The fashion zone presents a selection of unique designs from Jakarta’s Felicia Budi, Savira Lavinia and Tomy Ambiyo.

 

Felicia Budi features adaptations of Old Betawi’s typical clothing, which are “Kebaya Kerancang” for women, and “Baju Sadariah” for men. Reflecting on the current social challenges that Jakarta faces, starting from the fading of Betawi culture to everyday problems such as the traffic and heat of the city, Felicia Budi seeks to offer solution by redesigning these attires to fit the present-day conditions. The results are new versions of “Kebaya Kerancang” and “Baju Sadariah”, in which she has made use of lightweight fabric to offer a collection that is wearable. Lastly, the ornaments and colour palette emphasizes the vibrance of Betawi culture.

 

“Jakarta is the city where I was born and raised.” With that statement came also the main inspiration behind Savira Lavinia’s design. Her approach for this collection entitled Indulge derived from her personal interest in exploring elements found in Betawi culture, which mark her sense of belonging to Jakarta as her hometown. This includes the “Ondel-Ondel” (Traditional Betawi puppet), whose silhouette became the muse behind her piece. As part of her research, Savira Lavinia explored Jakarta after dark, curious of the surprises that could offer a city that never sleeps. She deliberately wore the actual “Ondel-Ondel” costume so as to engage with the public, testing their reactions, as if wanting to measure their connectedness towards this most celebrated Betawi icon.

 

How to think futuristic out of Jakarta, without losing its essence? Certainly, it is a challenging question for Indonesian contemporary creators. However, under his clothing and accessories line byo, designer Tommy Ambiyo successfully imagined what Jakarta could be in the future. Through his Fall/Winter 2019 collection, FRAGMENTS, he has realised several science-fiction inspired items, which also highlight references that emerged from Jakarta’s architecture. The geometric patterns in Tommy Ambiyo’s collection were inspired by Islamic mosaic, but could also represent cracked tiles that are being assembled into one. The latter seems to reflect his hope in Betawi culture; despite it slowly disappearing, there should always be an attempt to put it back together -- even in the far future.