Designer Stephanus Hamy has designs on the theater

By Agni Amorita

JAKARTA (JP): Brutus is one of the characters that grabbed the audience's attention when Teater Lembaga, a theatrical group under the auspices of the Jakarta Institute of the Arts, staged a grand version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar two years ago. Drama critics heaped praise upon both the acting demonstrated by the actor playing Brutus and the Brutus' costume, which they said stood out from the rest of the costumes in the play. Noted designer Stephanus Hamy created Brutus' leather costume, which was adapted from the uniform of a Roman soldier.

While two years ago, Hamy was asked to design only one costume, now he has been asked to design all of the costumes for A Streetcar Named Desire, written by famous American playwright Tennessee Williams. Teater Lembaga is scheduled to perform the play at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta (the Jakarta Playhouse) from July 9 to July 13.

"It took me about two months to design the 54 costumes for this performance," Hamy said.

Before he began designing the costumes, he watched the 1951 film version of the play starring Marlon Brando and Vivian Leigh.

"Before beginning my work on the costumes, I also tried to find out the style of the time when Williams wrote, whose heyday was between 1940 and 1960," he said.

Having collected this information, he decided the costumes for this play should reflect the fashion of the 1950s. Besides his desire to reflect the style of the time in which the play was set, he also wanted to make sure the costumes evinced the sensual nuances of the play. To do this he made use of sheer fabrics and slits, to make his costumes somewhat revealing.

For Blanche Dubois, a vulnerable former actress who is the main character in the play, Hamy designed an eye-catching costume complete with accessories, such as a long scarf decorated with fur fringes, embroidered gloves, double pearl necklace and high- heel shoes -- all in harmonious and similar colors. Blanche, the play's most flamboyant character, changes costume more frequently than the play's 13 other characters.

"One of my difficulties is that I had to design a special dress which the actress could change into on stage because there are several scenes in which Blanche has to change her dress right on stage," said Hamy, who also found it challenging to design a costume for the scene in which Blanche is raped.

To depict Blanche's bankruptcy, Hamy makes use of torn lace for her costumes, particularly the scarf. Although intended to depict shabbiness, as demanded by the story line, the costumes designed by Hamy remain elegant in appearance, particularly thanks to the fine pleats, which are characteristic of Hamy's designs. Pleats in expensive materials such as silk dominate Hamy's designs for the play, along with plain colors, which Hamy intentionally opted for to maintain the story line. "I have chosen particular colors for each character to prevent the audience from becoming confused."

For Blanche, Hamy used off-white because, in his opinion, this color represents her character: deceitful, naive and hypocritical.

Bright colors are reserved for the cheerful Stella Dubois. For Stanley Kowalski, the play's antagonist, Hamy created a costume featuring boorish clashes of patterns, while, at the same time, reflecting an arrogance which defies the established state of affairs.

Model Donna Harun plays the role of Eunice, a woman who is abused by her husband. The character of Eunice is fat and ugly, while Donna is slim and beautiful. So, for this character Hamy created an outfit with wide pleats and puffy sleeves to give the impression of fatness and ugliness.

"Costumes are one of the most important pillars supporting a theatrical performance, in addition to the script and the cast," said Joseph Ginting, the director of the upcoming performance as well as the dean of the School of Drama at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts.

Ginting is satisfied with his close cooperation with Hamy, who spent a number of sleepless nights watching rehearsals for the play before designing the costumes.

After the performance, the costumes, for which Hamy personally spent over Rp 50 million, will be kept as a "file" in his boutique, located in West Jakarta. Hamy believes it is likely that some day he will feature this collection, made up of about 1,000 costumes, in an exhibition.

Born May 7, 1960, Stephanus Hamy is no novice to Indonesia's fashion circles. An architecture graduate who studied fashion at the American Academy in Paris, Hamy has been a designer for almost two decades. His career as a designer began in 1980 as a consultant for Fifi Young Boutique. In 1984 he launched a label bearing his own name and now he has four lines: Stephanus Hamy (exclusive designs), Hamy Touch (second line), Hamy Homme (gentleman's dress) and Hamy Culture (Indonesian ethnic designs). With a minimum monthly production capacity of 1,000 pieces, Hamy now has four outlets: at Sogo Plaza Indonesia, Mal Kelapa Gading, Plaza Senayan and Pasaraya in South Jakarta. His latest outlet in Pasaraya, Cantik Sekali (Beautiful), opened on Tuesday.