The past few years have seen a resurgence of popularity regarding the use of traditional Indonesian cloths on contemporary designs. Alleira, for instance, is partially credited with the revival of batik in everyday clothing, and we continue to report the manner in which Cita Tenun Indonesia has been feverishly working hand in hand with a strong roster of our most prominent designers to expand the tenun industry.
Someone who has also shown initiative to develop traditional fabrics is Didiet Maulana. The designer established a line called Ikat Indonesia in July 2011, and since then he has popularised Indonesian ikat under this particular brand. He has been kept very busy with projects under this line recently, as evidenced by the debut of three different projects in the first quarter of 2013.
The first of these was a collection called Romansa Gala. He manifested the fashions of the 1920s using traditional ikat from Palembang, paired with a touch of pastel to lend to the grace and femininity that has become the hallmark of his designs. The thirty six-strong men’s and women’s collection adopts the style of the roaring twenties into contemporary pret-a-porter dresses and separates. I dig how the soft pastels of the women’s collection run so contrary to the solid darks and sharp lines of the men’s collection, but I find myself in a dilemma once more: while the silhouette of the dresses are great, I also really like the simple straightforwardness of the men’s kimonos.
