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Local streetwear to hit world’s biggest expo
The Creative Economy Agency (BEK) is hoping to give local brands international recognition by sponsoring five local streetwear makers that will exhibit their products overseas for the first time
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he Creative Economy Agency (BEK) is hoping to give local brands international recognition by sponsoring five local streetwear makers that will exhibit their products overseas for the first time.
The agency announced in a press conference that it selected five local streetwear brands — Elhaus, Monstore, Oldblue Co., Paradise and Pot Meets Pop — to display their collections in the upcoming Agenda Long Beach, the world’s largest convention for sportswear and streetwear, in Long Beach, California, the United States, from June 28 to 30 this year.
BEK vice chairman Ricky J. Pesik said the decision to give the brands a chance to go international was made based on fashion being the top contributor to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in creative economy subsectors. Agenda Long Beach is expected to draw more than 10,000 buyers and distributors and over 750 streetwear and sportswear brands.
“This is a highly significant step for BEK and an attempt to increase support for the fashion subsector, which is BEK’s top GDP contributor,” Ricky told the press on Friday afternoon.
“The global [fashion] market is heading toward more unique, artisanal brands and Indonesia should seize the opportunity.”
Fashion — one of BEK’s 16 subsectors — contributed Rp 166 trillion (US$11.78 billion) to the GDP in 2016, Ricky said. It is also the largest source of exports for the creative economy, accounting for 53 percent of BEK exports, which totaled $20 billion in 2016.
The move is expected to help domestic artisanal brands, especially clothing ones, enter the US market, where competition is tough.
BEK deputy head of marketing Joseph Simandjuntak said that Indonesia’s streetwear scene could be traced back to the mid-90s, when local brands like Country Fiesta and Hammer offered a new take on street fashion.
“We see that the economic value created by streetwear brands is stellar and sometimes even exceeds the value of the clothing itself [...] so that is why we want to push for the apparel to have more brand value,” Joseph said on the same occasion.
He cited as an example American streetwear brand Supreme, which grew wildly popular among teenagers and Hollywood stars in recent years by selling clothing and accessories at unreasonably expensive prices.
“Supreme is able to sell a single T-shirt for thousands of dollars and even partner with Louis Vuitton, which is way older and much more lavish than the former,” said Joseph.
The five brands, selected out of 121 local brands, were chosen by a jury of experts.
The curator for the brands’ collections for the upcoming expo, Khairiyyah Sari, said that each of them were chosen for offering something unique and somewhat out-of-place.
“Even though they promote [global] street fashion, there is still a local touch to their products, like Elhaus, which incorporates traditional Indonesian weaving patterns,” Sari said at the same event.
Different takes on local products could be a strategy in winning the hearts of consumers as climbing the ranks in the global streetwear market was no easy feat, she added, noting that top streetwear makers in the US and Japan were Indonesia’s strongest competitors.
The local brands set to attend Agenda Long Beach are mostly looking to boost sales and partner with more renowned brands to increase their value.
“We want some more exposure at the expo because even though we have entered modern markets like the United Kingdom and South Korea, the US remains difficult for us to penetrate,” said Paradise cofounder Hendrick Setioadithyo at the press conference.
