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Reinventing 'ulos'
Meticulous attention: It takes up to a month for a weaver to complete a piece of ulos cloth with intricate patterns. (-/-)
N
oted designer Edward Hutabarat has created a classic chic look in his Ulos Batak in Innovation collection, showcased at the recent Festival Tenun Nusantara (Nusantara Weaving Festival) in North Tapanuli, North Sumatra.
Ulos has a special place in Edward’s heart. As a designer of Batak descent, he feels obliged to preserve and reinvent the traditional Batak woven fabric.
The Ulos Batak in Innovation fashion show, held in Tarutung, North Tapanuli, on Oct. 17 was the final event of the Nusantara Weaving Festival, which ran from Oct. 13.
The 30 pieces in Ulos Batak in Innovation highlighted Edward’s charming creativity with ulos.
Working with colorful ulos, Edward created a series of oversized coats. He balanced the intricate ulos motifs with the Javanese striped fabric lurik.
“Anyone examining the motif details of the ulos under a microscope would surely be astonished,” he said, admiring the works of North Tapanuli weavers that he used in the collection.
Some of the designs featured harungguan ulos originating from the Muara area in North Tapanuli. Harungguan ulos is a symbol of unity as it brings together layers of different motifs.
“Harungguan ulos is called the king of ulos because all motifs can be found in harungguan,” Edward pointed out.
Edward presented a calmer vibe for the men’s pieces in his collection. He played with dark-toned ulos, such as indigo sibolang ulos, to create robes in simple silhouettes.
The collection charmed the audience, including Tomas Saller from the Czech Republic.
“This is a world-class fashion show. The collection is terrific, I like the ulos motifs and colors,” he said.
Aside from the fashion show, the Nusantara Weaving Festival also held various events aimed at bringing ulos, and other traditional woven fabrics, to the global stage.
The events included an art performance, a national symposium on traditional woven fabrics and a boot camp for weavers.
The five-day festival, jointly held by the Education and Culture Ministry, the North Tapanuli administration and local communities, took place in three locations, namely Tarutung, Muara and Sibandang Island.
Perkumpulan Wastra Indonesia (Indonesia Traditional Fabrics Association), along with ulos collector Vilidius Siburian, showcased a collection of 100 traditional woven fabrics from across the archipelago in the Ahu Partonun(I’m a Weaver) exhibition. Half of the collection comprised North Sumatran woven fabrics, such as ulos, hiou, uis and abit.
One of weavers participating in the festival was 68-year-old Boru Hutagalung, who has 50 years’ experience in weaving.
She said that it took a month for her to complete a piece of harungguan ulos as she had to work with thousands of yarns to create the intricate motifs.
“It takes a long time to design the motif, dyeing the yarns and weaving,” she said, adding that a piece of harungguan ulos sold for Rp1.2 million (US$78).
Edward hoped that the festival would draw global attention to ulos.
“We want ulos to go global so that the welfare of craftspeople will be improved,” he said.
Tarutung Regent Nikson Nababan also expressed a similar hope and underlined the regional administration’s commitment to supporting around 3,000 weavers in North Tapanuli.
“Weavers wishing to increase their production capacity can join our training. North Tapanuli administration will also provide modern weaving tools for them,” Nikson said.
