Rather than fashion week, however, the show was a student-led charity event benefiting underprivileged children undergoing cancer treatment.

Titled Love Heals, the fashion show was held at Plaza Indonesia on Feb. 22, featuring fashion labels Novere, Kakapo, Between Seasons and Prospero as well as performances from Gadis Sampul 2020 Rania Salsabilla alongside Gadis Sampul 2023 and international award-winning singer Jane Callista.

Approximately 40 companies sponsored the event, which was further supported by 75 volunteers, including models from 2icons and Eve Model Inc, makeup artists from Julee Topper, and Lenna Tan as MC.

Attendees paid Rp 250,000 for a general entrance ticket, which directly benefits the Indonesian Pediatric Cancer Foundation (YKAI) in addition to direct donations made during the event.

The event was an initiative by Berbagi Kasih, a non-profit, student-led organization founded by British School Jakarta (BSJ) 10th grader Lidwina Caitlyn Sutanto, with significant contributions by classmates Abigail Evangelina Melvin, Colin Harjanto and Davion Dharmawan.

After linking up with YKAI earlier in 2024, she enlisted the help of  fellow BSJ student Aedric Zhang of student-led non-profit Clothes4Cause.

The BSJ students further rallied others to join their cause, connecting with students from four schools to create an alliance of 15 dedicated committee members, including Carla Affandy from Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS), Raymond Kusumadinata from SMA Kolese Kanisius, Josh Tandio from SMA St. Theresia and Kathryn Saputra from Tzu Chi School.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post following the show, Caitlyn and Aedric said supporting the cause is very personal to them both, as they have family and friends who have been affected by cancer. Caitlyn’s grandfather passed away from lung cancer, while her grandmother is a cancer survivor. Meanwhile, Aedric spoke of how he slept on a hospital couch for three nights while accompanying his grandfather following a surgery for tongue cancer.

“We chose to do a fashion show because I think we can express our thoughts and also spread awareness for cancer through something that's entertaining to the audience,” explained Caitlyn.

“We also created these designs so that we could tell the people that fashion can also be [made] from recycled products and recycled fabric,” added Aedric, noting that the childrenswear brand Prospero collaborated with Clothes4Cause to create upcycled dolls and hairbands from fashion waste.

One of the main goals of Love Heals is to raise funds for YKAI’s first hospice house, which will be used for palliative care for children with terminal cancer. As of the Friday before the event, the students managed to raise Rp 420 million, with another Rp 16.5 million raised on the day.

“So in the beginning, we were actually hoping to raise Rp 200 million, and we surpassed the goal by a lot. We're very thankful and grateful to all the people who have supported our cause to make this all happen,” Caitlyn said.

On behalf of the entire Love Heals committee, she expressed her hope that the added awareness would urge more people to be more supportive of those going through tough times.

“Our mission at Berbagi Kasih is to help underprivileged children with cancer. As someone who has an interest in fashion and art, I think fashion is an amazing form of art and also a really good form of expression. We’re honored to be able to combine these two to make an event that could support YKAI and have people supporting us and the whole Love Heals committee, because we couldn’t have been able to do this without them.”

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