JP/Triwik Kurniasari

Seven years after launching his Spous ready-to-wear clothing line, Priyo Oktaviano has made a name for himself in both the local and international fashion scene with his fabulous yet edgy creations, breathing fresh air into the Indonesian fashion industry.

It was 1:15 pm and raining hard in the Lamandau area of South Jakarta where I had an appointment with the designer. But 15 minutes later, at the appointed time, the tall designer showed up at his fashion house’s front door with a big umbrella.

Clad in a batik shirt and black pants, he welcomed me in his neat yet clean office.

 “I’m so sorry for keeping you waiting. I’ve been very busy over the last few months, preparing for so many shows, including Jakarta Fashion Week [JFW]. Tomorrow, I have to fly to Prague to showcase my designs there,” he told The Jakarta Post in a thick Javanese accent.

During this year’s JFW, the designer displayed his designs in three different shows in one week, including one for the Yayasan Cita Tenun Indonesia (YCTI), a foundation committed to preserving as well as developing Indonesia’s woven textiles.

In the same month, he also received a once-in-a-lifetime honor along with local designers Sebastian Gunawan and Auguste Soesastra to present their collections to US First Lady Michelle Obama at the Wisma Negara  in the Presidential Palace during Obama’s short visit to Indonesia in mid-November.

For the precious moment, Priyo turned exotic Balinese textiles into a purple sleeveless dress with a long coat.

“I was very excited when YCTI told me about this. I did some research, browsing all over the Internet to learn about Michelle Obama’s fashion taste,” he said.

“I noticed that on some occasions she likes to wear something that reveals her beautiful arms. She also likes bright colors that can really showcase her complexion. I couldn’t be happier when she praised my collection that day.”

On first impression, it’s hard not to see that Priyo is a well-planned designer who pays attention to every detail.

“Since I was a little, I have been into things that require small and complicated details. I, for instance, tended to like math and natural sciences such as physics and chemistry rather than history or geography. I like to deal with numbers.”

He uses his focus on details in his collections. While many designers go bling-bling, Priyo chooses to say away from shine and glitter, eschewing sequins and crystals, for example. Instead, he plays with  fabric, adorning his pieces with details such as Japanese origami.

Born in the East Java town of Kediri, Priyo found he had a passion in design ever  since he was in junior high school when he liked to draw things on his desk.

Right after graduation from senior high school, he knew what he wanted to do: go to France to learn French before formally studying fashion.

“My mother always wanted me to get a university degree, so I applied to the dentistry school at Trisakti University,” he said.

“Why dentistry? First, I’m into small details like what a dentist usually does and second, a dentist does not have to slice people’s skin or things like that,” Priyo said.

While busy preparing for entrance tests, he met an older student who had been studying dentistry for nine years. The encounter made him reappraise his plan and change direction. He opted for economics and majored in finance, which would be quicker than dental school.

“The most important thing for me at that moment was to get a degree, no matter what the field, to please my mother.”

Determined to go to France, he finished his study in the university in only three-and-a-half years.

While waiting for graduation, Priyo took part in the Lomba Perancang Mode annual fashion design competition held by local women’s magazine Femina in 1996 and received a readers’ choice award for his “Dalmation” collection.

In front of the competition’s judges, he admitted he could not sew.

“I could only sketch. I asked other people to make my designs into clothes,” he said. “I told the judges that I was about to go to France to learn more about fashion and I joined the competition to fill my spare time before graduation.”  

Soon after getting his bachelor’s degree, he flew to France to study at Cours de civilization francaise de la Sorbone in Paris to learn French, followed by a course at the Esmod fashion design school concentrating on ready-to-wear women’s wear.

There he had a chance to find more experience by working in the ateliers of Jack Henry, Veronique Leroy and Sharon Wauchob before becoming an intern at Balenciaga for two years.

After Paris, Priyo decided to come home.

“I could have continued to build my career in France, but I chose to go back to Indonesia because I wanted to give something to my country.”

Arriving home in 2003, he did not spend time sitting back and relaxing. He established his second line and the Spous ready-to-wear label, which is short for his full name, Stefanus Priyo Oktaviano Umar Slamet.

He described Spous as a clothing line that truly reflected his character, where he could express himself freely.

The collection was modern, bright, trendy and edgy with unusual cuts and silhouettes.

The label was a success and a year later he launched Priyo Oktaviano, a medium and high fashion made-to-order and bridal collection.

Along the way, he has dressed a number of celebrities and public figures such as Anggun, Krisdayanti, Ruth Sahanaya and Titi DJ as well as designed evening gowns for Agni Prastika for the 2007 Miss Universe contest in Mexico and Kamidia Radisty for the Miss World Competition in China a year later.

Priyo might still be young (he declined to reveal his age), but he has already a long-term mission and vision. His dream is to develop and maintain Spous as a long-lasting label  

“So far I see the tendency for some designers to develop their first lines. When the designers die, the labels will die too. I don’t want to be like that.”

“I hope Spous will always be ‘alive’ even though I’m no longer in this world anymore. I want Spous to live forever,” he said.

Priyo’s style sense took him into a new level when he was offered to join Indonesia’s Handwoven Textile Program (CTI). His participation in the foundation’s activities started when Indonesia Institute for Management DevelopmentI chairwoman Sjamsidar Isa invited him to go to a traditional textile exhibition and introduced him to CTI’s chairwoman Okke Hatta Rajasa.

Okke, who is married to Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa, later showed him an array of traditional Indonesian fabrics and offered him a chance to join the organization’s programs alongside other designers such as Chossy Latu, Era Soekamto and Stephanus Hamy.

Every designer taking part in the programs is charged with empowering the people in the region which he or she has chosen to focus on.

Priyo chose Bali because he thought that the textiles were suited to his style.

“Many young people in villages in Bali prefer to work in Denpasar as sales promotion girls instead of weaving cloth,” he said.

“That’s so sad because I’ve found out that their grandmothers still weave. If we don’t preserve this tradition, I’m afraid that it will be gone in the future.”

The foundation’s supports include providing equipment, raw materials and marketing and promotion strategies.

“We even give them a salary because if we did not do that, they would never want to do this,” he said.

Since his participation in the foundation’s programs, Priyo has come to appreciate the local culture more and more.

He, for instance, avoids cutting woven cloth into pieces out of respect to weavers who spend weeks or even months to weaving a piece of cloth.

“As a designer, we have to be creative and know how to turn the woven cloth into a wearable outfit without cutting. It’s a matter of style.”  

Meantime, even though he now focuses on Balinese textiles, Priyo is also exploring other traditional textiles such as tenun blongsong from South Sumatra’s Palembang and tenun Garut from West Java.

He also combines the traditional textiles with some international touches from other countries such as China, Japan and India for his ethnic collection called Perle de l’est, which was also showcased at an exhibition in September in Paris.

The collections have drawn attention and are favored by buyers worldwide, including the US and Europe.  

He has already taken his collection to international level. How about a solo fashion show?

“Many people have asked me about this, including the media. The thing is it takes a full commitment to hold a solo fashion show,” he said.

“Once a designer has carried out a solo show, he or she has to do the same event next year and in the years after that. It’s part of his responsibility as a designer to public.”

Priyo claims that he still cannot make such a commitment.

“But of course someday I hope I can start holding annual solo shows.”

He said that it takes hard work, passion, discipline and total focus to keep on creating new things in the fashion industry.

He says he never considers his work as “work”.

“If you ask me what I do in my spare time, I really don’t have free time. I work, work and work,” he said. 

“For me, working is a fun thing. This is my world.”     

Priyo has proven to his parents that he could stand on his feet and make money by being a fashion designer.

“My parents never give comments about what I have achieved in fashion. But I know that they are happy and proud of me.

“My father likes to collect newspapers or magazines that write my stories. His joy doubles if the article has my picture in it,” he smiled.

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