T

hese days, many want to be “Korean cool”. K-pop music is booming, the Korean wave — also known as Hallyu — is flourishing, and die-hard fans would die to wear the same thing as what their Korean idols wear.

This is an opportunity that many Indonesian fashion designers want to tap into, including Yelly Lumentu, who owns the local brand Day and Night.

“Korean fashion influences worldwide trends, including in Indonesia. So I would like to get into the Korean market if I can. It will be difficult but it’ll be very rewarding,” said the 30-year-old, who has been developing her brand along with her sister since 2012.

Although her designs are currently only sold locally at the Jakarta-based curated store The Goods Dept and through her website dayandnight-shop.com, Yelly strives to expand her business, including to South Korea.

And she may be able to. The government, seeing potential for local designers like Yelly to enter the increasingly popular South Korean fashion market, recently cooperated with the ASEAN-Korea Center to hold a workshop in Jakarta about the South Korean fashion industry.

From South Korea’s fabric preferences and fashion trends, to licensing and exports 101, the workshop aimed to enrich Indonesian fashion industry players and connect them to the South Korean fashion industry.

South Korean fashion purchasing company I.D. Look Ltd. general manager Park Ki-nam sees room for Indonesian fashion designers in his country. “Indonesia has great potential in the fashion industry. During my stay here, I saw many good designs with good quality, and I think Indonesia holds a lot of potential,” Park said.

Currently, Indonesia is already one of the biggest importers for South Korea in the fashion industry. The country is the third biggest knitwear importer for South Korea — reaching US$212 million in 2015, lagging behind China ($1.19 billion) and Vietnam ($560 million).

In woven wear, Indonesia ranks fourth at $276 million, behind China ($2.1 billion), Vietnam ($1.6 billion) and Myanmar ($328 million).

With the Trade Ministry’s target to grow overall exports of Indonesian products by 5 percent this year, it expects fashion items to contribute a considerable amount to this growth.

“Hopefully our fashion exports can significantly contribute to this figure,” the ministry’s special advisor on trade services, Arlinda Imbang Jaya, said.

During President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s recent visit to South Korea, he reiterated his ambition for stronger economic cooperation between the two countries. He also tipped his hat to the popular K-pop music and the Hallyu wave trend.

The Hallyu wave, or the Korean cultural wave, has helped promote not only South Korean travel but also fashion. Outfits worn by South Korean singers and actors are often replicated and purchased by fans all over the world.

Park, the South Korean fashion buyer who was among the South Korean fashion industry players attending the ASEAN-Korea Center workshop, said South Korea’s fashion trends were specific, and were influenced by popular culture such as dramas, movies and music.

A recent hit drama called You Who Came From the Stars with the famous female lead Jun Ji-hyun, for instance, started off the trend of professional women’s fashion.

Casual fashion for teenagers and youth, which consists of jeans, T-shirts and stylish yet warm jackets, is also a popular day-to-day outfit. Preppy and simple clothing, dominated by light pastel colors, is also a trend among young women in South Korea.

The South Korean fashion market, however, is demanding in terms of high quality products with neat stitching and material that resists color fading, Park said, which Indonesian fashion players have yet to satisfy.