Indonesian fashion designers should consider designing clothes by combining traditional fabric and global taste to penetrate more marketsJakarta (ANTARA) - Chairman of the Indonesian Fashion Chamber and fashion designer Ali Charisma has encouraged Indonesian designers to combine traditional fabric with designs popular globally for their clothing.
"Indonesian fashion designers should consider designing clothes by combining traditional fabric and global taste to penetrate more markets. The clothes should have a streamlined form akin to the design of those foreign fashion brands we often see at malls," Charisma told ANTARA here recently.
Charisma noted that traditional clothing was mostly worn only by Indonesians since they were designed solely for special events rather than for daily use.
In a bid to popularize Indonesian fashion on the global stage, several designers have decided to use fabric with printed patterns for designing their clothing, he stated.
Despite using printed batik fabrics easily reproduced in large-scale production, Charisma denied those designers had neglected traditional handmade batik producers while admitting that the designers' focus to globalize Indonesia’s clothing was different from the traditional enterprises' objective to preserve the traditional culture.
"Handmade batik produced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is better for use only in limited-edition clothes, as it would not be economically feasible to use handmade batik for the global market, as we seek quality and price consistency for large-scale production," Charisma stated.
Charisma affirmed that traditional batik fabric would have its own market and potential buyers, especially the upper-middle class and traditional batik enthusiasts willing to wait for months and pay a high price for the custom fabric.
Innovation in design and clothing pattern should be considered first while producing clothes for the international market, especially to accommodate the taste and interests of the global youth, Charisma remarked while stressed the need for the government to accommodate contemporary and modern designs.
"The government should establish an agency to hire textile or traditional designers to design innovative clothing that are in sync with contemporary and future trends," the designer stated.
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Translator: Maria Cicilia, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Sri Haryati
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