Looking at its structure, JFW has already put in place a few wagons that can carry the challenges, including design competitions and the coaching program Indonesia Fashion Forward (IFF).

One of the design competitions that ran during JFW, Lomba Perancang Mode (LPM), predates JFW all the way back to 1979, and has consistently served as a launchpad for aspiring fashion designers in Indonesia. Past winners include today’s established names such as Musa Widyatmodjo and Carmanita, with a couple of recent winners such as Tex Saverio and Lulu Lutfi Labibi quickly becoming the darlings of fashion devotees and the targets of copycats.

Other design competitions that ran under the JFW umbrella such as Lomba Perancang Aksesoris (LPA) and CLEO Fashion Awards (now renamed the New Fashion Force Awards) have unearthed new labels with an almost cultish following, such as Rosalyn Citta, Danjyo Hiyoji and Byo. Some of the new talent discovered by these competitions have often found their way to IFF since its inception six years ago.

Established by Forum Mode Indonesia Foundation, in collaboration with JFW, the British Council, London-based Center for Fashion Enterprise and the Indonesian government (now represented by the Indonesian Board of Creative Economy), IFF aims at equipping fashion designers with the necessary skill set and infrastructure to establish Indonesia as one of the world’s fashion capitals by 2025. This is the legacy JFW wants to build.

Will the seeds of legacy come to fruition within the targeted time frame? Quite a number of IFF inductees have won accolades from the international fashion industry and have found overseas markets — Toton winning the 2016/2017 Woolmark Prize for womenswear in Asia and London Fenwick’s pop-up store for Indonesian designers comes to mind — yet while we rightfully celebrate these milestones we must never lose sight of the building blocks needed to create a fashion capital.

Infrastructure is critical. Just as Indonesia has similar problems elsewhere, it is also the case here. As I’ve repeatedly written, the problem lies in the gaps between artisans and designers, and between designers and the garment industry. Beyond creativity, the standard of quality from inner seams to color finish is a must, especially for export, an area that Indonesian designers often struggle to meet.

Most of our artisans work according to varying degrees of quality and punctuality. Local garment companies with the technical capacity to meet international standards, the ones manufacturing foreign labels since the 1980s, work on a much bigger scale of production than the typical company with its first export order. And yet, if the first order fails to meet the requested quality, buyers won’t place repeat orders.

This vicious cycle can only be bypassed by government policies and incentives that raise the standards of our artisan industry and push qualified local garment companies to tap into emerging Indonesian designers, a kind of multi-ministry team with legal and decision-making powers beyond ceremonial duties.

Can JFW as an organization sell the business potential of fashion to the related ministries and make them work together to build the necessary industrial blocks? 2025 is only a short eight years away.

Interestingly, IFF inductees Michelle Tjokrosaputro of Bateeq, Anandia Harahap of IKYK and Rani Hatta, openly state that going global isn’t as important as meeting the international standards of any market. That’s awareness of business fundamentals, humility in acknowledging the current state of quality and a savviness in serving domestic and foreign markets equally.

If every designer at JFW demonstrates these traits, and JFW can bridge government and the private sector to build an end-to-end fashion industry, then that will answer both the relevance and legacy questions. JFW will not only be the annual fab fete that insiders love to grace and the public clamor to see, but a powerhouse that cooperatively builds a productive industry.   

Beyond that, relevance is continuously challenged in an ever-shifting industry. Digitalization has disrupted how fashion is presented, promoted, accepted and acquired. Before journalists can write a report, anyone with a camera phone can cheer a collection or call out plagiarism. Before the crown jewel of the show, Dewi Fashion Knights, is unfurled, social media chatter can sway opinion on whether this year’s selected “knights” will sink or swim.

And yet, in the midst of a migration towards everything digital, designers such as Gloria Agatha of Jii, this year’s JFW Entrepreneur Award winner, admits that customers still seek shopping experiences in physical outlets despite having sought information online. Given that the minds behind Brightspot Market and The Goods Dept. won the institution category at the five-year Pia Alisjahbana Awards this year, it shows JFW is attuned to how customers are becoming more urbane and leaning toward pop-up or concept stores.

A proclivity to navigate through these fluid factors comprising creativity, entrepreneurship and the media, should be nurtured among the talents promoted through JFW. It’s a tall order, and perhaps was never asked of the Big Four fashion weeks that began decades ago, and yet this is the age Jakarta Fashion Week finds itself to be in.

For 2025 and beyond, fashion and business moves forward together.       

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— Lynda Ibrahim is a Jakarta-based writer with a penchant for the color purple, pussycats and pop culture. She also served as one of the judges for the Pia Alisjahbana Award 2017.

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