Int'l Bali Fashion Week promotes local designers

Rita A. Widiadana The Jakarta Post Kuta, Bali

The third Bali International Fashion Week, held from May 13 through to May 16, showed its class, attracting prominent local and national figures in the fashion business.

This year, the festival took place at the Discovery-Kartika Plaza Hotel in the holiday resort of Kuta.

Initiated by designer Mardina Ika, the fashion week is meant as a bridge between designers, garment companies and their potential buyers.

"We have been building the bridge, but there is still a long way to go before it is fully complete," Ika said.

Pia Alisyahbana, a senior fashion observer and owner of prominent women's and fashion magazine Femina, noted that the Indonesian fashion industry has been flourishing over the last 20 years.

"But, we need to join forces to create a world-class fashion industry," said Pia, a pioneer in the development of the Indonesian fashion industry.

This fashion week featured 81 booths showcasing a vast range of fashion-related items, including clothes, textiles, jewelry, leather products.

Senior designers, such as Poppy Dharsono, Musa Widiatmodjo, Afif Syakur, Kanaya Tabhita and Etty Bacheta were among those participating at the event. A number of young newcomers like Dwi Iskandar from D&T Lifestyle, Sandriyanto, Yenli Wijaya also took part, so were leading garment and jewelry companies like Tini's Collections and Runa Silver Jewelry.

"This is amazing. Last year, only 31 booths took part in the event," said Musa, who closely observed Bali Fashion Week.

The event also featured open discussions on the fashion industry, e-commerce and the future of the fashion industry for the public and the media.

Addressing the seminars were Musa, who is also chairman of the Indonesian Fashion Designers' Association (APPMI), and Adrianto Gani, Microsoft's regional director and managing director of Inti Media. They discussed the importance of e-commerce in the fashion industry.

The presentation of the fashion awards, sponsored by FTV- Original and Moet & Chandon, was widely seen as a positive event to encourage local fashion talent.