Simple lines setting style
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
What do you get when you cross an engineer with a clothing designer?
A clothing line with a strong sense of geometrical precision -- at least, that is the case with engineer-turned-designer Nuniek Mawardi and her line of Muslim clothes.
Taking inspiration from architecture and the colors of building materials, the finalist in the 1977 Miss Indonesia beauty pageant creates designs that are distinctly geometrical.
For example, mixing a simple straight tunic dress with a modified version of a blazer, Nuniek creates a chic yet conservative two-piece Muslim dress appropriate for formal parties.
"My designs are for active, dynamic women to wear on formal occasions," Nuniek said recently.
Two-piece dresses are her favorite and she lets her imagination loose when designing the outer dresses, with horizontal or vertical lines predominating.
"I guess it's the influence of my background. I'm from civil engineering and my husband's an electrical engineer," Nuniek said, adding that designing clothes had been a hobby way back in junior high school.
Nuniek's choice of colors also reflects her civil engineering background, as she prefers subdued colors to bright, flashy ones.
"I get inspiration from earthy colors, the red of bricks, of rocks. Rocks are not necessarily gray, you know," she said.
Nuniek also combines different kinds of materials in her designs, often using leather with gabardine wool or raw silk to create what she calls an "androgynous" or masculine-style dress.
Early in her career, Nuniek chose to design clothes for the working woman, such as blazers and two-piece dresses.
"But Muslim clothing at the time was so plain, and I found that I could come up with creative ideas for creating something new from that basic design," she said.
Muslim fashion has become a major industry in recent years, with many public figures and celebrities choosing to wear Muslim dress that is both modish and modest.
Nuniek acknowledged that she chose designing over a career in engineering mainly because of a promise she made to her husband that she would not work outside the home.
Her designs are now found as far afield as Malaysia. "I asked a friend to take my designs to Malaysia, and I'm really glad to find that they liked them," Nuniek said, adding that besides Bandung, her designs could also be found at Pasaraya department store in Blok M, South Jakarta, and in Surabaya.
In Bandung, her designs are found at her home and studio at Jl. Griya Utara, and will soon be showcased at a new boutique.
The prices of her dresses range from Rp 500,000 (about US$47) to as high as Rp 3 million.