(JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak)

Young designer Sarah Dewanto has one goal in life: Early retirement.

'€œI'€™m looking forward to no longer working at 40 and that'€™s why I work hard now for the future,'€ she says.

At the age of 22, she now has her own line of batik ready-to-wear clothes both online and in physical stores in Jakarta; Makassar, South Sulawesi; and Pekanbaru, Riau '€” through her mother'€™s Myrra Boutique.

A participant in Indonesia Fashion Week 2016, Sarah also has other businesses in the food and beverage industry.

The student of the School of Management at Trisakti University started to design for her mother, Myrra Soeprapto, at 19, soon after she finished high school.

'€œI started to design and make clothes for my friends in middle high school every prom season, but only in the past three years have I focused on mass production,'€ she said.

While earlier she used woven fabrics in her designs, Sarah found her buyers preferred the more affordable batik.

'€œI used to travel to Bali and Nusa Tenggara to get the material, which added costs to the clothes and made them hard to sell,'€ she said. '€œMy designs are for adult women with an edgy and cheerful style.'€

Sarah uses Japanese fashion styles as her reference, especially the drapery that has become her design signature.

'€œI have the three volumes of Drape Drape by Hisako Sato in my library,'€ she said.

Although she loves to read, she finds she has not enough time to finish a book and prefers to browse on the internet for reading material. '€œI only read comics on my phone now.'€

'€” JP/Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak

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