TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Creative Smarts: Daring Diana
DIANARIKASARI
Change Size
DIANARIKASARI.BLOGSPOT.COM
From a self-proclaimed wallflower to a social media sensation, fashion blogger, entrepreneur and author Diana Rikasari is constantly pursuing her dreams.
She also believes running a good business requires a generous heart for sustainability. She allocates 2.5 percent of her sales to her own charity project Level UP! Scholarship Program, which supports low-income students in need of basic education.
Inspired by TV personality Oprah Winfrey and her Angel Network, the 31-year-old said she made a commitment to allocate the profits as soon as she started her own business.
“I just feel that to make my business blessed, I have to help others. So the business is not only about gaining profits but also what I give back to society.”
Diana opened her shoe line UP in 2011 after deciding to leave her established career in a multinational to pursue her passion for fashion.
Her decision was questioned by many, including her own parents.
“No one supported me. It was just me and my gut. Now, they [parents] fully understand, there are no more questions.”
Diana’s success as a blogger began in a tiny bedroom where she experimented with different styles on her blog dianarikasari.blogspot.com. She may have been the first to introduce the term ootd (outfit of the day) in Indonesia thanks to her posting her outfits online.
Eye-popping colors and crowded embellishments are her signature, with cute ornaments like pom-poms, glitter and beads breaking all the taboos of conventional fashion.
“I really like arts and handicrafts so it is really represented in my dress,” said the fan of Karl Lagerfeld and Jeremy Scott.
“For me, mix and match requires effort. To style differently every single day is like art […] how can I wear this piece differently so it will look different in photos even though the dress is the same; I like those kind of challenges.”
She has bagged many awards as a top fashion influencer, inspiring women and young creative entrepreneurs. UP is listed in the country’s top 50 online small and medium enterprises
So who is really under those stand-out-from-the-crowd-outfits?
“Actually I am very shy and quiet. Since I was little, I talked a lot but only at home. Once I stepped outside, I became very shy,” said the US-born, Malaysia-raised Diana.
“I really pushed myself […] it does not come naturally. I have to train myself.”
She said her biggest motivator was her husband Syed Muhammad Sharjeel, who was her college friend in Malaysia.
“Basically, I learned from my husband. He said ‘if you want to be successful, you have to speak up’.”
Baby Benefits
Diana loves being a mother to Syed Muhammad Shahmeer, aged 2.
“It [motherhood] should not change you as a person, but it teaches me new things: patience, sacrifice and compromise.”
Having a child has also changed her morning-to-night work schedule.
“I love to work […] but after having a kid, I realize I can’t always work, I have to make sacrifices.”
She limits meetings to two days a week; during the rest of the week, she enjoys time with her little boy. Her office is only five minutes from her house in Bekasi.
She remains productive, publishing her second book earlier this year following the success of the first, #88LoveLife. It sold around 70,000 copies in Indonesia and Malaysia, and also won the 2015 Best Book Award in the non-fiction category from MPH, Malaysia’s top publisher.
“It was a very spontaneous idea — people expect a grand answer, but there is none. One day, I just thought it would be cool if I make a book […] and I thought that I like to write quotes, so how about a quote book […] it was like this [snapping her fingers],” she said of the process.
Diana was ambivalent about publishing a second book until the publisher agreed to try something different with the design.
“I wanted to have a book with a glittery […] hard cover. It would be so cute […] and I got motivated by that.”
Ultimately, there were technical difficulties with realizing her desired cover. But the quotes were already written and the illustrations by Dinda Puspasari ready, and so #88LoveLife Vol. 2 was published.
Of course, there are more goals to be achieved in her career and giving back.
“I want to give more […] Every day I would question myself, have I given enough, have I helped enough, have I contributed enough? [...] I think that what makes my soul happy, helping others,” she said.”
