Rika puts her stamp on evening wear

Rika puts her stamp on evening wear

Muara Bagdja, Contributor, Jakarta

Rika Sulaiman knows that, like it or not, fashion designers cannot let their designs speak for themselves. Sooner or later, they have to grab the public's attention and put a face to their brand.

After eight years of designing from her studio, Rika presented her debut collection at a five-star hotel in Central Jakarta last month. It was not the usual reception for a first-time collection, with the regular band of fashion hacks and a couple of friends making up the audience.

Instead, about 700 people, including many longtime customers and journalists, showed up, with some forced to stand due to a lack of seats.

She deserved to feel pleased by the success of the show, which featured three wedding dresses among the 67 designs.

The imposing decoration of the catwalk, including gold pillars flanking a gold backdrop, the glamourous collection and the audience gave the designer the strong image and firm footing she needed in taking her designs to a larger market.

The designs were dominated by body-hugging, but elegant evening gowns cut in the style of a mermaid. They were sexily cut and designed to catch the attention of onlookers, using a variety of colors and embroidered decorations taken from nature, such as butterflies, plants, peacocks and fish.

Accessories were kept to a minimum of chokers and dangling earrings, to accentuate the dresses.

The intended wearers? Mature women from the upper income bracket.

"Anywhere she is, a woman craves to be the center of attention. So, my eye-catching designs for evening gowns allow a woman to make her wish come true," she said.

Glamorous evening gowns are found virtually everywhere now, so there was an inevitable touch of "seen this before" about the collection. There is also no denying that Rika knows what she is doing, and has already attracted a loyal following.

"Two days after the show, I had 20 orders for these gowns," Rika said. "(Singer) Ruth Sahanaya has also ordered one. Then an Indonesian singer who will compete in a competition in Kazakhstan has also decided to wear a dress that I designed. I have also received an offer for other designs," she said.

Born in Jakarta 33 years ago, Rika began sketching dresses when she was only four years old.

"In the classroom, she kept on drawing and sometimes paid no attention to the lessons. When we had a test, she would copy my answers," joked popular emcee Becky Tumewu, who was Rika's elementary school classmate.

Today, Becky and TV show host Indi Barends are among Rika's regular customers

Her childhood love of fashion led to her studying at SMODIA, a fashion design school. In 1987 she enrolled in another fashion design school, Susan Budihardjo Fashion Designing Institute. As she was not satisfied with the European designs that she had learned in these two fashion schools, she also studied at the Tokyo Dressmaking School to learn the Japanese style.

Rika remained drawn to fashion design even after she got married. In 1995 she began to run her own business but considered it more of a hobby, receiving orders from close friends and relatives.

Word of mouth spread the news about her designs. At first she focused on designing casual and business dresses, but by 1998 she was designing evening, party and wedding gowns.

She has an interesting approach to designing, making both a sketch of the design and a sample dress so that the customer can see how the design appears.

"Usually, a customer cannot imagine the dress too much from a sketch; that's why I make the sample. Then my customer may ask me to make changes here and there to suit her wishes," she said.

In a week she makes at least two dresses for herself, calling herself "totally addicted".

Rika is content that her childhood ambition has come true.

"For me, there is no greater satisfaction than making a dress. I'm really satisfied," she said.