja represented the best talents from Southeast Asia.
A collaboration between Indonesian designer Oscar Lawalata and British designer Justin Smith brought out the best of two cultures in a show themed “The Culture Incarnation” on Nov. 14. Oscar presented chic modern dresses made of batik, ikat (tie-dye) and tenun (hand-woven cloth), while Smith featured exotic hats made of East Nusa Tenggara tenun embellished with colorful feathers.
On Tuesday, JFW featured ready-to-wear collections of five labels including Boessert/Schorn, Star Styling, Hien Le, MOON Berlin and Issever Bahri.
“They all presented very strong concepts and solid collections,” said Svida Alisjahbana, chairwoman of JFW 2012.
On Wednesday, Mexican designers Cristina Pineda and Ricardo Covalin showcased their joint label Pineda Covalin, which presented vibrant silk dresses in printed motifs inspired by traditional Mexican styles. Impressed with the richness of Indonesian textiles at JFW, Pineda and Covalin plan to collaborate with Indonesian designer Oscar Lawalata in the near future.
“We consider Oscar’s work to be very beautiful,” Pineda said. “We’re going to do something together, and it’s going to be a surprise.”
Some mainstream fashion design organizations, such as the Indonesian Fashion Designers Council (IPMI) and the Indonesian Fashion Designers Association (Appmi) also took part in JFW 2012. On Nov. 13, 10 IPMI designers collaborated to present a show themed “Color Me Life,” a tribute to senior Indonesian fashion designer Robby Tumewu, who is recovering from a stroke. Each IPMI designer made their entire collection based on a color of their choice, and approximately 60 looks were presented in the show. Forty-two members of Appmi presented their 2012 collections.
On Nov. 14, Iva Lativah presented her collection of feminine Muslim wear made of hand-woven Balinese textiles with vibrant tie-dye patterns. On the same day, Merry Pramono presented a collection of Muslim wear with a chic pirate look — her collection consisted of colorful A-lined skirts, harem pants and blouses with puff sleeves that are easily mixed and matched.
The Appmi designers also collaborated with the regional handicraft council (Dekranasda) of Kutai Kartanegara (East Kalimantan) on Tuesday to present collections made of ulap doyo, a hand-woven traditional textile made of the fibers of doyo shrubs that are exclusive to East Kalimantan.
Indonesian fashion designer Sofie also presented a children’s collection made of the colorful fabric. Themed “Glam Rock,” Ian Adrian’s collection combined ulap doyo blouses, jackets and skirts with leather shorts, pants and boots.
“I just want to show that ulap doyo is versatile,” Ian said. “It can be made into and combined with anything for a chic, modern look.”
Most designers said they were satisfied with the overall content of JFW 2012.
“There’s a lot of progress in JFW this year,” said Ari Seputra, a senior IPMI fashion designer. “It’s been much better prepared, promoted and organized.”
Most shows were on schedule, with a few scattered delays.
“We had to wait for the arrival of VIP guests in some shows,” said Diaz Parzada, creative director of JFW 2012. “But we’ll do a detailed evaluation of the programs right after JFW. We hope to do better next year.”
The focal point of JFW 2012, the fashion runway, was also tailored according to the standard of international fashion weeks in Milan, New York and London. This year’s runway was made of black acrylic, and was 34.48 meters long and 0.2 meters high — half the height of the white, U-shaped runway from last year.
“It allows the photographers to take better shots of the outfits on the runway,” Diaz said.
With such a prestigious local platform to showcase their creations, Indonesian fashion designers have been empowered to bring their collections to the international fashion scene.
“Jakarta Fashion Week should not only be a showcase,” Ari said. “Designers should be prepared to contact and follow up with buyers that attended their shows.”
There were four buyers from Indonesia and six international buyers from the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and Taiwan that were invited to JFW 2012.
“Most Indonesian designers are not ready to face buyers,” said Musa Widyatmodjo, a senior Appmi fashion designer. “They usually create one-of-a-kind pieces that are difficult to replicate in bulk numbers and haven’t come up with production, resourcing and distribution plans. So, when a buyer comes up and asks them to prepare a 250-piece collection for their department store, they usually stammer.’’
JFW chairwoman Svida agreed. “Indonesian fashion designers should come better prepared to JFW next year,” she said. “They should have their look-books, press releases and contact details ready at the fashion show. JFW is a platform that showcases their creativity. It’s up to them how to use it.”
After JFW 2012, Femina Group, the event’s organizer, plans to bring some Indonesian designers to the Hong Kong, Bangkok and Berlin fashion weeks.
“It is our aim to introduce Indonesian designers to the world,” Svida said. “Therefore, we’ll interview and screen some of them to be featured in the international fashion weeks.”
With 21 more designers than last year, JFW has grown from last year’s show, which engaged 159 fashion designers, and JFW 2010, which had 108 designers.
“We aim to be even bigger and better next year,’’ Svida said.
