Failing to dress to impress
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.
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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imposing and outdated, when they could and should have been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."