Barli Asmara: It’s in the Details

The Jakarta Post - WEEKENDER   |  Sat, 08/23/2008 2:13 PM  |  Profile

Designer Barli Asmara did not burst onto the fashion scene as the latest runway enfant terrible. Instead, his was a long journey of learning about his craft and himself. He talks to Bruce Emond.

 
Barli Asmara is busy. Sketches and swatches of fabric crowd his desk, along with a half-eaten fruit salad. He goes over a couple of the sketches with an assistant, explaining precisely what he is looking for.

Wearing black-rimmed glasses, he is thin and light-complexioned, and looks younger – a bit boyish, a bit delicate – than his 30 years. In fact, from his appearance and the growing attention he has received in recent months, including as one of the young designers featured at Fashion First design emporium in Senayan City, the assumption may be that he has just come along as Indonesian fashion’s hottest property.

In fact, his was a much longer, sometimes disheartening journey to where he is today as the subject of fashion magazine articles and with five labels to his name.

Born in Bandung, West Java, into an artistic and fashion-conscious family (his maternal aunt Corrie Kastubi is also a noted designer), he grew up loving it when the women in his family would dress him up in a cowboy outfit for fun. From that grew a love of beautiful clothes.

But a fashion designer, even in a family where fashion is respected, is not considered a surefire career prospect.

“My parents wanted me to go into business, but when I was in school, I don’t know why, but I didn’t like learning the physics, chemistry, math. I just wanted to draw,” the designer says at his bright, whitewashed South Jakarta studio.

Barli placated his parents by taking business marketing at a public relations institute while pursuing his love of design. He started out with his own label in 2000, with early efforts that he ruefully describes as “tailor-made”. It took time – a full six years – for him to find his signature style, which is modern, edgy and focused on details in his women’s and men’s wear.

Two years ago, an influential fashion magazine chose him as one of the young designers to watch. It was the sign that he had arrived.

He says he had always dreamed of being featured in the magazine, but to finally make it into its pages brought a new realization about his journey.

“When I was chosen, I realized it was not just about my designs, but the fact that my collection was acceptable to people. … Previously, it wasn’t that my collection was not strong, it was just that it didn’t have a special quality that made it stand out, it wasn’t going to be a trend-setter.”

It was a process of learning about his own strengths and weaknesses. Although there is no whiff of the prima donna about him (he calls himself “very Sundanese”, right down to the prayer mat folded on a table in his office), he had to put his own wants in check and consider the market needs.

“For instance, in my 2005 collection, it wasn’t that my collection was bad, it was that my emotions were very high, so my collection wasn’t complete,” he says. “It isn’t that I have changed, but I’ve learned to tone it down. So, I’ll ask, ‘OK, where is this going to be worn to? Well, that won’t work then.’ I’ve learned to think about the color choice, the styling.”

A fashion editor at a leading magazine praises Barli’s talent.

“He is creative and innovative, with young and playful designs. He likes to experiment with the materials, whether it’s pleats or cutting in ways that haven’t been done before in Indonesia. He’s really creative for an Indonesian designer.”

Some of the other designers who emerged about the same time as Barli, and who held high-profile shows at major hotels while he was still trying to find his identity, have become “where-are-they-now?” figures from Indonesia’s fashion past. He bristles at the suggestion that ambition, parental largesse and connections often win out over talent in Indonesia’s fashion stakes.

“I don’t agree at all with that. It takes much more than that to be successful. You have to know how to construct, to put together a collection as a whole.”

Despite his declared dislike of studying, he says his six-year journey of learning continues.

“Every day presents something new. And I don’t think that process ever ends. For instance, if there are clients complaining about something, we have to learn from that about how to correct it. I don’t see it as failure, but part of the process of advancing.”

 
Photos: Adi Wahono

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