23 Fashion District was organized by 23Paskal Shopping Center in cooperation with Indonesia Fashion Chamber (IFC). The fashion show is the biggest in Bandung and displayed the works by 50 well-known designers. The theme of the show is “Forecast Your Future Fashion”.

Eight students class of 2014 of Textile Craft involved in the fashion show were Valeria Atiyasanta, Rindrianti Septiana Wahyuningsih, Amatya Talita, Quina Anggia Esmeralda, Arlene Dwiasti Soemardi, Rahmi Nurhafisa, Ni Made Santi Udiyani, and Elgana. Each of their work displays characteristic that was inspired by locality of Indonesia.

This is the first participation of Textile Craft of ITB in 23 Fashion District. The works displayed were the final projects of final year students that relate to “Aggrandising Tactile”, which means emphasizing tactile in works of fashion. The reason behind it is the background of the student designers who major in craft, which literally means making things by hand.

ITB went with new products that use natural potencial using new techniques. These techniques are the combination of several existing techniques such as Balinese Weaving that was done using Majalaya Weaving technique, or fusion of various surface textile techniques into a unique new technique.

Praise was given to the works of ITB students. Their works were dominated by soft cream colors, mixed and matched with blue, orange, maroon, as well as with attractive accessories.

One of the student designers from ITB, Arlene, used transparency to the weaving. It was visually inspired by one of tourism spots in Pandawa Beach, Bali. She also worked together with local traditional weavers from Bali and Majalaya.

Amatya Talita, another student designer from ITB, was inspired by a cliff in East Nusa Tenggara called Tebing Kelebba Maja. The idea was executed using manual screen printing technique and binder puff paste as the main material.

Indonesian culture is also represented in wayang stories. Two students, Elgana and Santi, carried wayang story in their works. Santi, who comes from Bali, got her idea form Wayang Kamasan of her hometown and executed it using layering effect. Elgana, who likes fantasy stories, carried the character Sita of Ramayana. Elgana used surface design technique to make a magnificent stage costume.

Art students are highly creative when it comes to turning their surroundings into ideas. Santa, for example, got her idea from visualization of rust. In the process, she combined several surface textile techniques to give rustic and eclectic appearance on fabric to make it look rusty.

Quina, another student designers of ITB, explored glass filter motif using natural fiber and dye in her work. Her work has uniqueness because she made the textile herself. On another work, natural richness becomes the idea for Rindrianti, who takes the shape of oyster mushroom gills to be applied on clothes, using border and pleats to play with texture and volume.

According to Nadia Arfan, one of lecturers in Textile Craft of ITB who was supervising the student designers, those final projects by final year students were once displayed in the campus but not yet to public. Each final project can be displayed 2-3 times in a year.

By participating in the fashion show, Nadia and Sabrina as the supervisors hope that public will get the picture about the difference between craft and fashion. Craft focuses more on material processing or utilization of material potential, which carry Indonesia culture by using single or combined techniques in the process.

“Craft prioritizes more on the hand and designer’s skills than existing trend,” Sabrina said.

Reporter: Prihitia Eksi