Creating a Garment

As part of the exhibition, I am making a garment to explore the techniques of design development, which is something that I never really had nor learn before and the production of a garment; from pattern cutting, making a toile and sewing it to create the piece.
I started doing an experimentation on design development ideas with Marilyn during the previous workshop week. Basically, I was putting and mixing several already-made garment from home and playing along with it. Twisting some parts of it, turned it upside-down, inside-out, folding it backwards, making different shapes from it and see whether there was an interesting silhouette or shapes from it.
I also started to putting it all together on an image of a body and see how it would fit on a body, play around more with it and basically just finding more and more inspirations and ideas from this little yet reallu useful experimentation.
So I ended up with the dress that I have for the exhibition.
In a way, the theme and concepts from this dress is not based on Indonesia, but, in the other hand, it is still part of my Big Idea of what I'm aiming to do during this course; which is to explore in the techniques and materials on producing a garment.
I also played along with different materials for the garment, I used Neoprene as the fabric and added beads and sheer paper fabric as the decoration for this dress. I also learned the different techniques in sewing, whether it's machine or hand-stitching.
This whole experience have broaden my knowledge and I have finally reached one of my goals before coming to this course; which is to learn how to create a garment from scratch.

indonesian art presentation

i had to make a presentation regarding indonesian art, in which i showed several pictures on the arts, dances, architectures and the facts itself.

Academic Tutorial Projects

Based on the academic tutorial, I was assigned to make different types of prints on fabric; digital prints, traditional print and a combination of both. I used Lectra and Adobe Photoshop to make the lay out and the image of the print and used cotton and silk as the fabric.

Nanotechnology Idea

A trip one day to Nanoforce at Queen Mary University in Mile End area with Dorota and the other fashion girls has opened our eyes that there are many other possibilites in producing new things and using new technologies. Nanoforce Technology Limited is a company set up through the Micro and Nanotechnology (MNT) funding from the Department of Trade and Industry (now the Technology Strategy Board) and the London Development Agency to exploit and disseminate nano technology to the creative industries and beyond.

Nanotechnology: refers to a field whose theme is the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller, and involves developing materials or devices within that size.
Nanotechnology is extremely diverse, ranging from novel extensions of conventional device physics, to completely new approaches based upon molecular self-assembly, to developing new materials with dimensions on the nanoscale, even to speculation on whether we can directly control matter on the atomic scale.

We spoke to a representative who offered to help us to make a proposal if we have any idea in using Nanotechnology into our garment, in which they would help us to make and fund the project. I think this is a really really great opportunity; having a help in funding to do my project as well as the technology and the chance to make something different.
I had several ideas regarding nanotechnology, which is to make the 3D fabric using nanotechnology and/or making a light emitting fabric in which I could put a Wayang show into a fabric (garment) and that, when everytime the model walks, the motifs on the fabric moves around (in this case, the wayang show moves around and creates some sort of Wayang show on the garment). I think I might have to work on the animation then nanotechnology would play the role as the fibres that makes the Wayang move around. I saw this similar technology which was made by Phillips, the light company in which they made a LED T-shirt.

Januari Di Kota Dili

This is one of the most influential song for me, it reminds me of Indonesia so much, with its characteristic and lyrics of a love story in Dili, East Timor. This song was made when East Timor was not yet separated from Indonesia, it was really popular in 1997-1998, it was one of my favourite song from childhood. I found it one day through a friend and realizes how "Indonesia" this song is..It made me want to go back home and everytime I listen to it, I'm just triggered to do more research on Indonesia, it sounds weird, but it is some influence I have here..

Concept and Technical Idea

Besides wayang,I also checked on Indonesian art on wood carving and relief, which came to my mind to create some sort of 3D effect on a fabric using several techniques like laser cutting with materials from rubber/leather/silicone/neoprene/etc; as seen on the Balenciaga garments.
So I came up with an idea to make that sort of garment, because instead of having a 2D pattern on fabric, why not make a 3D one, besides, I don't really see it oftenly. And to put a concept of Indonesian art as its theme would be a great way for me as my basic idea is to explore and promote them.

So there are 2 concepts that I have for my big idea:
1. Exploring and promoting Indonesian art -> in terms of concept/theme.
2. Exploring on the technique of making a 3D shapes or motifs on a fabric which will be then make into a garment -> in terms of technique.

Wayang Show "Wayang Kulit (Dewa Ruci by Ki Manteb)"

Wayang

As I go through my research on Indonesian Art, I was also interested in another most popular art, Wayang, which is an Indonesian and Malay word for theatre. When the term is used to refer to kinds of puppet theater, sometimes the puppet itself is referred to as wayang. "Bayang", the Javanese word for shadow or imagination, also connotes "spirit." Performances of shadow puppet theater are accompanied by gamelan in Java, and by "gender wayang" in Bali.

There are different kinds of Wayang:
Wayang kulit
Wayang topeng or wayang gedog or wayang wong
Wayang Golek or Rod Puppets
Wayang karucil or wayang klitik
Wayang beber
Wayang Sadat
Wayang Wahyu
each with different form and different characteristic, but the most popular is Wayang Kulit which mainly tells a story based on ancient Hinduism and Islamic stories, like Shinta and Arjuna, Mahabbarata, etc.

Batik

Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2008 - The next step of the Development of My Thinking

My Main Inspiration....
A trip to the Balenciaga shop in Mayfair made me realize what really is that I want to do..
The Balenciaga jacket I saw was a rubber jacket with a relief on a Mongolian, Asian theme. It was moulded with latex and cut with a laser cutter. There was several layers of fabric which all was glued and stitched on top of one and another, and formed some sort of story as the fabric design of this jacket. This is the sort of thing I wanted to make, a story or a philosophy behind the motifs or the prints of my garment. In this Balenciaga jacket, it was more of a relief, a work of art than a motifs as the decoration of the fabric. I fell in love instantly and was really inspired from it. Indonesian art has a lot philosophy and story behind it, art in Indonesia itseld, first started more as a religious purpose than decorative function.

Besides going in depth on the theme, I also want to explore on the different types of materials available on making a garment. I was really interested in using something like rubber, silicone, neoprene, leather, plastic, etc. to make a different piece of clothing. I thought of this project more of producing a work of art that hopefully would sells, than thinking about it as a runway collection. This would be more of a collectible items than a seasonal trend must-haves. Its a way for me to collaborate art into fashion as well as fashion into art.

Batik Fever

Batik was an obvious inspiration to me.....
its was everywhere in jakarta back in 2007-2008 as a fashion trend,
but people only wore it once it was on trend, otherwise, they keep
it in their cupboard, never thought about it, unless for a
special occasion...


This following article shows how Batik became one of the must-have item in 2008..
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/07/11/batik039s-popularity-soars.html


"I have never liked batik as much as I do now," Ana Astuti, a shopper at Plaza Semanggi, South Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday, when she was hunting for batik dresses with her twin sister, Ani Astuti.

"I used to associate batik with civil servants and elderly women because of its old and boring designs. But in recent months, I have spent heaps of money on trendy and interesting batik clothes," Ana said.



But i thought, when this trend ends, would people still be wearing Batik? There are other types of fabric art than Batik, there are the Sumbawa Ikat, Palembang Songket with its really immaculate weaving and other style of garments.
This is what needed to be change, Indonesian must love their national and traditional costumes and realize that it must be conserve, I'm not saying it has to be worn as before, traditionally and dull, but we can always be creative by using different type of materials and style to go with it.

THE BASIC IDEA-the root of where it came from

My basic idea, when I first got a mail from Ravensbourne that I have been offered a place in the MA conditionally unless I submit a project idea was : Why not promoting as well as exploring Indonesian culture to the world? I know that most people knew what and where Indonesia is, but I've travelled to several countries and still find people who don't know where it is, nor if it existed…some was really convinced that Indonesia is in Bali and that Bali was a country..and several others thought that I was living in a tree house (like Tarzan) and asked whether we have McDonalds back home! I know they must be ignorant or didn't pass Geography lessons in high school, but compare to other South East Asian countries like for say, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia is the biggest but sometimes, most-unknown..sad, but true. The government seemed to be more interested in other issues than promoting the country, internal issues has made its people forgot that in order to regain the economy from its 1998 monetary crisis, we need to attract the tourists to come, and we the only place we can only count on that is Bali, not many people knew that there are thousands of other islands in this archipelago country that is as beautiful even more of a tropical paradise than Bali.

Not forgetting its diverse art and culture, all those costumes, dances, languages, food…

So, it came to my mind; I'm having the chance to study abroad, why not as well change people's perception towards Indonesia and promote my home country. In the other hand, Us, the Indonesian itself aren't pretty proud of our country. As written above, we've gone through so many since the past 10 years, we had our monetary crisis, natural disasters, corruption and collusion issues within the government, diseases, poverty and so forth, that we tend to look on other countries and ashamed with our own. We follow the western cultures to some extent, we want to live like westerners. Our lifestyles are very much influenced from it, especially those from America. We only like to watch Western movies, listen to Billboard top 40 chart, admire Hollywood movie stars, wear clothes like the British people, inspired from Western artists, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Britney Spears were our idol, we look down on legendary Indonesian artists, we hated Indonesian musics, we don't like to wear our traditional costumes, hence, we try our best to copy the New York, London, Paris, Milan fashion show.

But as i reflected on these phenomenon, I am more aware about my own culture, I started to do some research on what are the cultures my country's got, the different types of dances from the 34 provinces we have, the 300 something dialects, the different types of costumes with its different uniqueness, it all made me proud of my country like I've never been before This is what drives me to do my MA Project based on this theme. I wasn't so sure in what sort of form I would do it, but since I came from a Fine Art background, why not putting Indonesian art into fashion and see if it will correlate nicely.