Jakarta Fashion Week

CEBU, Philippines - Jakarta Fashion Week was in full swing, and the mega tent installed at Senayan City, the venue for the show, was bewilderingly abuzz with activity. A squadron of photographers bombard a beautiful model.  Ladies who lunch sweep by in full battle gear, coiffure and jewelry armor in all the right places, and situated even where they shouldn't be.  Press conferences galore and ambush interviews are staged, as various celebrities and personalities make themselves visible over the course of the full week of shows and more shows.

It was a fashionista heaven, and anyone who wanted to steep himself or herself in fashion could dive straight in and wallow in fabrics, designs, and beauty.

The First Lady of Jakarta, Veronica Tan Ahok, had deigned to grace a press conference on a subject dear to her heart, batik designs of Jakarta revolving around the flora and fauna of this blessed-by-nature country.  The First Lady had just thought of the brilliant idea of tying in the fashion week with another cause dear to her heart, Jakarta's museums, and had suggested that for next year, the road to Fashion Week would be staged in each of the city museums so that there is simultaneous exposure both for fashion and the museum.  The idea was greeted with glee and instant acceptance.

That seems to be the brilliant product of this fashion week.  Ideas and more ideas.  This is a venue for the showcasing of ideas, a source of inspiration for fashion insiders so they can get more ideas, and therefore, a birthplace for ideas.  Call it a factory of ideas (and even as I wrote this, Svida Alisjahbana, publisher of the Femina Group of Magazines and patroness of Jakarta Fashion Week, was waxing poetically of putting up a collaborative designer's studio which would encourage designers to co-create).

And certainly, the fashion news from Jakarta was anything but grim, because boundless creativity and beautiful sculptural creations had been sashaying down the runway since the start of the week.

Take for example, Bramanta Wijaya, whose romantic renditions in his Sposa collection were potent reminders that at the end of the day, it's still about presenting the female body in the most flattering light possible.  With a pastel palette ranging from lavender to pink to cream and then white, Wiajaya chose soft fabrics and lace patterns combined with artful draping on the female form to pleasure his audience.  Bunny head pieces with erect ears were a clever contrast to his fluidly shaped clothes, providing counterpoint and a clever conversation piece.

Complementing Wijaya's show on Wednesday afternoon last week was Marsha Sigian, who showed short sassy pieces for her vision of the modern city woman.  Blacks and whites were Sigian's preferred statements, and frilly, textural shifts were paired with stark clean jackets to transition the woman between office day wear and evening cocktails.

In the evening, Peggy Hartonto, a young socialite favorite, showed extremely wearable pieces.  Think garden parties and afternoon teas, although the dramatic color palette of reds and blues would be enough to set any woman apart at these normally staid events.

Accessories were also strong in the idea department, with young design label BYO winning the Cleo Fashion Award for accessories.  BYO has transitioned successfully from a bag maker to offering a full range of couture pieces, with cleverly constructed blouses and clutches fashioned from the most unusual of materials.  Plastic and other dangerously gleaming industrial mainstays were commandeered to show how they can ornament women, and among the competing young accessories designers, BYO was heads and shoulders above the rest.

The Cleo Fashion Awards attracted a young, hip crowd, and the young designers who participated clearly played to their audience, showing edgy and deconstructed frocks, paying only scant attention to symmetry and punching, tearing and puckering fabric where their whims took them.  It was a veritable petri dish of concepts and visions, and at the end of the evening, these young designers showed just how much promise there was to Indonesian design that catered (as well as clearly responding) to the global market.

As the lights flickered down in the fashion tent and the runway was again professionally covered to protect it for the next show, the audience rose to their feet with one sure takeaway: it was a damn good show, and there would be more to come. (FREEMAN)