Fashion Scene: Black is for Yosafat

Pouring monochromatic colour palette in his showcase in Jakarta Fashion Week 2012, Yosafat Dwi Kurniawan feasts the fashionista with black dominating the stage. He partners with Nokia this year, mentioned that he was inspired by the simple yet innovative design of Nokia N9 (this is NOT a sponsored post, really—although I checked out the phone by myself and found some interesting sleek design in it J ).

The Dichotomy theme which means separation of two distinguished featured elements is translated in richness of texture he uses. The dominancy of black does neither bore the eyes nor look stiff on the models. From pencil skirts to pants, see-through tops to see-through peplum, the designer attempts to bring out edged sophistication. 

Please excuse my lousy blurry picts, here are the best I could shoot with my bloody compact cam. Crossing fingers to grab better cam though.

From tulle, velvet, jersey, and leather, each fabric shares equal spotlight. The surprise for me are this knitted top that looks sexy and comfy, and the see through pocket that reminds me of Alexander Wang SS2012. The whole collection is neatly prepared, I have to say although there are some pieces I am not really into...

The jacket on the first and third picture feel a little bit too costume-y for me, don't they remind you of flight attendant-slash-marching band girls? And the jacket in the middle reminds me of vampire, which means it will be worn only on Halloween (sorry!). Nevertheless, the whole collection signals me that Yosafat is one young designer to be anticipated for--I'm really looking forward for his next move and I wish him all the best!

Fashion Scene: Splash of Jakarta Fashion Week 2012

(WARNING: LONG TEXT POST)

Jakarta Fashion Week is a yearly event where Indonesian designers, both the "established" and upcoming ones showcase their newest collections to buyers, editors, socialites, celebrities, and "commoners." As I have mentioned in some posts earlier, I happen to take part in this yearly event as part of Oscar Lawalata x Justin Smith's team, assisting most of the marketing and PR materials needed. Running from backstage to press conference to fashion tent was tiring albeit the experience shows the side of fashion I have never seen before. The downside and "unglorious" tasks are part of the obligation, yet I am pretty much excited handling such big event.

I have been meaning to take lots of pictures to share the "inside" part of JFW yet my camera wouldn't allow me. It may sound like I'm whining, but the reality really hurts. I took tons of pictures of the runways and NONE turns out post-worthy :( So I decided to grab some pictures from the Jakarta Fashion Week 2012 gallery, and found some minimalism and pastels that stood out from the overly-embellished dresses and night gowns. 

Alekeunike, Hien Le, Jill by Gloria Agatha

From my super quick browsing I found that these three white-pastels combination are what I love the most. Alekeunike and Jill by Gloria Agatha are two brands that are still new to my ears, I swore I tried to google them and looked for these two in the schedule list but couldn't find any :( Am I that tired or is the information so limited? Hien Le, on the other hand, is a designer from Berlin who came to Jakarta along with other "Berlin Fashion Week" designers to showcase their collections, I am not quite sure how JFW Committee or Goethe Institut as the organizer pick those designers nor did I watch Hien Le's show. I simply post it because I like it ;)

*just edited two backstage photo ;)

Oscar and the team :) *not full team unfortunately..

The humble-extraordinaire milliner, Justin Smith and his assistant, Hanu at backstage. He is definitely a nice and super talented person!

This is the best picture I took despite the blur :( it is the finale of Boessert-Schorn collection, another Berlin designer that I have talked about. As soon as I have time (and ultra willingness) I would try my best to compile other looks, sadly though the JFW website does not provide complete pictures of each designer's collection, which makes it hard for me to gain complete professional pictures for reviewing purpose. I do not really understand the policy so I assume that the pictures are actually aimed for commercial purpose? (that the media will purchase it from them?) *if any of the committees reads this, they will perhaps be offended (sorry!) yet I find it rather disappointing that even the international fashion world has limited access to the photographs. Even to backstage (perhaps they do not want some perverts take pictures of the models while they are changing the clothes), but I really hope that there are more coverage of this yearly event besides the social media bombs that spread words and snapshots of the collections. Thoughts?

Love-Worthy: dark romanticism

Bold, edgy, striking, but melancholy are the words that describe Sapto Djojokartiko's collections really well. I have previously seen his pieces featured in some fashion spreads in the magazines, and he is one designer that is  totally under the radar. I really love how he shows high fashion technique, deep understanding of woman's body, and cultural essence at the same time. He will show his collection in this year's Jakarta Fashion Week along with four other astonishing Indonesian designers in Dewi Fashion Knights show. I have to say, working side by side embracing the dark romanticism of Sapto Djojokartiko is totally crave worthy. See some of his creations here and prove it yourself. (my heart literally skips a beat seeing his amazing creation).

images are courtesy of Sapto Djojokartiko