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span class="caption" style="width: 197px;">Afina MeyandraGraduates of Susan Budihardjo Fashion School flaunted a new line of prêt-à-porter, marking their reunion with their colleagues on the fashion runway.

Today, people no longer have the luxury of spending so much time going to dressmakers or designers. They like buying ready-to-wear clothes in boutiques or department stores more than made-to-measure outfits.

It’s all a matter of convenience and the time factor that have increased our dependence on ready-to-wear clothes. Why spend your time purchasing fabric and getting it stitched, laced or dyed when you can simply buy an outfit straight off the rack?

Designers who used to focus only on creating customized pieces and couture collections, which are shown to certain high-paying customers, needed intricate designs and extensive hands-on works sewn from the finest textiles, have now started to get in touch with prêt-à-porter and released ready-to-wear lines.

Susan Budihardjo, a noted fashion designer and owner of Susan Budihardjo fashion school, discerned the bright future of ready-to-wear and chose this theme for the recent annual graduation show titled “Emotion”.

Twenty-four alumni of Susan Budihardjo fashion school – class of 2007, 2008 and 2009 – showed off their imaginations. Each of them showcased five ready-to-wear pieces and also more exclusive ones.

The 12 best students of class 2011 were included in the show and had the opportunity to come up with three creations each.

A lovely bundle of skirts, ranging from tulip, pencil, barrel, bubble, handkerchief to maxi and micro were teamed up with a myriad of tops: see-through blouse, midriff, a classic white long-sleeved sheer shirt and raunchy bustiers, layered with capes, vests or jackets.

One-piece items were also on offer, including jumpsuits and dresses in assorted silhouettes like high-waist clothes or empire, A-line, H-line, form-fitting sheath, mermaid and puffy ballerina, while the bottoms included hot pants, sarouels, pencil pants and baggy trousers.

Bow style decorations, patches, frills, ruffles, pleats and striking hand-painting effects were among the features knitted on the garments.

Inspired by Brothers Grimm’s famous character Rapunzel, Afina Myandra, for instance, presented her three best takes on champagne shade in the form of a floor-length flowing dress, a tulip dress and baggy pants and a pretty blouse, all draped and accentuated with braided accents resembling Rapunzel’s super long hair.

A number of graduates also went for ethnic approaches, giving a nod to vivid-colored tenun clothes, Javanese batik, South Sumatra’s jumputan (tie dye) and Borneo’s stones.

Tri Putra Simanjuntak East Nusa Tenggara’s Manggarai fabrics into one-piece mini dresses, while Yohana Taway Borneo’s colorful fancy into lacy tops, paired with denim shorts.

Some designers also tried to reach out to the market of men’s clothing and children’s wear. Clara Sugandi with tweed, putting some zips as accent, while the duo Phidelia Steviena and Syarifah Awab delightful frilly dresses for girls and a string of two-piece collections in bold hues for boys.

Susan expressed her optimism, encouraging young talent to produce ready-to-wear collections since demand for the outfits was growing more and more.

Susan opened her fashion school in 1980, with a mission to become a school that was affordable to Indonesians.

After 31 years, her fashion school has branched to some other big cities, like Semarang (Central Java), Surabaya (East Java) and Denpasar (Bali).

Many of its graduates are now renowned designers such as Sebastian Gunawan, Adrian Gan, Eddy Betty, Tri Handoko, Didi Budiardjo, Denny Wirawan, Widhi Budimulya, Susi Hedijanto, Abineri Ang and Rusli Tjohnardi.