Energetic Poppy Darsono a woman of substance
By Dini S. Djalal
JAKARTA (JP): Her delicate, finely manicured hands are up in the air, and her big bright eyes are fluttering as rapidly as the words she fires. She is a slight, gentle but talkative woman, this Poppy Darsono, with a small, high-pitched voice which sometimes cracks in heated dialog.
Look beyond the feminine facade, however, past the meticulous manners, elegant attire, the dainty pearl-drop earrings, and you will realize Poppy's voice may be the only thing about her that cracks.
By any standards, 46-year-old Poppy Darsono -- fashion designer, cosmetics queen, garment manufacturer and champion of small business -- is a forceful figure, a successful Indonesian businesswoman making it on her terms.
Refreshingly, Poppy got to the top by applying to her career the tenets she follows in her personal life as a yoga practitioner: moderation, restraint, balance.
Her professional maneuvers are both brave and practical. She is constantly jetting across the country and continents staging fashion shows and exhibits, her latest taking place in Vancouver, San Francisco and Japan.
"I don't expect people to buy the collection. It's not as easy as that," she says modestly.
In an industry full of egos larger than the catwalks they walk on, common sense like this is unfortunately all too uncommon.
Parisian savvy
Poppy's fashion career started 27 years ago as a teenage model for fashion magazines and calenders. "My first job paid Rp 30,000 per photo session, quite a lot of money at the time!" she recalls.
In 1973, Poppy flew to Paris, initially to study cinematography. There, Ratna Cartier-Bresson, wife of the famed French photographer, told her she had "good taste". Intrigued, Poppy looked into how lucrative the French fashion industry can be. She enrolled in Esmod fashion school.
She returned home in 1977, brimming with enthusiasm for traditional fabrics fostered by an acquired Parisian savvy, only to be sent by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) to a trade mission in Dusseldorf, Germany -- her first fashion show.
"I was lucky because there weren't that many Indonesian designers at the time," she laughs.
Today, Poppy runs two export factories at Jakarta's Pulogadung Industrial Estate, which produce garments for Levi's and Neckermann, among others. She also juggles her dominion over the Poppy Darsono fashion house, which produces three collections of uniform wear, batik-based high fashion and custom tailoring, and Poppy Darsono Cosmetics and Perfumes, production of which is subcontracted but packaged according to Poppy's orders.
In the works are plans for a nationwide chain of stores called Batavia, which will carry casualwear and workwear made by Indonesian designers.
Poppy's entrepreneurial spirit is matched only by her leadership drive. In addition to being the head of the Association of Indonesian Fashion Designers and Manufacturers (APPMI), Poppy is a prominent member of KADIN. Recently, she also became president director of LaSalle College of Fashion, a Canadian joint venture she started because, "there are many talented designers here with weak academic foundations".
Don't let her achievements fool you -- Poppy herself certainly doesn't. While Indonesia's fashion industry optimistically envisions Jakarta as Asia's next fashion capital, Poppy knows that the struggle is far from over.
Chaos
Amid the chaos of last week's Jakarta Fashion Parade, she discussed with The Jakarta Post the sometimes self-designed pitfalls local designers face, and what can be done to provide Indonesian talent the platform it deserves. Surprisingly, Poppy does not proffer rose-tinted views of the industry, but honest, reflective answers, balanced by a positivity and determination that have made her name.
Question: You often hold fashion shows overseas but admit that it's not to boost sales. What's the point then?
Answer: Of course I don't expect people to buy; customers won't like your product after only one show. After seeing enthusiastic audiences, I used to expect sales. But when it comes to the follow-up, it's not that easy. That's why when people say they want to open a boutique in Paris, I laugh. Exporting is hard -- you have to handle quota problems, shipment problems, administration problems. When I have shows, it's simply to promote Indonesian textiles.
Q: So you're promoting the entire industry rather than just your company?
A: Well, I'm still grateful because it boosts my image. But I'm not ambitious in going international because it's not realistic. Japanese designers like Kenzo and Hanae Mori, they're successful because the government helps them. They're aware that creating an image is a long process, that you have to put Japanese brands in Vogue every month so consumers get used to Japanese brand names.
All of fashion's big designers had a big push from their governments. Here, the government is trying, they are inviting buyers from Nordstrom, but I'm not too enthusiastic because these stores want high fashion, and honestly, our image abroad is not yet made.
Q: So, realistically, how many more years of Jakarta Fashion Week before we get on the map?
A: Look, designers are only part of the tools of the industry. Then there are suppliers of fabrics, buttons. These are all businesses that can be developed, but they have to function as one, they have to be integrated. And we must work with the Ministry of Industry. Just look at Hong Kong Fashion Week, that's been going on for 20 years, but they send out invitations a year before the shows!
Here the organizers gave us one month to prepare for Fashion Week -- how can you make a good collection in one month? So the government really has to work, they have to hire professional event organizers, put the project on open tender to people who understand how the industry works. Maybe after five years, the shows will have substance. Now after two years, it's physically a success but, in principle, not yet. If the shows have substance, the sponsors will come.
Q: Why did you yourself get involved in fashion?
A: Well, Indonesia then had 160 million people, and I thought, if only a small percentage of them were interested in fashion, that is still a big market! So I pursued fashion for my own satisfaction but also for my country, so I can give jobs. Look, fashion involves so many people; from cotton farmers, spinners, weavers, dyeing factories, garment manufacturers, button manufacturers, embroiderers.
Artificial
Then, once the clothes are made, you have marketing, advertising people who put the clothes in the magazines and on the catwalks, giving jobs to photographers and choreographers, who sometimes make more money than the models! It's this integration that you don't see. Fashion looks artificial but actually it's an important business.
Q: Since you're so well-versed in business, some people see you as a businesswoman rather than as a designer...
A: Of course some designers likes to make me feel like that! But ask the choreographers, who held the most shows this year, for Texmaco, Bellini, KADIN. Unfortunately fashion is full of people with dirty tricks. For me, to be famous is good, but how you become famous is more important.
Q: How do you see yourself, as a designer or as an entrepreneur?
A: In my life, I have the luck and opportunity to have a few missions. If I'm in KADIN, my mission is to take care of small handicraft businesses. I put APPMI in KADIN so they have opportunities for overseas training. And in KADIN, I can say to the government, those malls charge in U.S. dollars and how can small businesses open shops there? If I'm not in KADIN, they wouldn't listen to me!
If I'm invited to shows as a member of KADIN, I get to sit at the front. If I come as a designer, I sit at the back! The sad fact is that designers aren't appreciated here. So it's a synergy for me. Isn't a designer an entrepreneur anyway? My entire life is garments and cosmetics!
Q: Which of your businesses are the most profitable?
A: Two years ago, I looked at my garment factories and cringed! Now, with the monetary crisis, I'm a small queen! Now I want these factories to expand. And my fashion company is starting to be good. Before it was just to build an image, like a hobby. I think the crisis is a blessing; in a recession, the local industries support the economy. Who gives our workers jobs? Local industries. It's time for Indonesian products to be bought by our people, because we can afford it. It's time to for designers to give supply to that demand, it's time to jump in.
Q: Has being a woman made things more difficult for you as a designer and in business?
A: No. Our obstacles are traditions, but constitutionally we have the same rights as men. And actually women can be more powerful because they are more persevering and exacting. If I have had problems, it's maybe from other women, women who spend their lives comfortably dependent, and find independent women threatening. But these are minor matters, because ultimately what counts is your own performance.