So far this blog space was full of nature pics and stories of islands, volcanos and waterfalls. And these are all the things I adore the most, but I also have another side to my life. Being an island girl is something that I came to be, but I was born and raised in the very heart of huge megapolis, so being a city girl is in my nature. As a true Libra I have to keep things in balance. What I adore about Bali is that I can wear pyjamas all day long, day after day and no one will judge me. But after years of this wonderful laid back life, that Moscovite girl inside me resurfaced and demanded heels, makeup, dress ups and blowdries. And that's when I decided to make Jakarta a big part of my Indo life.
Jakarta is a very unique city. Mind you, a rare person will be able to fall in love with it from the first sight. It has it's nickname Big Durian for a reason: Jakarta is dirty, stinky, congested with traffic and on the first glance has nothing to offer other than shopping malls life as your pass-time. But when you get to know the city better, you may discover more and more hidden wonders, amazing art galleries, dutch colonial buildings in kota tua - old town area, fantastic high-end restaurants, unique night clubs and thus, fall in love with this messy city. So as durians are spiky and stinky, but apparently delicious if you taste them, so is Jakarta - this city has much more to offer that it seems at first sight. (HONEST NOTE: I still can't stand durians and never got to love their taste, though I gave it a few chances - to me they taste exactly how they smell. But Jakarta is a different story, we have a good relationship this city and I)
Another reason for exploring Jakarta was for work, of course. Bali modelling is lovely, creative and rewarding, but its all the same designers working here and it is mostly shoots. In Moscow I work for TV and print commercials only. And Jakarta is all about fashion shows. Of course there are also magazines and other creative shoots, e-commerce jobs, but the biggest part of the fashion industry are the fashion shows, at least for me. This is the city where high fashion is still very much alive and there are more fashion weeks throughout a years course than any other part of the world, I would assume. I love fashion shows, they're always fun. You get to work with the same gang of models, spend long hours of the day together, you get to wear incredible gowns and feel yourself as a true performer.
Jakarta is also a centre of muslim fashion, which was a completely new segment of the industry for me. Let me tell you, some of the designers of muslim fashion create incredible looks. And to do a Muslim fashion week is the easiest modelling job you could ever imagine: no one tortures your hair, no one start dressing you up more than half an hour before the show (as the outfits are usually very easy to wear) and you even don't have to worry wether or not you have your legs waxed smoothly (everything except you face and hands are covered anyway:)).
A lot of Indonesian designers like to pay homage to their cultural roots, incorporating local fabrics and motifs into their creations, using ikat, batik, traditional embroidery and accessories in their collections.
As I have already mentioned, Indonesian fashion is pretty big on haute couture and some of the local designers are famous worldwide. Sebastian Gunawan regularly participates in Paris and London Fashion weeks, Prio Octaviano used to work at Balenciaga and Tex Saverio creates gowns for Lady Gaga and the author of Katniss Everdeen's wedding gown that sets on fire in Hunger Games.
Like everywhere else in the world people get married and make a big deal out of it in Indonesia, so wedding fashion is a big part of the industry here, with a 2 special wedding editions of Harpers Bazaar per year and a special Wedding Fashion Week. They like to make the wedding gowns big here, really big - most of the times exceptionally hard to walk in. Luckily it is much shorter distance to walk down the isle than down the catwalk, otherwise the brides would be in trouble :)
The best way to get a taste of what Indonesian Fashion has to offer is to attend Jakarta Fashion week. It happens once a year and out of all fashion weeks here in Indonesia it is probably the most chaotic and exhausting, but at the same time the most fun week to be a part of. Local designers, foreign designers, modest wear, sexy looks, classy feminine and tomboy outfits, young fashion, crazy "out of this world" and barely wearable designs, jewellery, incredible origami bags from plastic - whatever you can think of, they have it here.
As you might have guessed for everyone involved - except the attending guests - most of fashion week is not on the catwalk, it is backstage. It is here where you spend hours waiting for rehearsals, doing fittings, getting your makeup done; it is here where you change, chat, laugh, sometimes cry, eat, sleep on the floor or doing endless selfies together. Each show is usually 20 minutes, but the preparation takes hours. We rehearse at 5am or after midnight and it usually takes hours and hours, so you re basically leaving in that tent sharing experiences with your fellow models, choreographers, makeup artists and dressers who become your family for this week. Your shiny moment on the catwalk of course is important, but I think it is all those backstage hours that make you miss fashion week and start looking forward to the next one the moment it is over.
All the photos except the photo of sleeping models are taken from Image.net