Oscar Lawalata making strides in fashion world

Oscar Lawalata making strides in fashion world

By Chris Brummitt

JAKARTA (JP): Tall, skinny and wearing an orange cotton blouse
with matching scarf, black velvet jacket and dark-blue flared
jeans, clothing designer Oscar Lawalata turns heads as he walks
quickly through Tuesday's lunchtime crowds in Plaza Senayan.

Suddenly, a woman rushes up to greet him (kisses on both
cheeks, dramatic hugs) rips off his jacket and tries it on. Two
minutes later she slips him Rp 300,000 as a down payment on a
similar jacket, only smaller. An incident that confirms what all
the evidence, anecdotal and otherwise, suggests: here is a 22-
year-old man doing something right.

When asked about the secret of this success he answers
straightaway and only half-jokingly: "Me".

His trademarks are on display in his collection on sale at the
Sogo department store. Natural fibers combine with manmade ones,
Southeast Asian influences with the latest from the fashion
houses of Europe. There are men's party shirts with pockets where
you wouldn't expect them; skimpy female tops in exotic materials;
and flowing dresses with kimono-inspired cummerbunds, lacey trims
and matching jackets. "I always present something simple, yet
with a new or different flourish," he says.

Oscar works out of a two-story house in Kebayoran Baru, South
Jakarta, the interior of which he designed himself. His team of
tailors occupies the ground floor. The second has a skylight
running the length of the ceiling, white walls and is where his
assistant works and limited retail activities take place. To one
side is his design area, which is also bright and white, and
aside from a large desk at one end, there is little cluttering
its minimalism.

His skin is strikingly pale, candle-white is how someone
described it, which he puts down to an exotic lineage of
Ambonese-Javanese-Manadoese. At the age of three he moved to
Jakarta, where he has lived ever since. Two years later his
father left his mother, the comedy actress Reggie Lawalata, him
and his brother, and Oscar has only seen him once since.

He dropped out of a Jakarta fashion school after one and half
years, using the money he would have spent on course fees as the
investment to start his own fashion house. Making clothes for
friends led to orders from video producers and artists and then
the public at large.

Coming second in an international design competition in
Singapore last year confirmed his growing reputation, something
he concedes is important in the fickle world of fashion, though
he says: "If you are yourself then your reputation comes
automatically".

When he speaks, it is in a very soft, almost delicate way. He
confesses that when at school he was often the victim of
playground taunts that made him quiet and shy -- traits that are
still evident today.

How do the clothes get designed? "The customer comes to me and
tells me what he or she wants -- dynamic or sexy or whatever.
After that, the design is up to me. I sit in my room and wait for
inspiration. My only provision is that I have to see the material
first."

He said his inspiration came jointly from foreign magazines,
designers and Indonesian ethnic dress; his prize-winning design
in Singapore was based on the traditional South Sulawesi bodo
motif. At the moment he reckons the balance between the two lies
at "70 percent foreign, 30 percent local", a figure that "will
maybe change, though it will take some time".

He is not one to kowtow to the whims of pretentious and self-
important artists. "I can't suck up to them and am no good at
small talk, even though my mum tells me I have to." His business
has reached the stage where he can say to people: "If you want
it, buy it. If you don't, don't."

He's not really involved in the business side of his two
labels, OscarOscar and OscarLawalata, and is unable to answer how
much money either makes. "My mum is my accountant," he says. The
monetary crisis has had an effect upon it -- though not on demand
however, which keeps on rising, but on the cost of materials.

In his resume he writes that his "Future Plan" is to bring
"Indonesia's name in the fashion world industry (sic) through her
richness in cultural diversity which has not been well exposed
and developed yet." An ambition that seems at odds with his
confession when looking around his studio that "whatever I ever
wanted I have already."

He continues, "I am bored with Jakarta. I know everything so
there is no challenge left anymore." He mulls the ideas of going
to India to look for materials or starting college somewhere as
possible remedies. Failing that he says he will "just go with the
flow".

For the record, his tips for this season are "natural fibers
with 1970s hippy styles and a bit of disco. There has defiantly
been a move away from all the silver high-tech millennium stuff.
And be yourself." And he has some good news for people wanting to
look presentable for less than Rp 100,000. "Just choose some
materials and go to a street-side tailor." Though it comes with a
catch: "Of course, you have to be able to choose what would look
good and where".