What they think about Indonesian fashion

JAKARTA (JP): During Jakarta's first Fashion Week, unfamiliar faces sat front-row center at the shows. Many were fashion journalists from overseas newspapers and magazines, including Vogue Singapore, Italy's Collezioni, Elle South Africa, and Germany's Badische Beitung. Some were first-time visitors, others had come back to Indonesia to follow up on developments in Indonesia's fashion industry.

What were their opinions of Indonesian fashion? Do they feel Indonesia can compete in the domestic, regional and international arenas? What are the problems facing the industry, and what can be done to overcome them?

Dion Chang, Elle South Africa: "It's great to have a Fashion Week, but it's bizarre to have the split between the two designer associations, and this is a problem.

Also, after talking to some designers and observers, it seems that there isn't yet an Indonesian style. They say the clothes are either copies of European collections or too ethnic for the local market.

Another problem is that the parties involved are looking at it from an economic and not a creative perspective. They know that they can use the raw materials, as in the batik traditions, and the synthetic fabrics which the local textile industry produces. They are looking at the fashion industry as a source of jobs, not as a channel for creativity.

However, I agree that it is good to have these shows in order to get the youth interested in fashion, to open opportunities for them. It's also encouraging that some designers are blending the modern and the ethnic in their collections. Designers should take global trends and adapt them to local traditions."

Sandra Djajadisastra, Badische Beitung, Germany: "My overall impression is that the shows were half-professional, and half like the designers were just having fun with the clothes. Some of the collections seemed hastily put together, as if they decided too late to join the show.

The best collections were those with beautiful traditional textiles, like Ghea Panggabean, Poppy Dharsono, and Biyan, but in a European style. But some collections were very American. It's not something I would buy, although I'm sure other people like it."

Simimona Melegari, Collezioni, Italy:

"It's difficult to make one impression because I have seen so many designers this week!

Overall, however, the clothes were great, because Indonesia has such a wonderful tradition of beautiful textiles. But because I am European and there is a distance in taste, I prefer the designers with clean lines but beautiful fabrics. I saw in some collections an interesting mixture of trendy and traditional.

But there is also still so much to do. The designers need to do more research. The materials are good resources but they need to work on them in terms of style and finishing. You can see in some collections that, when the designer is not using traditional fabrics, the clothes do not look like good quality."

--Dini S. Djalal