Fashion Week 2013, Indonesias Dream to be World Fashion Hub

Jakarta (Antara) - February is the fashion month for Indonesia as it has successfully organized Indonesia Fashion Week (IFW) 2013. The fashion week - featuring 503 Indonesian fashion brands of women's wear, men's wear, kids' wear, Muslim's wear, accessories, and textiles - was participated in by 208 national designers. Famous foreign designers among other things from the Netherlands, Brazil, Sweden, and Malaysia took part in the event which was held at the Jakarta Convention Center, on February 14-17, this year. The participation of those foreign designers in the national fashion event was one of the efforts to bring Indonesian fashion brand to international market, an IFW organizing committee official, Ernst K Remboen, said on the sidelines of the IFW opening ceremony, on February 14. The foreign designers included Addy van den Krommenacker (of the Netherlands), Samuel Cirnansck (Brazil), Camilla Welton (Sweden), and Melinda Looi (Malaysia). According to Remboen, Indonesia has a dream to become one of the world's fashion hub countries, and to influence the international mode in 2025. "The foreign designers' participation in the IFW 2013 were also facilitated by the World Fashion Week based in the United States of America, as a recognition of Indonesia's membership in that international mode organization," he added. Indonesia has become a member of the World Fashion Week Organization since 2012 and with this affiliation, they will support fashion events held in Indonesia and promote them as part of the international fashion events. "The World Fashion Week Organization has mission to develop the fashion industry around the world as part of the efforts to alleviate poverty and create connectivity among member countries," he said. Besides, Indonesia has also joined the International Fashion Week which is based in Brisbane, Australia. Adopting the world standard, the IFW 2013 had an extravagant runway stage for daily fashion shows that presented four themes, namely "Avant Garde, Cocktail, & Party" or "Evening Wear" on the first one; "Muslim Wear" on the second day; "Men's and Urban Wear" on the third day; and "Casual Cutting Edge" on the fourth or last day of the fashion week, a spokesperson of the IFW 2013, Putri Damayanti said. The annual fashion event attracted around 50,000 visitors daily. The seat capacity for fashion show was 3,500 to 4,000 people per one show. The IFW 2013 area was divided into nine zones, namely casual, kids, accessories, textiles, men's wear, Muslim wear, concept point, starting point, and green point zones. "The most important is that during the IFW 2013 we make every fashion industry element harmonious between one to another," Remboen added. A young Indonesian designer, Dian Wahyu Utami, the owner of Dian Pelangi Brand, has proposed the holding of "Hijab Fashion Week" in the future to promote Muslim dresses. An annual Muslim wear expo would be a concrete step toward realizing the Indonesian government's target to make the country an Asian fashion hub by 2018, and one of the the world's fashion centers by 2015. A Hijab Fashion Week could give a concrete contribution to the fashion industry of the country having the largest Muslim nation in the world, she said. "Hijab Fashion Week is still a dream, but I have shared the idea with various parties. If we have the Hijab Fashion Week, we will be able to set a Muslim wear trend at the international level," she said. Malaysia's Muslim women have so far shopped in Indonesia for Muslim dresses, she added. The IFW 2013 was not merely a fashion expo but was also integrated with business activities during the event which adopted a business-to-business (B2B) system, which helped connect businessmen to do on-line transactions. It is the first fashion event which combines fashion shows and trade show. "The IFW has invited international buyers from 10 countries including the US, Australia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and several Middle eastern nations. We, however, also welcome retail buyers who will purchase fashion products for their personal collections or to be sold further," Remboen said. Director of Indonesian Fashion Week (IFW) 2013 Dina Midiani had estimated garment and accessory sale transactions to reach more than Rp8 billion during the event being held at the Jakarta Convention Center from February 14 to 17, 2013. "The value of this year's transactions is expected to increase about 20 percent from last year's Rp7 billion," Midiani said in Jakarta, on February 14, 21013. Indonesia is already one of the main players, with a local fashion industry now estimated to be worth US$6.6 billion dollars a year. The country's garment products are more competitive than those from other countries because Indonesia has the skills to make attractive dresses, according to her. According to the 2011 data, fashion products had dominated Indonesia's creative industrial exports by contributing around 55 percent of the total value of the country's creative industrial exports in 2010. "Fashion is a sub-sector that contributes the biggest value to the creative industrial exports reaching around US$72 billion in 2010," Trade Minister Marie Elka Pangestu said at the opening of the Indonesia Creative Products Week (PPKI) 2011 in Jakarta on July 6, 2011. Fashion is also a sub-sector that absorbs a lot of workers. The fashion area employed 54.5 percent of the total labor force in the creative economy sector in 2010.(*)