From the heart

Bruce Emond ,  The Jakarta Post - WEEKENDER   |  Wed, 05/20/2009 3:12 PM  |  Profile

After making his name in Bali, Sabbatha has now brought his intricately detailed signature bags and other accessories to big-time Jakarta. Bruce Emond meets the designer who says he just wants to spread some love with his creations.

In studiously elegant Grand Indonesia shopping mall, the Sabbatha boutique fits right in with its classy surroundings. There is a selection of music playing, not blaring, from the designer’s iPod, muskily fragrant, never cloying, incense fills the shop and a vase with a single flower sits atop a table accompanied by a pair of black chairs in front of a mirror.

Previously occupying a section in the Alun-Alun Indonesiana emporium in the same mall, Sabbatha’s neighbors now include some lofty names of the retail world: Chanel and Celine hover directly above his boutique, with Salvatore Ferragamo, Raoul, Loewy and Banana Republic close by.

“I feel very small,” he says with a smile when asked what it is like to rub shoulders with the very high fashion elite.

He does not need to, of course. His signature leather bags, the piece de resistance of his collection that also includes shoes, gowns and bracelets, have already gained a following among fashionistas who want to make a striking impression.

“The very strong, bold design and style, with that mix of exotic leather and embellishment, make them a killer bag,” says a local magazine fashion stylist.

Every one of Sabbatha’s bags tells its own story with its arrangement of icons – the mix may include semiprecious stones, beads, freshwater pearls, pieces of carved deer antler and buffalo horn, tassels, even antique coins.

To some, they may appear like a complex Baroque mosaic; the more prosaic minded might view them as a gaudy cotton-candy swirl of ornaments and colors.

There is a slightly darker element to the designs: Sabbatha (born into a Javanese Protestant family, he was so named because he was born on a Sunday) is a devotee of all things Gothic, although he has toned down overtly disquieting elements of his design vision for the local market.

“Inside me I like the dark colors, the strong colors … In the beginning I liked to show the skull and crossbones … but it’s no longer that so much, it’s more about the new romantics.”

His customers are mostly young – in practical terms, he says the weighty, ornament-laden bags made from goat, sheep and cow leather, as well as natural python, need more than a little arm power to tote around. They tend to have a hippy-ish sense of adventure, he adds.

Needless to say, blushing violets who prefer to be the wallflower than the center of attention should steer clear of these in-your-face pieces of art.

“The bag should say something about who they are. It’s their signature.”  

It also might be assumed the designs are a reflection of what he is going through at any given period, that the combination of elements reveals the passage of time and the milestones of his life. He says that is perhaps 20 percent of the story, but the rest is more about what he would like to do and, he says, entirely heartfelt.

It’s there for all to see in the heart-shaped clasps on many of the bags.

“They are always an expression from the heart. They are about the love I have inside and want to show to the world,” the shaven-headed man says, without a trace of corniness.

The Jakarta-raised middle son of a newspaper and magazine caricaturist, Sabbatha remembers his childhood mischief of drawing tiny fish on his father’s creations. He did not follow up on those artistic leanings until he was studying economics in Paris in 1997. Far from home, he embarked on his own personal exploration and development, studying architectural interior design at night.

When he returned to Indonesia three years later, he moved to Bali to work in advertising. In 2003, he began to try his hand at accessory designing by tapping into his inner Goth.

He is rueful about the fledgling designs, and instead pegs the opening of his own shop in Seminyak in June 2006 as the time when he really began to find his design identity.

“It’s been a complex evolution,” he says. “Five years ago I didn’t use many stones, and I used cheaper materials. I always talk of three years ago as the time when I really got started.

“An artist is never satisfied. There is always that feeling of being bored and wanting to do something new. But I’ll see a design I made three years ago and realize that it still looks nice.”

The limited edition bags – produced in quantities of 5 to 10, each comes with its own certificate of authentication and a card bearing Sabbatha’s philosophy of life – retail from Rp 5 million up to Rp 25 million. They have already reportedly found favor with Hollywood celebrities. The designer says he has not dealt directly with the big-name stars, only intermediaries.

“I don’t want to be seen to be as bluffing or exploiting their names,” he says of reports Hollywood actress Katie Holmes and Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson own his bags.

The bags don’t come cheap but, Indonesians being Indonesians, he says, there is always room for some shrewd bargaining and a discount.

“For me, it doesn’t matter as long as they can appreciate what I’m doing and they like what I’m doing,” he says of customers. “It really makes me proud.”


Sabbatha’s boutique is located on the Ground Floor, East Building, Grand Indonesia.

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