Nelwan Anwar's clothes revel in a golden opulence

By Parvathi Nayar Narayan

JAKARTA (JP): Nelwan Anwar is a fashion designer who believes in the creation of exclusive designs for exclusive people. The collection of 120 outfits unveiled at a recent fashion show at the Hotel Shangri-La, Jakarta, revealed his trademark love of ornamentation. The fabrics were richly worked, some of them in all-over gold thread. The reason he gets away with such opulence is that the basic styles of his clothes are simple. He sticks to classic lines rather than current fashion.

The first segment of the fashion show displayed elaborately worked skirt suits. Essentially short, some skimmed knees or just covered them. The slim-cut skirts had slits at the sides or back, the jackets were left open to reveal a matching or contrasting tunic. Typically with heavy gold work covering the shoulders and upper arms of the jacket, and lighter work elsewhere, these shimmery suits were definitely not daytime wear.

Some suits veered towards the overly elaborate. This robbed the embroidery of its overall impact, seen to such good effect in the ensembles that followed. These were plain sheath dresses combined with embroidered jackets. The deep blue sheath in crinkly fabric matched with a gold-worked jacket, also in blue, with an interesting woven border in red, yellow, turquoise and black, for example, was very striking.

Actually, the colors dominating the show were the cobalt blues, emeralds and lime greens, the burnt reds and purples. In most of the fabrics the colors were shot through with a thread of black, typical of the geometrically patterned ikat weave.

The menswear was far less interesting than the women's clothing. It ranged from traditional shirts to ikat jackets. The latter's wearability seemed a bit dubious with the vivid ikat weaves, sleeves of different colors and shiny buttons. Certainly, the most interesting offerings for the men were the mid-calf- length caftans. These African-inspired caftans had a square panel of geometric embroidery in front, full sleeves and a general air of smart comfort.

The embroidery and fabric also came together well in layered clothing for women. This included a minuscule array of pastels where black was completely absent - bulky coats embroidered in pastels (pinks, greens, blues) over plain shift dresses in apricot, lemon and a rather startling pink.

There were gorgeous blouses in lovely shades of lime and pink with full ruched sleeves worn over sheaths. Delicate gold embroidery added a dressy touch to hemline, sleeves and neck. There were several variations on this theme. Sometimes, though, when the worked jacket was teamed with a skirt that was also heavily patterned and embroidered, and a sequined tunic, the effect was just too ornate.

The more understated ensembles allowed the focus to remain on the really dramatic overblouses. Some of them had embroidery in just a single color, cobalt or red or purple, without gold; the result was a look both more contemporary and extremely wearable.

Favorite embroidery motifs were fish, arabesques, curlicues, ropes and tassels in various permutations and combinations. Sometimes the embroidery was very heavy, a definite opaque motif worked over the fabric. The 'supporting' embroidery in such cases was lighter and worked so as to harmonize and subtly emphasize details of the ikat weave.

Towards the latter half of the show there was a display of dresses in plain white and plain black. Crinkly lengths of cloth worn as stoles seemed de rigeur with these evening dresses.

A white sheath dress with gold embroidery, for instance, had a stole with elaborate and fanciful cut work done on the edges to match.

Overlong heavy fringes with the fabric in wide strips was one of the definitive, if slightly overused, detailing on the black dresses. Other black dresses sported layers of folded and wrapped chiffon over the basic slinky sheath shape. Hemlines were very often uneven, pointed in front and raised higher or slit at the back. These sported silver embroidery in ethnic designs.

There was also evening-wear inspired and based on the sarong kebaya. The upper garments were reminiscent of a skirted coat shape, usually heavily worked so that they stood out stiffly. And again their hemlines were rarely uniform, but straight at the back and worked to a point in front.

Before the bridal finale -- gauzy layered white with golden embroidery -- was an array of pleated floor-length skirted outfits. The drama of the clothes was enhanced with some rather outrageous turbans as headgear. The models twirling in them looked like a row of whirling dervishes in an array of colors, pale gold, coffee, and blues. Particularly attractive was a deep aqua with a contrasting embroidered jacket in burnt red with touches of aqua and gold.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post, Anwar outlined the creative process by which his outfits, like those showcased on the catwalk, are created. The process begins, logically, with the idea for a dress, taking into account its wearability and comfort. The design is then put down as a fashion illustration. It is on the basis of these illustrations that Anwar's regular customers order from him.

Next Anwar designs the ikat fabric that the dress will be made from, specifying the colors, usually earth colors. For clothing textiles he uses only natural fibers, silk, cotton - and sometimes even banana or pineapple fibers. This design is then farmed out to the small weaving centers the designer uses, either in Sulawesi, Central Java or Bandung.

Only ten metres of each design is woven, from which a maximum of three dresses can be made. "But the character and design of each is different - no two dresses are the same," he says.The material is cut for the intricate embroidery, done by machine at slow speed - this is his distinctive touch.

A dress can take around one month from the first design to the finished product, being so labor-intensive. In terms of price, the clothes range from Rp 125,000 to Rp 1,200,000. Wedding dresses can cost as much as Rp 5,000,000. They can be found only in Anwar's studio in Jakarta, not from department stores.

Nelwan Anwar graduated from the Jakarta Institute of Art, 1986, the year he won second prize at the Young Designer of Indonesia awards. He has been working as a designer ever since. But his creativity can be traced back to his childhood among the weaving community in Bugis, South Sulawesi.

The weavers he grew up with were only interested in traditional processes. But Anwar wanted to be different - he wanted to create new fabrics in limited quantities which would increase their exclusivity. The realization of this dream was seen in the clothes on display at the recent show in Jakarta.

Anwar makes clothes that are unabashedly opulent and romantic. His clothes are not casual wear and probably not for everyone - the sheer wealth of color and gold would swamp many wearers. Of course, there are possibilities for mixing and matching: the entire coordinated outfit for that dress-up-and-be-noticed occasion, or just the jacket to add glamour to a simpler outfit for a simpler occasion.

Despite the unique nature of each outfit, some are not particularly distinctive; the weaves and the embroidery motifs are variations on a few similar themes, as he himself admits. Still, when the various elements of Anwar's work come together -- the basic silhouette, the fabric design and color, and embroidery -- the result is an ideal candidate for that "special dress" niche in one's wardrobe.