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Retno Tan's triangle of life balance dance, fashion and the environment
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Fashion designer Retno Tan dreamed of becoming a dancer and a fashion designer when she was a child. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
Fashion designer Retno Tan dreamed of becoming a dancer and a fashion designer when she was a child.
Retno, who was born Retno Triastuti in Yogyakarta on Oct. 23, 1981, has managed to realize that dream as an adult.
In 2014, Retno staged her first dance choreography called Solo, Duo, Trio, Quatro — The Story of My Life, at Kemlayan Arts Camp, Serengan, Surakarta, Central Java. The choreography depicted Retno Tan’s own journey in life.
“After waiting for 15 years, I could make it happen. It was my life’s most wonderful moment,” Retno said on the sidelines of her art fashion show, Pelangi Samudra (Ocean Rainbow), at The Sunan Hotel, Surakarta, recently.
The youngest child of Didik Gunawan Tamtomo and Dwiyanti Hastuti started dancing as a fifth grader, when her father — a professor of human anatomy at Sebelas Maret University Surakarta — asked her to learn the art like other Javanese girls.
“My father offered the choice between Javanese dance and ballet. I chose ballet,” she said.
Five years later, Retno practiced traditional dance to respect her father’s wish, but then he forbade her when she wanted to further her traditional dance studies after finishing senior high school.
“I could study what I liked other than art. He said the subject would shape my mindset,” she recalled.
Retno finally studied human resources management at the economics school of Atmajaya University, Yogyakarta. While studying in Yogyakarta, she continued to dance in secret, and in 2000 she joined Bailamos Dance Studio to delve deep into Latin dance.
As a university graduate in 2005, she was allowed to pursue whatever knowledge she wanted, which meant she had even more opportunity for her to continue with dance.
Retno turned her attention to studying fashion design at LaSalle College Indonesia in Jakarta.
“It wasn’t a departure but I still cherished the desire of becoming a designer. I could still go on dancing during study intervals,” she noted.
“My dance art study considerably supports my fashion world. I’ve learned lots of movements, lighting arrangements and style aptitudes from the art.”
Retno seems to like a challenge. As fashion business abounds in luxury through pop designs that attract many people, she adopts a more unpopular fashion art concept that accentuates the marine environment.
Her typical design is marked by recycling inorganic waste like bra sponge, used nets and plastic trash to be applied to her cloth patterns.
Retno is interested in environmental conservation and since 2013 has been involved in environment campaigns. She also volunteers teaching dance and giving creative workshops on waste recycling to children in interior regions.
Undoubtedly, her designs are a collaboration of dance, social issues and environmental concerns without abandoning Indonesia’s traditional values.
“It’s also a form of my concern over environmental contamination, especially marine damage,” she said.
It began when she became fascinated by the beauty under the sea while diving in Jailolo, West Halmahera, in 2013, only to be disappointed later when she saw the Thousand Island waters off Jakarta, where much of the coral was damaged.
“My designs are mostly inspired by marine biota and colors of undersea panoramas like greening blue, ocean blue, orange, red and green,” she said.
The recycling of used materials and plastics combined with the utilization of traditional cloth remnants took Retno to Feeric Fashion Week in Sibiu, Romania, in July, as the only Southeast Asian representative at the most prestigious and creative fashion event in East Europe.
Apart from presenting recycled materials, she also designs her fashion works with performance art in contemporary dance movements.
According to Retno, it’s not enough to reveal the marine damage issue only by pacing on the catwalk.
“There are beauty, spirit and body values that I wish to expose, hence the performance art is incorporated,” she explained.
Retno realizes the fact that her designs may not easily penetrate the commercial market, so she keeps creating market-oriented models.
“I’m not worried about the European market, where recycled things are highly priced. This isn’t yet the case here in Indonesia. I still have to be flexible as I live on these works. Life should be balanced,” she added.
