Editor's Pick: Jakarta Fashion Week 2015

Continuing from the success of seventh year’s event, once again Jakarta Fashion Week was held to support the capacity building and business skills guidance to a group of talented young fashion designers in Indonesia, to prepare them for penetration into the international fashion market and showcase in global fashion industry.

Showcasing more than 220 designers and labels, all indicating significant increase from last year which reaffirm its status as the largest fashion event in the country and the region. This year, DEW create a highlights to pay homage to the seventh year of Jakarta Fashion Week event and marks the 3rd year of the Indonesia Fashion Forward programme. Our assessment also leads to promising emerging designers at Cleo Fashion Award and graduate students at Binus Northumbria School of Design.

Our main focus is to select some designers who are quite responsive to the dynamic market of ready-to-wear collection, both in terms of design creativity and sustainable business. Through this highlights, we showcase 9 talented Indonesian fashion designers who provided a glimpse of the aesthetic and promising business in the future. Click through the slideshow above to savor our highlights. Exclusively curated by DEW Magazine. (Text Melodya Lukita and Teuku Ajie)

Toton – Toton The label has made a strong mark in the business of fashion through their consistency to highlight on Indonesia’s abundant traditional artisanship, wearability and ethnic, passed-through-generations handicrafts. Among Indonesian Fashion Forward generations, this young designer can be said is the most prominent in building their brand image. With awareness to merge vision and market demand and simultaneously communicate their products properly and consistently, is a very important thing to enter the global fashion market. This is what makes this brand is growing very rapidly within the last 2 years. For Spring/Summer 2015, Toton Januar explored Hybrid Batik Print, Indonesian-Tile Inspired Patterns and Colors, Embroideries in the shape of withered flowers and applied it to a range of strong-silhouetted tops, dresses and skirt. This collection is fairly emotionally based on explanation of the designer, as inspired by personal experiences of disappointment. Maybe something bad for the heart, is good for the arts and hopefully for the business as well.

fbudi – fbudi by Felicia Budi has successfully grabbed people’s attention with her signature craftsmanship design. Came at day one of JFW with “PERSEGI” collection, fbudi showed sculptural constructed creation from simple square-cut fabric with meticulous folds, texture and dimension add to flat fabric. The inspiration came from Human, which includes its anatomy, movement and geometry. To complete its package, fbudi strengthen its foundation with sustainability using an excellent fabrication, recyclable tyvek as its main material.

From Tiny Islands – This jewelry brand, From Tiny Islands has made their mark on winning their second collection, “Obscura” on Cleo Fashion Award 2015 for The Most Promising Accessories Brand. Focusing on their love of quests and adventures, Jane Odelia and Nathalisa Octavia created a line of necklaces, rings, and bracelets that inspired by magic realism, which intended to make the viewers to feel a surreal experience through wearing it. They used natural material, which captured a strange and magical energy (believe it or not). An authentic detail was assembled obscurely From Tiny Islands.

Sapto Djojokartiko – Who does not know Sapto Djojokartiko, his appearance in every single year in JFW always has been something to be waiting for. In Spring/Summer 2015, Sapto created shown two collections for different shows that inspired by gebyok, which stands for Javanese carved door that portrayed to embroidery on the garments he designed. With neutral color range, Sapto came with medium to long length silhouette with modern pieces of fitted to boxy fit that combined sweet, elegant, and sweet overall look without leaving any classy drops, not a bit.

Rosalyn Citta – Graduated con laude from the master course in Instituto Marangoni Milano, she then deeper sharpen her sense of finesse. Debuted in Vogue Talents Corner 2012, Rosalyn Citta always present within the fluidity of her pieces as it has been one of her aesthetic. Bold silhouette plays an important role while its mélange textures and handmade quality deeper portray the artisanal value.

Patrick Owen – After joining a new creative team behind the label, including Zico Halim (One of the promising creative talent in Jakarta), this label was heading down the right path. Their Spring/Summer 2015 revolves around the theme of Dayak tribe originating from Indonesia Borneo – Kalimantan. In this collection, Patrick continues to explore the brand’s edgy aesthetic by employing ‘3D Macrame’ (pop up, hand woven technic) highlighting the rich tribal vibe inspired by the Dayak tribe. Cleverly intertwining such intricate details with golden coins embellishment and with the bold art work to create a captivating slew of sartorial, sophisticated yet extremely sporty pieces. Although this will be the last collection for Zico, because he decided to look for a new experience in the course of his career, at least it becomes a sweet dessert for Patrick Owen label.

Friederich Herman – Graduated from University of Huddersfield with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion in 2011. He marched forward aims to build a career as a fashion designer. Many awards he gained since plunging into this industry. Started when he was nominated for The Most Promising Young Designer Award in 2009 at Malaysia-International Fashion Week and two years later he won the first runner-up in Lomba Perancang Mode (LPM) Femina in 2011, other awards followed afterwards. For his latest collection, he returned to explore bold and minimal at the same time as the signature, inspired by the eccentricity of 1960s romance comedy films. The idea is a strong, powerful femme fatale during the era which has that certain something, like the magnetism of a star—a rare charisma. The silhouettes and styling for this season are zagged toward something refreshing, pragmatic, and minimal—refined romance with subtle execution that would fit seamlessly into any women’s wardrobe. There are elegant silk gazar dresses or sheer organdi blazer combined with fluid, exaggerated wide trousers. In simple terms the collection illustrates the strength of Friederich’s women.

Olenka – After last year well deserved Award, Olenka, a Ready-to-Wear brand based in Bali opened Cleo Fashion Award 2015 with its “STORYTELLER” collection. This new collection comes with thirty pieces separates, dresses, and its signature swimwear. African tribes of ancient artifacts to cubism art came as the inspiration with its quirky above neutral colors that integrated very well to each piece designed. The collection was packaged and shown marvelously on the runway, it was another level of feeling to see the brand grows progressively.

Nadia Umammi – Graduated from Binus Northumbria School of Design this year, Nadia Umammi made the final thesis project that captured many eyes during the BNSD show for Jakarta Fashion Week 2015. Inspired by the Biomorphic silhouette, the imagery which she took after a student trip when visiting South Sulawesi (Celebes). The details in this collection are eventually derived from the natural pattern. The prints are cracked and marble with motive – handmade makes the design really engaging and distinctive, the fabrics represent the curved of the form like the arthritic. Neoprene materials and colours like navy blue and sanity green were complement for the natural theme. As a student she was able to transform a set of meaning to the end user and her production skills has meet the industrial requirements, now only experience she needed for her career as a professional.