Welly does hit bit for a worthy cause

Welly does hit bit for a worthy cause

By Bruce Emond

JAKARTA (JP): Far from his Toronto home, Indonesian designer
Welly Kurniawan's creations are getting a showing on catwalks
from Russia to South Africa.

He has been involved for the past 15 years with Fashion Cares,
which raises funds for AIDS research by holding fashion shows
around the world. Two of his designs have been part of the
collections chosen and shown by the main sponsor, MAC Cosmetics,
in cities worldwide in 2000 and 2001, and one of them is featured
in the October issue of Hong Kong ELLE.

On a recent week-long visit to Jakarta, Welly, 44, said he was
proud to be the only Indonesian designer involved in the cause.

"I've been part of it from the beginning, when we were only
working out of clubs. But for the last three years, they keep the
clothes and take them all around the world, and do them with
local designers, doing the same show."

He said he became involved because he saw many of his friends
dying of the disease after it was first diagnosed among gay men
in the U.S. in the early 1980s. With the fashion and arts
community hit particularly hard by the disease (American
designers Halston and Willi Smith, as well as makeup artist Way
Bandy, are among those who have died from AIDS), Fashion Cares
was one of its first fund-raising efforts.

The "gay" association made Fashion Cares a hard sell during
its first years, but some high-profile people with AIDS and HIV,
famous AIDS advocates like Elizabeth Taylor and public education
campaigns that the syndrome does not discriminate based on sexual
orientation have done a lot to change all that.

Ten years ago, Welly said wryly, it was hard to get corporate
sponsors to give Fashion Cares the time of day. Today, they are
the ones calling to be part of the show.

"I think, now, people realize this is not one group's problem,
but everybody's problem. And I find it very rewarding, because,
you know, you're helping somebody. Now every fashion show I do
involves charity, I don't do it just for the fashion ... "

Working with a group provided a more concerted effort, he
said, because "personally you can never do enough. But one more
person in a group makes a difference".

Fashion start

Welly said he loved fashion from the time he was small,
growing up surrounded by his mother and three sisters (he also
has a brother who is nine years younger).

"I grew up in a family with a lot of females, and somehow I
was always involved in helping them on how to dress. I would
design, and give them suggestions, 'How about if we do it this
way'."

He was originally set for a career in architecture, but then
changed to his real love of fashion design, studying at George
Brown College in Toronto in the mid-1970s.

After graduating he stayed on in Canada, opening his couture
business and later moving on to wardrobe, designing a total
season of clothes, from business suits to evening gowns, for
clients. His elegant, extravagant designs -- "I get my
inspiration from my clients" -- each cost about C$2,000 (about
US$1,350).

"Every season they come in, and say, 'this season I have this
and this coming up, and I need this many suits per season', and I
have to design for them, so it's like wardrobe coordinating for
them at the same time," said Welly.

"I find that more challenging (compared to mass designing),
because you cannot do the same thing, but you have to do
something to fit the person, and you have to make sure you don't
repeat yourself ... it's a very personal basis."

Welly said his clientele, which includes a Canadian
legislator, were not brand-minded.

"They don't need to show people how much they spend, whether
they spend more or less than their label, they want to be
themselves. They want to walk in a room, and they don't want to
see someone sitting there wearing the same thing."

For now, although he does not have any plans to return to live
in Indonesia, Welly would like to explore the possibility of
having Fashion Cares in his homeland.

"I'm going to start slowly making connections with designers
here, and maybe I could get a couple of Canadian designers who
would be interested in coming to Indonesia for it ... AIDS is
everybody's problem -- mothers, wives, husbands, children -- but
it might take a while for Indonesia to wake up to it."