“Batik” is a traditional Indonesian style of clothing that is made using hot wax to make patterns of swirls, dots and lines on fabric and then dipping the fabric in dye and removing the wax. This process takes hours of labor, focus and precision. During our family’s summer trips to Indonesia, my parents made sure that my sister and I understood the art of batik from a young age by showing us batik or taking us to workshops where we tried to make it ourselves. Through spilling the piping hot wax on our fingers and messing up the designs by holding the wax tool too loosely, my sisters and I quickly developed an appreciation for the art of batik.
Batik is just one example of Indonesian culture, which is mainly manifested through clothing. Back at home, my older sister and I would spend hours in our room putting together outfits and our very own fashion shows using an array of Indonesian and American garments. My mom dressed me in Indonesian clothing for special events up until I stopped letting her. Our closet was filled with colorful dresses and skirts that were stamped with floral patterns and rich colors — a fragment of the country my parents grew up in. Playing dress-up transported me to another world filled with happiness and confidence.
As I got older, my fashion became more Americanized. I seldom wore Indonesian clothing. Instead, I wanted to wear leggings and tops from Brandy Melville like all of the other girls in my school. While there’s nothing wrong with leggings or Brandy Melville, I aspired to look like everyone I saw at school, online or on my TV screen. My fear of looking different outweighed the beauty that I saw in Indonesian fashion. When I was younger, the big glass store windows I gawked at never represented my culture or the clothes that I loved to adorn myself with in my room with my sister.
Today, representation of Indonesian fashion is still rare, and I often only see batik when visiting Indonesia or at home. But recently, there was a glimmer of hope.
As a fashion aficionado, I love following New York Fashion Week because of the chaos, the glitz and the glam. I look forward to seeing celebrities’ outfits, the up-and-coming trends and Phil Oh’s street fashion photos. In the latest New York Fashion Week from Feb. 9-14, I saw that one of the shows on the schedule was called “Indonesia Now.” According to the New York Fashion Week website, “Indonesia Now” focuses on showcasing the top Indonesian design talent at the global level to showcase the beauty of Indonesia through fashion.
Indonesia Now has been part of New York Fashion Week since 2022, and in the fashion show, there was a mixture of neutral pieces, feathers, fringe and colorful batik.
Seeing an Indonesian show included in New York Fashion Week filled me with indescribable joy and pride. In Indonesia, fashion is the culture and it deserves to be showcased on a global stage so Indonesians and those who are unfamiliar with Indonesian fashion can admire and appreciate its beauty. Through seeing the blue batik skirts and tops and a collection of sparkly, sequined, silver dresses, I rediscovered the beauty of Indonesian fashion and felt pride for the Indonesians in the spotlight.
Watching Indonesia Now thrive at New York Fashion Week made me yearn for the clothing I used to distance myself from. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to appreciate my cultural upbringing and the unique clothing I was surrounded by. When I went to college, I felt a desire to stay connected with my family and my culture. But seeing this fashion show made me feel more connected to my family despite being far away from them.
But not everyone has an appreciation for Indonesian clothing and culture, specifically because they weren’t exposed to its beauty like I was.
While we should applaud the inclusion of Indonesia Now at NYFW, this should be just the beginning of a conversation of what incorporating representation of Indonesian fashion looks like. Even though Indonesia Now was included in New York Fashion Week, this year, there were no posts made about it on the NYFW Instagram, and the show wasn’t uploaded to YouTube like those for mainstream brands such as Carolina Herrera, Coach and Puma.
Fashion shows like Indonesia Now and other less-known brands deserve the same attention and publicity as brands like Coach, Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors. Not doing so fosters the idea that fashion designers, many of whom are white men, are more valuable than designers who are people of color. According to the New York Times, about 70 percent of the heads in design of major fashion brands are white men. For too long, white men have been the face of the fashion industry, from Ralph Lauren and Karl Lagerfeld to Giorgio Armani and Christian Dior. There are many other designers of different races and backgrounds, but they do not get nearly as much publicity as the white men in the fashion industry do.
When I was younger and playing dress up, I wasn’t creating looks or imagining myself to be designed by a white man, much less any mainstream designer of the time. I was allowed to wear whatever clothing I wanted, both from my Indonesian and American culture. During this time, I didn’t have to pick a side: American or Indonesian. Both parts of my identity could coexist and be celebrated through fashion together despite how unflattering the Indonesian tops or dresses may have looked with Crocs and a Minnie Mouse zip-up. I long for a future where Indonesian fashion can occupy as much space in my world as American mainstream fashion. Seeing Indonesian clothing and batik on a global fashion runway takes me back to my younger self learning to make batik with my family in Indonesia in the summer. I can still feel the hot wax on my fingertips, the shaking of my wrist because I want my design to be perfect and the mosquitos buzzing around me. And despite all of that, I will never say no to doing it all over again.
Contact Jameela Bowo at bowo@oxy.edu
