Itang Yunasz: Righting Himself

Bruce Emond ,  The Jakarta Post - WEEKENDER   |  Thu, 03/19/2009 5:24 PM  |  Profile

(Photo: Adi Wahono)

 

Designer Itang Yunasz underwent a major transformation in his life several years ago. He tells Bruce Emond about getting back on the straight and narrow from his wayward ways.

Last year, Itang Yunasz returned to a former stomping ground, a trendy beachside bar in Bali where the beautiful people party the night away. It was not like old times, however, and he left after a few minutes.

“My heart wasn’t there and I went outside. A friend came up to me and said, ‘You don’t feel it’s your place anymore, do you?’ I just couldn’t join in and went back to the hotel,” says Itang at his studio in Central Jakarta.

Once a familiar, handsome face on the party circuit, Itang, 48, went from designer to pop singer (he had a hit single “Aku Cinta Padamu, Sungguh” in the late 1980s), actor and model. He rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous here and abroad, and has some wickedly juicy stories from his past that, he stresses, are not for publication.

It was a past imperfect, he says, although he does not regret that fun-filled, glittering journey to where he is today. After going on the haj pilgrimage, he started giving up his partying ways. At the age of 38, he got married, a surprise to those who considered him a confirmed bachelor. His designs mirror the pious change: He is now one of the country’s leading Islamic fashion designers.

If Facebook is a reflection of how we see our past and present selves, and how we want others to view us in what we choose to make public, then Itang’s photo collection reflects the changes in his life. There is Itang and friends, self-consciously fashionable on a London street in the 1980s; close-ups of the baby-faced young man in his salad days; and shots of him looking a bit worse for wear at Bali nightspots in the giddy 1990s.

Today, the photos are of him – with short, gray hair and a few more kilograms than in his modeling days – sitting with his wife and two children, all in Islamic dress, an attractive family. His status update is inevitably something he has gleaned from his religious studies: He changes it all the time, but the basic message – follow the right path in life – remains the same.

(Photo: Adi Wahono)

On the morning of the interview, he meets with a young woman who asks him to become a patron of a new school teaching children with disabilities according to Islamic principles.  

Itang does not see the changes in his life as a revelation or repentance, but a return to the fundamental religious values instilled by his family.

“When I was an adult, whatever I did, however bad I may have been … I always returned to the source [of his religious values], and it was like a wall for me,” he says.

“Every time I did something wrong, I felt divided. I knew it wasn’t right, and I would feel that I should to come back to the right path. That’s not to say my circle was bad, but as I studied more about my religion I knew that the real pleasure was to be found in the afterlife, but there also is of course the torture reserved for the acts we do in our lives …”

He says he was always searching for an answer to the “emptiness” of his lifestyle, whether from failed relationships or coming home in the wee hours of the morning after partying.

“As I got older and experienced changes, I really wanted to get married and have a family. But it just didn’t happen, because I needed for the person I married to also love my family, and it wasn’t the case.”

Going on the haj answered his questions, especially in deciding not to proceed with a relationship with someone he had wanted to marry. He encountered a man who, from Itang’s description, sounds almost like an angel of destiny.

“Every time I prayed there was a man near me – he was very handsome, Indian-Arabic, but he spoke excellent English. He came and sat down by me and started fixing my clothes. Suddenly he spoke Indonesian to me. He said, ‘If you are unhappy at this time in your life, I believe that in someone in the future you will find what you are looking for …’”

(Photo: Adi Wahono)

It is always emotionally painful to honestly face up to who we are, to the missteps we have taken along the way or how we have failed to live up to the expectations of those most important to us. Itang breaks down briefly as he talks. He also requests that his story be told “sensitively” to avoid hurting others, and fears that he has revealed too much.

He refers to the transformation as his own hijrah – leaving behind a past way of life – and says it had to be a total departure. He began designing Muslim clothes as the market began to boom. At the age of 38, he married a woman 17 years his junior, the daughter of a religious cleric. At first it was difficult for him to adjust to living with someone else and sharing space, but understanding has come with time and the birth of their children.

He emphasizes that by embracing religion, he is not judging others in their choices.

“Everything good and bad that has happened has been part of my life journey, and part of my own curiosity to know,” says Itang. “It turns out that what I have taken from the right side has given me more opportunities to find the good, and taught me to be more careful. I don’t fault those people who behave in the way I did, that I must dictate to them or advise them. It’s their right.”

He still meets his old friends. Some, like him, have changed, and others remain their party-hard selves. He does not lecture them, he says, although he hopes he can be an example to them.

“I don’t tell them, ‘It’s a sin, you’re going to be tortured for 40 days when you die.’ If they ask, I just tell them about my life today, that I get up earlier in the morning, I have more that I can do with my time and I’m healthier now.”

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.