Although "green" is the most talked-about color on this overheating planet of ours, it tends to find little favor in fashion, but a fresh batch of designers has shown it deserves its place.
The word "green" has a plethora of connotations, but these days, when we consider the color, most of us wouldn't think past the environment and the impending hazards of global warming.
But for their graduation show, the Susan Budihardjo Fashion School class of 2008 had carte blanche to go beyond the first idea that cropped up and explore deeper and more individual interpretations of "green".
For Susan Budihardjo, "green" is about freshness and innovation; she saw an opportunity to make people sit up and notice by showcasing a refreshing take on fashion.
For the fashion school, which celebrates its 29th anniversary this year, the color green also symbolizes hope for new designs and new ideas for the Indonesian fashion industry.
And so Susan chose "green" for the fashion show for the graduation of the school's 2008 class, held recently in Senayan City, to offer the color to the fashion world as the new black.
She wants to show that green is a flexible color that can be mixed or matched with other colors, depending on the tones and palette used.
Her students clearly embraced her idea: The 63 graduates combined green with all sorts of colors, sending out models in shades of yellow, orange, blue, brown, red and various shades of green.
As for the concepts, the students found plenty of inspiration in Mother Nature, such as leaves and flowers, as might be expected. Interestingly, they also drew on aspects of modern urban life, incorporating architectural and structured shapes and pleats.
Among the nature-inspired designs were floral-print and peacock-colored dresses and even a tube dress made from pieces of fabric cut in the shape of leaves.
Featured in the more structured designs were an oversized bolero resembling layered shells, a windswept spaghetti strap mini-dress - revealing short shorts beneath - and balloon-shaped mini-dresses.
The students also proved that green can work for all dress styles, whether classic or contemporary, elegant or funky, modern or ethnic, girlie or dramatic, glamour or casual, vintage or futuristic.
Some dresses mixed styles. For example, ethnic and futuristic styles met and melded in the orange-colored Borneo ethnic pattern applied to the edges of a green high-collared layered cape and the shin area of jagged tight pants.
To enrich their designs, the students stayed away from shine and glitter - eschewing sequins and crystals, for example - but some played with the fabric, adorning their pieces with details such as origami-like shoulder pads, pleats, drapes, ruffles or dragon hide-like patchwork; others added buckles and studs.
But there was no sense of sameness among the creations. Some students adopted a symmetric cut, and others kept things asymmetrical, such as with the one-sleeved dresses. Some students offered ready-to-wear designs, while others experimented with outfits more like costumes.
Some pieces appeared to be fresh ideas, while others gave a nod to works by the students' seniors, such as Didi Budiardjo and Sebastian Gunawan, who attended the show.
A graduation fashion show is a place like no other to ignite the spirits of young designers and fire them up to show what they are made of.
However, if they think it is all over now, they are wrong: The next big test for these students will be preserving that spirit even after they enter the fashion industry and all the challenges it holds.
The collection shown in Jakarta will later be showcased at Susan Budihardjo Fashion School's affiliates in Semarang in Central Java, Surabaya in East Java and Denpasar in Bali.
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