Whiter Shade of Pale

In October 2007, the New York Times ran a scathing article about the favoring of air-complexioned models by major designers and modeling agents. For runways and the designers behind them set the trends for what goes on the street. Now, with Eurasian and, increasingly, European models a prominent presence on Jakarta’s catwalks, many women here are pursuing their dream of a lighter skin through whitening cosmetics. But does white really conquer all, asks Maggie Tiojakin.

 
It’s everywhere, in images we see every day in magazines, on television and billboards across the city and beyond. It is a powerful message that sends millions of women to beauty centers, spas and pharmacies for the desired look.

White is beautiful, and white is right.

If fashion mavens throughout the western world are now facing crutiny due to perceived prejudice against using colored models, in this part of the world some are concerned by the growing trend among consumers, especially women, who are obsessed with whitening their skin. The sometimes harmful effects on their health are one thing, and their subjugating themselves to a standard that suggests their natural looks and skin color are ugly is quite another.

“I get the idea that white is attractive,” says Pricilla Raksa, a fashion contributor for various upscale fashion magazines. “What I don’t get is why most Indonesian women want to be white. First, it doesn’t look natural on us.

“Second, even though white is attractive, it’s not the only attractive color. Look at Naomi Campbell, or Tyra Banks, and if they don’t embody the idea of attractiveness, the world must be blind.”

But sometimes it feels that way.

In countries like Indonesia where the population is ethnically diverse, and one which was once colonized by a European power, the color white represents radiance, cleanliness and charm that is superior to other colors. Of course, it is not the case, but the media has played an active role in promoting the view. Flip a channel or a page and you’re bound to come across various brands of skin-whitening care products and beauty treatments.

“That’s a terrible assumption,” says Didi Budiardjo, a fashion designer who is praised for his modern take on design. “White is just one tone of so many others that we designers try to bring out. If American or European fashion style tends to favor the white, it is quite the opposite with Indonesian fashion style. Some of our prized materials, like batik, flatter those with darker skin tones.”

Yet why do some of the elite clamor for skin-whitening care services at prices that leave regular Joes and Josephines gasping in awe?

“As a people, I believe we look to the west far too often for inspiration,” says “Sandra”, a fashion writer at a leading women’s magazine. “So if the west says white is better, we say white is better.

As you probably know, when it comes to fashion, image is everything. Consumers identify themselves with the image presented by certain designs, and that image becomes the popular truth. It’s a statement.”

And the statement seems to be all is fair in love and couture. The road to figure-perfect requires plenty of compromises which, more often than not, include the superficial transformation of color, size and looks. In recent years, plastic surgery has dominated the world of nonmedical procedures with its tantalizing promises to keep old age at bay and miraculously reshape even the most undesirable contours. Milk baths, whitening creams and solutions come next; after that, it’s on to liposuction and stomach-stapling.

“People do crazy things for beauty,” says Sandra. “But I’m not sure … that they’re not a little bit entitled to do those things.”

There is an unsettling quotidian belief that beauty knows no pain, a rather gruesome picture where for the sake of being beautiful one is willing to do whatever is necessary or demanded. In our consuming desire to fit in, however, are we letting the fashion industry dictate an idealized and almost impossible way to look.

According to former model Okky Asokawati, fashion and consumerism are two sides of the same coin. Both rely on trend-setters — which in this case consist of veritable world-class designers, clothing manufacturers and media moguls — and neither one can survive without the other.

“We’re constantly bombarded with images from the west that feature only white women,” she says. “Our obsession with light skin has less to do with our own definition of what beauty is than our misconception of what we think beauty is. We’re consumers who pay heed to advertising: we believe what the advertisers tell us because, on some level, we have always wanted to believe it for ourselves, even if it isn’t the truth.”

The founder of OQ Modeling graced dozens of magazine covers in a career that began in the early 1980s. She also has acted, been a TV host and fashion editor. Currently a spokeswoman for a vitamin E supplement that promises healthier skin, Okky asserts that true beauty is color-blind.

“Beauty does not have a color preference. It is relative and has nothing to do with the color of our skin. The last three years, I think, we have begun to see a change in the way designers choose their models. Edward Hutabarat, for example, is known for hiring models with diverse skin-tones: not strictly white. The same with Iwan Tirta, whose batik designs compliment a wide range of skin-tones, and Sam Wattimena,“says Okky.

“I think that in the 1990s, the runways were pretty much covered by strictly Indo-European faces,” Okky explains. “Most of the runway stars had the mixed looks between East and West, save for a few exceptions like Kintan Umari. In 2000, the new fad was to be white, or lighter. But recently the fad is changing again, in a good way, where models of color begin to represent various lines of upscale brands.”

But that is not the reality that some in the industry find. One stylist worries that a designer with a penchant for light complexioned models will be unhappy that she chose a darker skin model for a shoot without informing him. Another tells of picking a dark-skinned model for the cover of a leading magazine, with the assurance from editor that her skin tone would not be lightened.

She was in for a surprise when she saw the issue on newsstands. “I was shocked, because they had lightened her skin so she almost wasn’t recognizable,” says the stylist. “I was told that the chief editor had demanded it.”

Even today, despite the country’s all-embracing credo of “unity in diversity”, models with the features of eastern Indonesian – Maluku and Papua in particular – are rarely if ever used in fashion spreads.

Pricilla’s four years as a fashion contributor have given her unlimited access to a multitude of shows held around the country, and she says each show usually leaves her feeling “empty.”

“It’s not that obvious for people to notice, but I can’t help it,” she says. “Our models are losing their color, becoming more and more like Russian dolls—which is nice, if we were in Russia. The irony is that no matter how much polishing we do, we still won’t be white enough.”

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