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Jakarta Fashion Week set to return bigger than ever
How will fashion shape 2020? What looks will define our style at the start of the new decade? In less than a week, the city’s premier fashion event might just have the answer to these questions
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span>How will fashion shape 2020? What looks will define our style at the start of the new decade? In less than a week, the city’s premier fashion event might just have the answer to these questions.
Dubbed the largest event of its kind in Southeast Asia, Jakarta Fashion Week (JFW) is returning grander than ever from Oct. 22 to 28 at Senayan City shopping mall, Central Jakarta.
As the leading fashion event in the country, JFW will feature over 2,800 pieces from the 2020 summer-spring collections of over 260 labels, both local and international, in 76 runway shows.
Returning for the 12th time since its launch in 2008, this year’s JFW will for the first time not be held under Femina Group, the largest women’s media group prior to its split last year.
Following changes in the previous management, JFW is now placed under Global Creative Media (GCM) Group along with women’s magazine Dewi and lifestyle magazine Pesona.
Consequently, the logo of the event was changed as the font of the letter “f” in the previous one was associated with femina magazine. The new logo’s bold lettering is perhaps a better representation of JFW’s ambitious mission since its conception to bring Indonesian fashion to the world.
JFW chairperson Svida Alisjahbana, who is also GCM Group CEO, continued the legacy of changing the landscape of the fashion industry by providing a multistakeholder platform and strengthening the ecosystem for new talents to accelerate their growth.
“Nothing much has changed since the previous edition other than a stronger will to see the standard of Indonesian fashion become a standard of global fashion in the future,” she said in an interview with The Jakarta Post.
The groundwork was laid out in 2012 with the launch of Indonesia Fashion Forward, an incubation program for young designers with an eye toward fashion and accessories. With the program, they could hone their skills while attending workshops on business and branding strategies to be able to penetrate regional and international markets.
With tutors from the Center for Fashion Enterprise in London and support from the British Council and the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf), the incubation program generated about 40 graduates who have proven successful in developing strong businesses and exporting their products to the global market.
Most of the headlining labels and designers to appear in JFW 2020 are graduates from one of six of the program’s graduation classes in the 2012-2017 period. Among them are Tommy Ambiyo Tedji with his label B-Y-O, Danjiyo Hiyoji and modest fashion designer Jenahara.
Svida said JFW was not only a one-week event, as it had programs throughout the year to build on the entire ecosystem, in addition to talent-finding through fashion and accessory competitions and a model search for the fashion week’s runway events.
“We find new faces, new talents every year and we keep on finding fresh, innovative content in order to engage the market,” she said.
JFW organizing committee director Lenni Tedja said that for the first time this year, JFW made a reality web series, aired earlier this year in cooperation with media company Fremantle Indonesia, to find a pair of models to act as JFW 2020 icons.
“For a long time we have only had female models, but we are starting to present male models as JFW 2020 icons because we have learned that the market potential for men’s fashion is also high,” she said.
Beyond the scheduled runway shows are several fringe events. Fashionlink Showroom & Market, a retail event, is sure to appease visitors, as it will feature over 100 fashion and accessory labels, lifestyle merchandise and food and beverage counters at The Hall on the eighth floor of the mall from Oct. 22 to 26.
The area will also be the site of a trunk show, ethnic music performances and discussions.
The Jakarta Fashion Week mobile app was launched this year to help visitors navigate the venue and find information on their favorite designers.
Speaking about the theme of the week, Svida said #MerayakanIndonesia (Celebrating Indonesia) was chosen, in addition to touching on the issue of sustainable fashion.
“Through this event, we’d like to identify the Indonesian identity in fashion and to revive it.”
