1. Ronald (1 x 32)
1. Ronald (1 x 32)
Ronald V. Gaghana roaring on empty
JP/9/Ronald
Roaring on empty
Syahmedi Dean
Contributor/Jakarta
How far is a theme useful in the creation of fashion? Is it a
source of ideas or even a boomerang? The answer can be found in
Ronald V. Gaghana's annual fashion show.
Ronald V. Gaghana (43) is one of Indonesia's fashion designers
whose creations are always awaited.
On Thursday, April 28, he, again, represented his latest ideas
in 60 sets of fashion designs featured in a fashion show held at
the ballroom of Mulia Hotel called "Roaring Twenties", a theme
based on a decade in which fashion underwent changes very rapidly
and which gave birth to the term "modernist fashion", which marks
the abandonment by a number of fashion designers of a Victorian-
style and Edwardian-style of dressing that curbs a person's
movement and body.
These modernist fashion designers included Coco Chanel, who
introduced the term "the modern woman", with her design called
"little black dress", Lanvin with his dropped-waist dress, Elsa
Schiaparelli with her body-hugging swimsuit and Paul Poiret, who
turned the pajama as an element of modern evening wear.
The decade of the twenties could be summed up as identical
with straight lines, bobbed hair, flat breasts, boyish bodies and
minimalist and modern Art Deco (the film Chicago can show all
these very graphically). All these items constitute a very rich
source of ideas waiting to be explored.
In his attempt to re-introduce the glory of the 1920s, Ronald
leaned heavily on the dropped-waist silhouette, a silhouette in
the form of a gown the upper and lower parts of which are
connected on the waist (usually given a ribbon knot, a waist belt
or other ornaments).
One interesting creation was a beige satin gown with a green
ribbon knot on the waist part. Ronald provided this gown with a
necklace made of Art Deco-style beads. Although it represented a
style prevailing in 1920s, this look keeps its modernity even
today. Something was disturbing, though, as the dropped-waist
line of the gown that the model put on went down to the upper
part of the thighs, therefore causing the gown to look too loose
and destroy the proportion of the model.
From Ronald's point of view, the 1920s was represented only by
a dropped-waist silhouette only. What about the rest? Ronald went
far and wide for his creative ideas. His best design was a
chiffon full skirt plus a golden-colored long-sleeved jacket,
very chic but, unfortunately, not in the least reflecting the
Roaring Twenties. Instead, it represented the New Look style of
1950s.
Many other gowns were ornamented with a lot of beads without
giving the Art Deco impression. A skirt made of several pieces of
cloth has all too often featured in Ronald's shows, this time and
earlier. (Enough, Ronald!) It seems that he ran out of ideas.
The skirt gave the impression that it had too many elements so it
was not pretty too look at. In short, it was too busy.
The best color of a series of chosen colors available in the
show was the tosca blue. This color was outstanding and injected
a maximum fashion spirit like what was shown in a gown with an
inflated part of the 1950's style (again not the style of 1920s).
Other colors such as golden, red, beige and aqua blue were too
often repeated and, therefore, not quite challenging. One thing
unforgivable about the choice of colors was Ronald's combination
of the black and golden colors, two colors that are today quite
beautiful but become boring when they are combined.
As a matter of fact, Ronald's designs were very fine, neat and
of a high quality. However, his ability to fantasize and develop
ideas is questionable. Several times the essence of his designs
became lost in the theme of his choice with the result that one
would get the impression Ronald did not have enough reference and
took the wrong step. His chosen theme became empty and gave no
impression at all.
Unsurprisingly, the fashion public has begun to be doubtful
about Ronald's credibility despite his fame in Indonesia's world
of fashion today.
Usually, Ronald's designs are inseparable from the image of
youthfulness with dynamic and modern accentuation. His designs
are suitable for women with a youthful spirit combined with an
energized, expressive and edgy disposition. Unfortunately, these
characteristics of Ronald's designs were absent in his collection
shown in the Roaring Twenties. This time his designs reflect
middle-aged women trying too hard to enjoy their second puberty.