Designer Ika works for the betterment of Bali

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."