Fashion First boutique designers eyes men's fashion

Prodita Sabarini ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 08/03/2008 10:12 AM  |  Lifestyle

Good news for Jakarta's fashionable men: the latest collection showcased by young upcoming designers at Fashion First boutique at Senayan City mall paid a lot of attention to men's garb.

Priyo Oktaviano, Ade Sagi, Barli Asmara, Ichwan Thoha, and Rusli Tjohnardi, the five young designers filling the racks of Fashion First at Senayan City, put a lot of emphasize on men's wear when showcasing their latest collections for holidays, last Friday. Some two-thirds of the collection exhibited were men's wear.

Each designer has his own vision on dressing men and stood to their signature styles as designers. From white t-shirt with bold colored flower prints (Priyo), vests and butterfly ties (Ade), black jackets and T-shirt (Barli), to skinny jeans, ripped T-shirts and Japanese style-loose T-shirt (Ichwan), to Cowboy hats combined with knee-length pants (Rusli).

Priyo took the laid-back, light and loose white T-shirt and white pants style. He combined it with bright orange for bags and necklaces. The female models wore the extra-mini short jeans and loose bright orange blouses.

Ade, meanwhile, played with gray, black and white. Stripes were prevalent with a model wearing a black and white striped singlet over a white T-shirt. Another model wore a no-sleeve shirt with vertical black and white stripes, appliqu*d with silver sequins on the side.

Barli took the more conservative turn with black jackets and T-shirts.

"It doesn't mean that I want to play safe, I focus on the details," Barli said.

Ichwan's designs had the most bravado. Big floral prints on a Yakuza style kimono, complete with headband and black sunglasses on the model. Iwan dressed up a model with tight washed-up skinny jeans, combined with nothing but a small bolero, flaunting the model's abs.

"Well, in reality someone would combine the bolero with a T-shirt. But for the show's sake, I ask the model to just wear the bolero," Ichwan said.

Fashion First, opened in June, is organized by Fame 74. It the designers a place to market their collections in a ready-to-wear manner.

"Usually the designers only make made to order designs. Now, they have to learn how to design for the ready-to-wear market," Fame 74 director Deli Makmur said.

Ichwan and Barli said that they were excited with Fashion First.

"In the end we want to sell our designs, so, Fashion First is really helpful for us," Ichwan said.

However, both admitted the difficulties of designing ready-to-wear collections.

"It's a whole different story, we have to estimate the feasibility of a design for mass production," Barli said.

"We haven't reached our target yet, but the response has been very good," Deli said.

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