Designer Dina Midiani from the Indonesian Fashion Designers Association (APPMI) explored tenun handwoven fabric from Toraja during a fashion show titled “Designer Label”.

The fashion show, which also showcased collections from Nieta Hidayani and Handy Hartono, was a part of the recent Jakarta Fashion and Food Festival in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

Dina collaborated with Dinny Jusuf, the businesswoman behind Toraja Melo, a company that focuses on selling handmade products from Tana Toraja in South Sulawesi. Dina translated the hard work of Toraja women and their handmade tenun fabrics into her signature designs, which were themed “Survival”.

“The designs are about how Toraja women actively struggle to make the woven fabric and preserve their culture,” she said, adding that the ready-to-wear pieces were certainly not mass-produced.

She took design inspiration from the 1950s to the 1960s, the periods when women started to enter various business fields in the work-force. The collection, she said, was a blend of folklore, urban themes and an adventure look.

Color blocking, edgy look, flowery patterns and stripes are embodied on over a dozen of mesmerizing casual and formal outfits. Dina confidently applied tenun fabric on all or most of her designs, combining them with a few other fabrics like denim and giving a final touch of tenun in the shoes, sandals and handbags from Toraja Melo.

She tried to make the fabrics exceptional by using leather trim and hand embroidery to underscore the elements of feminine and masculine, showing the tough and fun sides of a woman at the same time.

One of the designs is an orange asymmetric short dress with an asymmetric parramba pattern or narrow stripes on the skirt. The tassel application, commonly found in the original tenun fabric, became an accessory on both sides of the skirt, giving it a girly look.

Another design is a full application of pamiring patterns (one big stripe that borders a plain colored cloth) in
a mini-sleeveless dress with an apron and drapery accent on one side beautified by simple embroidered flowers on the chest.

Dina played with the patterns, making shirts from vertical stripes and minidress from horizontal borong-borong patterns, featuring several stripes between plain areas.

Bringing tenun Toraja into fashion, Dinny said, would help preserve the weaving tradition in Tana Toraja. The tradition is currently in a poor state because many women with weaving skill change their profession or lose their skill, a trend which eventually will cause some patterns to disappear.

Another designer, Musa Widyatmodjo, showed off his passion for the Javanese cloth lurik, using the cloth to create an 80-piece collection of cocktail dresses that can be mixed and matched.

His reason for choosing lurik as an application was simple.

“I don’t want to make lurik something ethnic and traditional. I want to breathe a different character into the fabric,” he said.

He took silhouettes from the period of 1920s to 1970s, picking up ladies’ hats as accessories that highlighted the coastal areas.

One of the designs is a lace cardigan and lurik mermaid skirt. The black and grey lurik in the skirt has a different character once it is paired with small black lace. Another design offers a lurik high-waist-coat dress with cap sleeves and sexy black lace application in the middle of the dress, from the chest down to the end of the dress.

Many other designs did not use lurik at all, but judging from the ones that did, Musa transformed traditional lurik into ready-to-wear outfits with modern styles and classic flavors.

When asked about the trends in ready-to-wear outfits, he said fellow Indonesian designers generally anticipated cultural events when people “normally” would buy new dresses.

Given the major cultural and religious events every year (Idul Fitri, Christmas and Chinese New Year), Indonesian people want to have outfits that can be used on different occasions.

“This year, the trend of ready-to-wear outfits are the ones that can fit various ages and occasions,” said the designer who has 20 years of experience.

Popular

Indonesia, Germany see new programs for migrant workers training

Airlines weigh Middle East cancellations after US strikes in Iran

Trump’s decision to bomb Iran exposes fissures in US politics