Designer Ika works for the betterment of Bali

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Home is where the heart is, the old saying says. For many of us, however, it means the place where the hurt is.

Strangely, no matter how much pain it gives us, there is always an urge to go back home, and Bali-based designer Mardiana Ika, or Ika, knows the feeling all too well.

She returned to Indonesia in 1995, the time when she already had an established career as fashion designer in Hong Kong, with markets including Japan, Korea, Germany, France and South Africa, as well as taking part in catwalk shows from Tokyo to Milan.

"I didn't need to go back to Indonesia... But I missed home... That was something I had to resolve myself," Ika said.

Her childhood, she said, was the greatest influence on her career, and the highly elaborate detailed and handmade works characteristic of her designs are unmistakably inspired by Indonesian culture.

"I felt that I owed something to my home country. There was a call to give half of my time and my life for it," said Ika, who is married to an American.

Cynics may smirk at the declared sacrifice for her country, but her contribution to society and the fashion scene is probably much more than many of her peers.

Ika helped by working with artisans in East Java so they were able to export thousands of wooden sandals to other Asian and European countries.

She founded Bali Fashion Week in 2000, with the aim to unite businesspeople, manufacturers and fashion designers to attract buyers from overseas.

With the fifth fashion week to be held at the end of May, its successes include producing promising young Balinese designers, whose predecessors were only known as tailors.

When the Bali bombing occurred in October 2002, Ika was among the first volunteers at the hospital, until she saw how other volunteers were taking gory photos of victims to sell to foreign media.

"After a week, I couldn't do it anymore, I could only cry," she said.

Born in Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra, and raised in Jakarta, Ika dropped out during her third year in the University of Indonesia's School of English Literature, pursuing a career as a flight attendant on Cathay Pacific Airways.

After working for two years, she studied pattern cutting and fashion design at Hong Kong's Far East Dressmaking and Design School, continuing on to the London College of Fashion in London.

She launched her fashion career in 1979, working at L'Estelle D'Ore fashion house in Berlin.

Ika went back to Hong Kong four years later to set up her own fashion company, Butoni Limited, which continue to expand and now sell its products all over the world, including 25 stores of the Nordstrom and Neimann Marcus chains in the United States.

She is also a senior member of the Hong Kong Fashion Designers Association, was a guest lecturer and member of the advisory council at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is often asked to design clothes for Hong Kong celebrities, like actress Maggie Cheung, and sponsored Jackie Chan's Rush Hour II in 2001.

Her signature designs are outfits for active and modern women, with detailed handiwork (beads, paillettes) and hand embroidery -- the result of fabric research and continual experimentation.

"I follow the world's fashion scene, especially Europe. But I took my own path and try to be different, because that's what a designer should be -- a director not a follower," said Ika, whose labels include Butoni, Linea Sanremo, Iccha and Ikabene.

Her favorite piece is the Gladiator collection, shown last year at Hong Kong fashion week.

"The collection was born out of my deepest emotion, after spending sometime as a 'hotline' volunteer following the Bali bombing tragedy," said Ika, who continues to market her products abroad from her base in Bali.

She had only been settled in Bali a short while when she was deeply shocked by the bloody riots during the economic meltdown of 1998-1999.

"Before that period, I always felt proud of being Indonesian. Suddenly, I lost my grip," Ika said.

Friends helped remind her of the initial reason she returned in home in the first place: The wish to found Bali Fashion Week.

Apart from the gains made by the event, Ika feels many Indonesian designers still have problems with originality in their creations.

"The farthest most Indonesian designers can penetrate is Malaysia and Singapore, because the collection is aimed at Indonesians, they are just a copy of what foreign designers produce," she said.

Young designers are inward looking, and still lack determination in pursuing their goals to become world-class designers.

"They have to be open-minded, see as many people, go to as many places. To succeed in exports, we have to dig inside and show it to the world. Because we cannot compete with China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand for cheap production but (we can for) high quality.

"We have to love and be proud of our culture, not copying Western designers."

It is important to encourage young designers, she said, instead of cutting them down with criticism. She is concerned by the fact that established local designers pay no attention to their juniors.

Despite her difficult initial transition, Ika has found her heart in Bali, through her purpose to revive the local fashion scene and economy through Bali Fashion Week, as well as the Kuta Karnival in September.

Now it's the place she calls home.

"I'm very proud of Bali. The people are very loving and accepting, without the sense of vindictiveness, despite the magnitude of the Bali bombing. This urges me to fight harder with my Balinese friends to revive the image of Indonesia through Bali."