Regular fashion shows help batik house to beat crisis

Regular fashion shows help batik house to beat crisis

By Izabel Deuff

JAKARTA (JP): Picture a backdrop of reddish wood, the top
border of which is finely and intricately carved. A pink and
grass-green batik divan stands in the central recess, above which
hangs a short, red theater curtain. On each side of the stage,
two golden-decorated doors wait for the last model to enter and
exit the stage.

Here she comes, waving an off-white organdy selendang scarf.
The diadem-headed model snakes on the red-carpeted dais in the
wooden and coffered-ceiling room at the Rumah Batik Danar Hadi in
Tebet, South Jakarta.

The burst of applause and the crackling of camera flashes
blankets the swish of her silk garment. A flowery okra
back-slit, knee-high skirt is worn under a loose, wide-sleeved
kebaya, the overly ornamented fringes of which is trimmed with
gold braid.

This outfit closed a sober but appreciated collection by
Stephanus Hami for Batik Danar Hadi. It was the last of 30
outfits modeled last Friday.

"Four years ago, Danar Hadi started producing fashion shows to
promote all of our new products. Every month, each of our
boutiques (in Solo, Jakarta, Medan, Padang, Semarang, Yogyakarta,
Surabaya, Ujungpandang and Bali) puts on a fashion show," said
Syamsidar Isa, Batik Danar Hadi's public relations manager.

Stephanus' collection was divided into two groups. The first
included bi-colored clothes: geometrical camel or maroon designs,
echoed scarves, combined with the brown blouses, while other
outfits played with white-and-black motifs on long, transparent
batik blouses over ebony gowns. Far from clashing, the blouses'
light organdy cloth perfectly balanced the pleated, tight-fitting
skirts.

This series was followed by some ocre-shaded batiks. Stylized
lotus flowers and cashmere designs bloomed on Nehru-collared and
Chinese-buttoned shirts and silk sarongs, the motifs reminiscent
of traditional Javanese patterns.

Chinese-inspired music announced a second trend in the
collection. In contrast to the previously modeled outfits, the
designer favored colorful and flowered batiks in this lineup.

The first models sporting this new trend modeled plain shirts
softening the bright colors of floating chiffon scarves and slick
satin silk sarongs. Both bore the same motif: chrysanthemum and
other rose-like flowers cutting across a diagonally banded parang
pattern. Each motif focused on one color: pistachio green, sky
blue or lilac, whereas the flowers fashioned a garden of lavender
blue, teal green, turquoise, deep red and magenta.

The final outfits were covered with designs as intricate as
their predecessors but were much more subdued in color. A bit
cautious, the designer showed a preference to return to classic
tawny and ecru hues.

These outfits also showed off gold braids, embroidered pearls
and black motifs. Even the shapes of the designs were more
formal: the scooped necklines were cut in a heart shape, with the
borders of each outfit charged with tiny motifs. One played with
the common brown and beige parang motifs from Surakarta (Solo).

The motifs used on the five men's silk shirts, mostly
geometrical except for the last two, were worn with monochrome
dark pants. The fourth shirt was slate-gray, tinged with pink,
green and black large motifs. The beige background of the last
shirt made its black and fallow flowers and birds stand out.

Syamsidar said Batik Danar Hadi offered not only a 10 percent
discount, but served its general customers with door-to-door
service in which products could be delivered to customers' homes.

"Despite the economic collapse ... Indonesian people still
like and buy batiks. Before they perhaps bought imported
products. But now they are choosing local products. It is the
best time to promote the in-house product," said Syamsidar.

The boutique's batik fashion shows are a good way to give
women ideas of how to wear the classics in a contemporary way,
she said.

"Especially for batiks, if they're only hanging, it's not
interesting. But if you show batiks in a fashion show on models,
they look totally different."

Designer Stephanus agreed, saying that he wanted to mix plain
clothes with batiks since everybody did not necessarily like
outfits made of only batik.

Stephanus does not only specialize in designing batiks.
Although he began his career with batiks, he has worked with
jumputan (dyes).

Mindful of the fashionable yet largely cautious public here,
he said he knew designers should not scare away their customers
by being too modern or too extravagant in their creations.

"Customers don't want to change. A lot of Indonesian designers
can make a very innovative collection but after the show, the
potential customers run away. They ask where they can wear those
clothes. They look for clothes they can wear, something formal,"
Stephanus said, adding he preferred to slowly introduce ideas.

"They need something simple, easy to wear, without looking
old-fashioned. But they need some batik," Stephanus said.

Indeed, the strategy seemed to pay off as the audience rushed
after his batiks, priced from Rp 500,000 to Rp 2 million,
immediately after the show.