Celebrating East Meets West

The marriage between Eastern wisdom and Western structure has continued to fascinate the world of fashion. Six top Indonesian fashion designers displayed their East Meets West interpretations during the recent I Fashion Festival.

At the two-day festival, designer Didiet Maulana, renowned for his exploration of the country’s ikat woven cloth, showcased his Senandung Flora line, or the humming of flowers, from his Svarna collection of Indonesian ikat.

“It is a special collection — some designs inspired by the East meets West theme. I created tenun [woven cloth] patterns that are very feminine and are adorned with detailed embellishment,” Didiet said ahead of the show.

For the collection, he mixed and matched the western appetite for the A-line pattern and volume with various tenun cloths in purple, red and maroon.

Didiet Maulana  (JP/Jerry Adiguna)

A purple jacket plus a pair of tenun pants, for example, showcases a stylish yet simple gesture for active women, while his cropped top with knee-length volume skirt or a simple A-line dress sends out a feminine feel.

Danny Satriadi displayed a collection that is inspired by the Tibetan robe, or chuba, and other elements of Tibetan culture for his new line, Arkamaya.

The collection, which is entitled Novelty of Chuba, exposed designs that infused batik patterns from West Java’s Cirebon, linen, woven viscose and lurik cloth from Central Java.

Danny, who is the newest member of the Indonesian Fashion Designers Association (IPMI), uses pink, rosewood, yellow and blue for his cropped jacket, tunic and harem pants with beading embellishment, as well as his mini dress and cape.

He also offered a purplish blouse and harem pants set, yellow top and red bottoms, as well as a yellowish mini dress with eccentric yet stunning details.

At the festival, designer Billy Tjong presented his ready-to-wear collection, which is a collaboration project with Zalora online shop.

He applied simple drawings, mostly in a form of dresses, such as a long green dress that would be perfect for evening events and a long-sleeved black mini dress -- an all-time favorite for both day and evening events.

Barli Asmara also showcased his ready-to-wear Noir et Blanc collection, which had already been featured at the recent 2015 Jakarta Fashion Week.

A list of dramatic volume dresses with detailed embroidery — all in black and white as clearly described in the collection’s title — got the audience’s attention as soon as the models took the stage, wearing masks with crystal ornaments.

Votum, a third label from Sebastian Gunawan, exposed its Spring/Summer 2015 collection, called La Primavera, at the festival. The feminine ready-to-wear collection ranged from mini dresses, to peplum and maxi dresses, using materials that included lace, organza, crochet and silk.

Veteran designer Ghea Panggabean presented the Treasure of Sriwijaya collection from her Ghea Fashion Studio line. 

The collection combined Palembang songket woven cloth with batik in the enchanting set, which included blouses, knee-length skirts, blazers, trousers and strapless long dresses.

Ghea used mostly purple, black, gold, orange and maroon for her collection.

A long black coat with gold-thread pants stole the limelight as it sent out a royal Javanese style, while her long purple blouse and knee-length skirt that exploited the Palembang songket spoke of simple yet elegant design.

Source: Celebrating East Meets West