Failing to dress to impress
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
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Aside from checking out the audience for the local fashionista's desperate bids at oneupwomanship in the style quotient department, the 19th trend show presented by the Indonesian Association of Fashion Designers (IPMI) last week was nothing to get excited about. --------------------------------------
The Mercedes Benz Indonesian Fashion Festival, the first sponsored by the automaker as part of its global fashion commitment, promised much, with several of the 16 designers boasting strong, experienced pedigrees.
Despite a few standout shows by young designers, however, the general impression was uninspiring, and certainly no harbinger of what sartorially minded urbanites will be wearing any time soon.
Take Sebastian Gunawan, who along with Italian-born wife Cristina Panarese, presented his ready-to-wear label Votum.
Themed Flare de Fleur, the collection had no strong unifying theme and fizzled on the whole.
Layered miniskirts in nude color and the black asymmetrical ruffled skirt were among its interesting creations. The floral motif, dominated by lime green, was also quite fresh and light.
But there was nothing daring here: the baby doll, lace, empire line waist, we've seen it all before. Even worse, some of the designs suffered from untidy cutting and finishing.
The same was also true for Chossy Latu, whose collection was dominated by gowns and apparel for formal wear.
Focused on lace, paillettes, with the occasional fringe, the designs were undistinctive, and again they appeared to have poor cutting.
The collection of Ghea Panggabean, who made her name in the 1980s with tie dye and other ethnic-inspired collections, was not much better.
It said safe, clean and bland, most notable for its white kebaya encim lace applied on retro '50s skirts and jackets.
The Javanese batik and motif prints, meanwhile, were too imposing and outdated, when they could and should have been subtle and fresh.
The exceptions to the otherwise mundane collections were a resurgent Oscar Lawalatta, Urban Crew by Era Soekamto and Ichwan Thoha and Denny Wirawan.
Oscar has bounced back after a period of celebrity-dom when he seemed to have sunk into believing in his own hype. After his early promise, he came up with calamitous designs marked by lackluster creativity and shoddy cut and finishing.
He obviously has learned more about his craft and is improving, presenting designs for his OscarOscar ready-to-wear label that are more mature but intricate, casual but elegant and, most importantly, wearable.
Dominated by black, Oscar mixed jersey with chiffon or tulle, as in a tank top knitted with a handkerchief skirt. A highlight of his collection was the white miniskirt (doubling as a pair of shorts), and balloon dress.
Aside from black and white, there were a few variations in candy colors (peach, yellow, baby blue) in sack dresses. An interesting detail was the hen embroidery, a row of paillette on jersey material, and also tie dye, harking back to his previous designs.
The Urban Crew duo, meanwhile, had a strong concept and theme, and shows that it is very in tune with its young market.
With a beach holiday as the main theme, the label took inspiration from the 1970s' fun in the sun look, with a hippie floral dress, denim and modifications of cargo pants.
It was marked by faded hues, like pink, khaki and baby blue, but with splashes of bright colors.
Details included layers, stripes and fruit motifs. All in all, it was not strictly original (but then what in fashion is?), and there were some miscalculations in the choice of material, but its freshness shone through.
Concluding the two days of collections on Thursday was up and coming designer Denny Wirawan.
Surprisingly, after his previous ethnic-themed designs, he came up with an electric collection that revived the flower power generation, rock 'n' roll and disco glam but in his own style.
Bell bottoms, washed denim jackets and fringes were huge. Paisley embroidery was carefully made, with a clean cut, feminine yet strong silhouette.
Highlights included quilted jackets with a floral motif in caramel and tobacco, a hippie flowing dress with optical motifs and a gold fringed hula dress.
As for identifying a trend from all the collection, it must be that the ultrafeminine style will continue to rule, with the flowing light dress, floral motifs and lace. The bolero jacket also made a frequent appearance, with white and pastel the prominent colors.
It's also clear that designers are focused on the ready-to- wear market, with evening dresses no longer dominating the collections.
According to fashion writer and stylist Muara Bagdja, who was part of the festival's organizing committee, the designers seemed more prepared and came up with better technique and construction than last year.
"This is a good thing so that we can compete with ready-to- wear collections from China, Korea and Thailand, which dominate the market because of their competitive price and good quality. It's been too bad, because we've had all the potential here," he said.
Local designers must keep learning their craft, so there will be no more embarrassing examples of poorly cut and finished creations from name designers.
"Because sewing and tailoring techniques keep improving," Muara noted. "Therefore, designers need to continue upgrading themselves."