Ex-model steps out into shoe business

By Agni Amorita

JAKARTA (JP): A successful modeling career is the dream of many young girls. But Auk Murat said goodbye to modeling when she was at the peak of her career. She decided to go into shoe designing in what she herself describes as a "long story".

Although her modeling career was brief, she had already made a name for herself. She was crowned the best model in the country and received the Rahadian Yamin Award for modeling in 1987 at the age of 17. She realized that modeling success would inevitably be shortlived.

"After becoming a professional model, I realized that I was moving in a very small world," she says. "I'm talking of physical and mental restrictions, because one's skin and figure become vulnerable to change as we grow older."

She believed remaining in the fashion business would be the best place for her due to her existing connections within the Jakarta fashion scene. She saw opportunities in shoe design.

"In 1989, I observed that fashionable shoes for women were still missing from the scene," she said at her showroom on Jl. Ciragil in South Jakarta which is decorated in a rainbow of colors and lined with shelves of the latest shoe styles.

"At that time, what we had were casual shoes, which were in mass production. We couldn't find any fashionable shoes to wear along with couture evening gowns. That's why I decided to go for it."

Auk's name is today synonymous with fashionable women's shoes, but she had qualms when she started out in the business.

"It was a new field since there were no other designers. I held a marketing test first. The market grew and this meant there was demand for my product."

The marketing test lasted for two years and was conducted as a person-to-person sales effort.

"When consumer trust was established, I abandoned the first method of subcontracting shoemakers. I set up my own office and opened a home industry. I started out with three staff members but I now have 12 employees who supply the shoes to five outlets."

Auk's handmade shoes are also sold in the Seibu department store and several stores in Kuningan and Kemang. She produces 80 pairs of shoes a week. A maximum of 15 pairs are made of a specific model. She uses local leather, local imitation leather and textiles, but the raw material, such as the carton, is imported from France and the heels from Taiwan. Her collection ranges in price from Rp 95,000 to Rp 295,000 a pair.

"What is special about my shoes is its selective models, limited numbers and ultimate fashion trend," she said.

She designs herself all the shoes, which always feature open heels.

"I learned from doing. I look closely at the anatomy of the wearers. I keep on improving my drawing technique, sharpening my intuition and the feel of my art."

In the beginning, she marketed her shoes to her model friends only. Now Auk's customers include wives of government officials, career women and schoolchildren.

She chooses to describe herself as a "shoe artist" instead of as a businesswoman running a home industry. The success of her career has come at the expense of one of her youthful ambitions to become a lawyer.

"I had to make a very difficult decision, to study or to go in the business," said the former law student of Tarumanegara University.

"I was already in the second year of university when I got carried away in modeling activities. There were often four shows in one day, either out-of-town shows and international shows. After an absence from academics, I was certain that my future was in the world of fashion. So I said goodbye to university life."

Her family was shocked by the decision. "My father, who was a legal consultant, was especially concerned about education. I was like a "destroyer" in my family. But it all depends on how we prove ourselves, and how consistent we are."

Her family has now come to accept her involvement in the business, and her father has even permitted the use of the family home for the shoe operations.

Tennis

Auk, whose real name is Sasanti Paramita Rahayu, was born in Jakarta on June 26, 1970.

Auk toyed with the idea of becoming a tennis player during adolescence and made other career detours before becoming a designer.

"I was among the best 16 junior players of Indonesia. I won several times in the girl's doubles tournaments and I became one of the foremost athletes in West Jakarta. At that time, I was exercising five times a week from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m."

Auk joined the Mercubuana club, owned by businessman Probosutedjo, who discovered tennis players Yayuk Basuki and Wailan Walalangi.

"My life has indeed been quite colorful. When I was a small girl I was active in Javanese and Balinese dancing, I joined a theater group, and I became an actress too."

She acted in the film Bibir Merah (Red Lips) directed by the late film director Arifin C. Noer, which won her a nomination for best supporting actress in the Indonesian Film Festival 1991.

She received awards as the most promising poetry reader of Jakarta, earned a reputation as a comedy actress because of the TV serials Dongeng Langit (Tale from the Sky) and Hari Hari Mau.

Auk's motto in life is to improve and maintain balance. "This motto stems from my character as a woman who expects to have a family of her own one day," said Auk, who has an Australian boyfriend.

"Whatever my future ambitions are, I always connect them to this motto of balance. We all have some plan and a target in future like I do, but I do not want to bit more than I could chew. "

Of all the targets she set in her life, the shoe project has come to fruition. She is now heading for the second target of establishing a children's party organizer firm under the name Bocah (Kids).

Bocah has not been established for business alone but also to recapture some of the childhood fun she missed out on during her modeling career.

"And I still miss my childhood days. Aside from that, I like to be with children. I love children. I want to realize an old idea of mine with the establishment of Bocah," said Auk.

"The business aspects of this new venture are also good. The kids' world has not been fully explored yet, particularly in the field of child entertainment. I plan to combine the entertainment world with child education. For instance, there will be performances where children play an active part to entertain their friends and to strengthen their sense of independence."

Auk has another target for next year.

"I've started the preparations, little by little," she said while fixing the long hair which was her trademark in modeling. "I am going into the adventure tourism services. This field has great potential in our country. Ah, I like keep on moving and moving."