Fashion students show off but subtle designs steal 1st prize
Fashion students show off but subtle designs steal 1st prize
By Dini S. Djalal
JAKARTA (JP): At the annual Indonesian Designers Contest last
week, sponsored by the Femina group of magazines, technicolor
fashions of dizzying proportions came strutting down the runways.
But even the velour helmets and 5-inch spikes nestling on the
models' heads, not to mention the sequined brassieres, trailing
tuxedos and dalmatian-spotted gowns, could not prise eyes off the
models' feet. Teetering atop 10-inch platforms or elaborate
mules, their wobbly walk made clear that the real show was not
the clothes, but the shoes.
As only a shopaholic can admit: In shoe designers we trust.
Prada pumps are fashion icons, and Gucci sandals set more tongues
wagging than a pair of their hipsters. Today, style is judged not
from head to toe, but from toe to head.
What, then, does this say about the picture-perfect universe
of fashion? Being hip is everything, darling, and you're only as
good as the next cobble-envy you inspire.
Yet with seasonal shows held six months before the clothes
reach the stores, pinning down the Zeitgeist of the future is a
trick even magicians cannot master.
It's even trickier for budding designers. Established fashion
houses can count on loyal clientele, but fashion students have to
scream for attention. It's no wonder, then, that student
collections, from toe to head, are often louder than a lion's
roar.
Yet just as lions love to show off but loathe to work, so a
student's strut may be more sass than substance. What looks good
on the catwalk, for example, may unravel in the closet. A
successful designer must wow the audience and produce the goods
in a professional fashion.
It's this ability to merge trendiness with professionalism
that earned 24-year-old Theodora Primawati the competition's top
prize: Rp 7.5 million (US$3,125) and a return ticket to Paris.
"She knows that a collection should not be overpowering," said
designer and jury Taruna Kusmayadi. "What she took from her
concept, Chinese dress, was not too heavy, and that shows her
maturity," he said.
"She has a very solid knowledge of what she's doing," said Pia
Alisjahbana, owner of the Femina group. Considering her education
at famed Parisian fashion school ESMOD, her assistant teacher job
at the newly-opened ESMOD branch in Jakarta and her dabbling in
retail (under the label Usagani), Theodora has better credentials
than many of her peers.
Indeed, by the time Theodora's designs came on, the audience
wanted more than the strolls down memory lane offered by other
contestants. She did not disappoint.
Inspired by Chen Kaige's film Farewell My Concubine, she sent
models down in cropped satin shirts with Chinese collars, and
full gowns in embroidered raw silk. While some outfits could have
been more flattering -- the trousers, for example, were ill-
fitting -- the rest shone in glorious color.
Taruna added that other fashion students are often less
prudent. "They're all still young, so their creativity is very
explosive. Sometimes they express their ideas too literally,"
said Taruna.
The jury's academic vote, however, was not echoed by the
audience. The Audience Favorite prize was given to 23-year-old
Priyo Oktaviano, whose dalmation-inspired designs left little to
the imagination. Spots, spots, and more spots peppered his mini-
dresses and evening gowns, as well as his top-hats, earrings,
beads, and dog-ear headbands. It may be novel to go to work
dolled up like a mutt, but carnival dressing rarely helps anyone
climb the corporate ladder.
Frivolity was a favorite theme with other contestants. Twenty-
four-year-old Disman Hartono offered aerobics outfits in blinding
citrus colors, miraculously topped with fuzzy helmets.
Technicolor cosmonauts or just pointless? For the evening, short
skirts were slit high to reveal matching underwear -- it was as
gaudy on the Jakarta runway as it was on the Chanel catwalks a
few seasons ago.
Christanto, 24, also offered some bizarre designs. Tailored
long coats, stiff shirts, ties, and waistcoats, were great
individually, but lost their appeal when matched with dangerously
high platforms and white socks. Whatever happened to nineties
minimalism?
There was certainly none in the collections of Marseline
Romario or Ina Indianasary. While established designers were busy
shedding details, Marseline and Ina piled them on and matched
them up. Everything about the seventies clothes (bell-bottoms and
all) was color coordinated -- sunglasses, headbands, shoes, bags,
earrings, contradicting that era's "mismatched" sensibility.
A more haphazard seventies style, meanwhile, walked off with
second prize. Buyung Ego Gunanda, also second-place winner at
last year's show, called his collection Cybercity and used
colorful stripes and knitted bands to symbolize computer cables.
He also incorporated Japanese Kanji letters proclaiming "love and
peace". All the designs were different -- some may interpret this
as expressing individuality, others may judge it as incoherent.
In contrast, third-place Yunita Harun had a razor-sharp focus.
And at 20, her ideas were very impressive. Yunita called her
ensembles New Romantics and she was not exaggerating. Using a
brilliant mixture of knits, pleats, tiers, and bold black-and-
white contrasts, Yunita assembled silhouettes which were at once
structural and soft, monastic and sexy. Asymmetry, whether as
one-shouldered bodices, cutaway gowns or wedge shoes, helped her
express her grand ideas on propriety and bohemianism, the latter
symbolized by cloth spikes sticking out of the models' hair. Some
of the clothes may be unwearable, but in terms of individuality,
they were genius.
Pia described Yunita's collection as a "challenge". "But
that's okay, you know, it's something new," she said.
Pia added that competitions, however many, are good training
grounds for fashion students, even if they may not offer great
returns. "It gives them an opportunity to show their clothes. And
it's good for their resume."