Get London for success

Get London for success

Syahmedi Dean, Contributor/Jakarta

Only a few local people in a big city like Jakarta can readily
mention the names of fashion designers or fashion brand names
from London. To change all that, the British Embassy in Jakarta
and Glamour Inc. have brought ten young fashion designers from
London to be introduced in Jakarta.

Why are British designers yet to be the leaders in the
international fashion arena? In fact, the British Fashion Council
has since 1983 held the biannual London Fashion Week, in which
international fashion editors are invited to Britain.
Unfortunately, there is yet to be a fashion designer from London
that is a household name for ordinary people here; in the same
way as the names Prada, Versace and Giorgio Armani from Milan or
Chanel, Dior, YSL and Louis Vuitton from Paris roll of the
tongue. On the other hand, London celebrities expected to be able
to jack up London's reputation in the fashion world seem to lean
more to Italian designers. Victoria Beckham and Naomi Campbell,
for example, are very fond of Dolce & Gabanna, while Elizabeth
Hurley often dons dresses designed by Versace. Then Britain's No.
1 celebrity, Kate Moss, has enjoyed greater fame because her
clothing comes from Christian Dior, a fashion house in Paris. All
this means that British designers have failed to make it to
center stage of the fashion business.

Indeed, there are some quite famous names on the list of "the
London's kids" such as John Galliano, Stella McCartney, Alexander
McQueen and Matthew Williamson, but they have all left London to
make a career as prestigious designers in Paris or New York. They
have made news in the fashion media. The achievement made by
these four London designers shows that Britain actually has its
own significant contribution to the success of super famous
fashion brands.

Therefore, a consistent promotional event must be held to
ensure that there will be regeneration with British fashion
designers or prevent John Galliano and Alexander McQueen from
being the last British citizens that have enjoyed fame in the
world's fashion arena. Hence, the British government's intensive
efforts to introduce other new designers to fashion lovers. One
of these efforts is to organize the Best of British (BOB) Trunk
Exhibition, the result of cooperation between the trade section
of the British Embassy and Glamour Inc., an event organizer from
London. BOB presents the works of ten British potential designers
in a trunk show, or a presentation in a limited space. These
young designers are Ana Mika, Aei Kei, Ashley Isham, Body Amr,
Belle & Bunty, Harriets Muse, Mr. & Mrs. Macleod, Manish Arora,
Fab & Joe, Pazuki and Soniya Mirchandani.

"These are famous names in London's fashion circle. They have
a lot of experience working in a number of fashion houses in
Paris and they may hope to be great designers in the future. They
have gained recognition for their ideas to trigger a new fashion
trend," said Nin Choong-Wilkins, the BOB coordinator, about the
designers presented this time. Nin appeared alone during the
presentation without the presence of a trade section officer from
the British Embassy.

The works of these ten designers in this BOB looked safe and
polite. Body Amr's design, for example, gave a total feminine and
decent look despite an attempt to appear sexy. Then the design
under the label of Belle & Bunty, which stole attention as it was
made of a fabric with a colorful abstract floral motif, was quite
modest as summer dress gowns usually go. The collection of these
ten designers gave a slowing down impression compared with the
works of British designers in general, which, aside from being
usually experimental in nature with a strong street look and pop
culture impression, can usually succeed in turning an extreme
fantasy into reality.

The BOB presentation was held at the Mulia Hotel in Jakarta on
Oct. 21. Later the presentation will go to Singapore, Bangkok and
Taiwan. This presentation could actually be quite an interesting
opportunity and the right moment for the Indonesian media to get
acquainted with British fashion designers. Unfortunately,
contrary to what was promised in the invitation to the media, not
a single BOB designer was present during the presentation. In
fact, one of the reasons why reporters came to the presentation
was to meet and interview these BOB designers.