The 12th edition of Jakarta Fashion Week (JFW) officially began Tuesday, featuring 76 shows and more than 270 local and international labels at a fashion tent beside Senayan City mall, Central Jakarta.

In her opening address, JFW chairperson and Global Creative Media (GCM) CEO Svida Alisjahbana acknowledged the event’s delay, noting that it was tradition to start the fashion week on the last Saturday of every October. This year, the event was originally slated to run from Oct. 19 to 25 but it was delayed three days to make way for the presidential inauguration.

“But this year, just two weeks before the start, we were limited to postponing the event in order to give the Indonesian people the opportunity to welcome the moment of the inauguration of our new elected leaders,” she said.

With a capacity for 300 to 600 people, JFW 2020, which lasts until Oct. 28, is expected to be attended by 60,000 to 70,000 people throughout the week.

The first show after the opening ceremony highlighted three Japanese labels: Enharmonic Tavern, Rieka Inoue and Yoakeh. East Asia featured heavily on the opening day, joined by Seokwoon Yoon and SETSETSET from South Korea.

Local heroes are not in short supply, with Amot Syamsurimuda, Cotton Ink and Kle featuring their latest offerings and Oscar Lawalata and Sejauh Mata Memandang closing the night.

Tuesday also marked the opening of the Fashionlink showroom and market, a trade show concept with more than 100 participating brands, open to both the public and wholesale buyers.

For its 12th year, Svida acknowledged that JFW was relatively young, but added that it had become a reliable catalyst for the Indonesian fashion industry.

“Jakarta Fashion Week has succeeded in providing an ecosystem for the growth of the Indonesian fashion industry. We started with a young designer competition, known as Lomba Perancang Mode, which is now celebrating its 40th year,” she explained.

The competition’s menswear finals were held on Tuesday, while the general section finalists will be presented on Thursday. The winners’ parade will be held on Monday evening, shortly before the last shows close JFW 2020.

Throughout the week, fashion presentations by the likes of Sean Sheila, Danjyo Hiyoji and BINHouse will be presented alongside other events, ranging from discussions to dance performances. Fifteen-minute ethnic music performances will also be held for Fashionlink attendees every morning until Saturday.

JFW 2020 marked a new chapter in the event’s history, starting with the changes in management under GCM Group along with women’s magazine Dewi and lifestyle magazine Pesona. The logo font was also changed to reflect the departure from its previous management, Femina magazine.

Also new in store was the use of a standalone app for smartphone users, allowing attendees to peruse the shows’ schedules and group together their invitations under one tab, rather than print or download individual barcodes via email.

Attendees will also be able to book their shows directly through the app, which is available on Android’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store. However, the general audience quota is limited, with most of the space reserved for media partners and invited guests of sponsors and designers.

Despite the new direction and unexpected setbacks, JFW 2020 has continued to stick true to tradition and will be closed with the annual Dewi Fashion Knights show on Monday night.

Noted designers Auguste Soesastro, Mel Ahyar, Jeffry Tan and Adrian Gan will present their designs for Borderless, a theme Dewi editor-in-chief Margaretha Untoro said was inspired by the rapid development of information technology and rise of open data. (ste)

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia