The quartet of emerging fashion designers Ariy Arka, Ayu Dyah Andari, Chintami Atmanagara, dan Yulia Fandy, the initiator of Fashion Rhapsody took the leap on promoting nature and environment during the 2020 event held at Opus Ballroom The Tribrata, Jakarta on the last week of February.
This year Fashion Rhapsody themed “Harmoni Bumi” addressed the industry’s waste that has affected the severity of the environment. Four young designers have collected more than a thousand articles of clothing from brands and local designers that have similar missions with them, together to boost awareness toward sustainability, inviting industry players to reduce waste production.
These young designers thought that the industry needs to take responsibility to transform the supply change and the production to be more circular, noting that fashion is the second-largest contributor to world pollution after the oil industry. With a series of supporting events held since last year, fellow designers encourage the stakeholder to pay forward to what has been taken from nature, as the mission to establish a circular ecosystem in the homegrown fashion industry.
Indonesia is used to be part of the supply chain of fashion, with textiles, leather, and other raw material production that has generated harmful pollutants in the environment. “We took lots of things from the earth, we should give back also with actions that are in accordance with our respective capacities. Anyone can participate as long as they have the same vision and mission with the idea of Fashion Rhapsody,” said Ariy Arka, one of the founders of Fashion Rhapsody.
During the four-day event, Fashion Rhapsody became an alternative event aside from the glamorous fashion celebration. The impression came from the earthy tone color fashion pieces exhibited by a number of tenants at the fashion market. The visitor got a chance to exchange their bag with the organic shopping bag made by cassava fiber. Few tenants also offered recycled clothing and accessories where people were able to educate themselves with sustainable fashion with industry players who practice environmentally friendly production on their business,
Four fashion shows presented the collection from Ariy Arka, Ayu Dyah Andari, Chintami Atmanagara, dan Yulia Fandy, shown in different concepts entitled with Savanna, Silk lagoon, Secret Forest, and Wysteria.
Those collections took inspiration from Indonesian nature and brought up the narrative related to environmental issues. For example, Savana highlighted grassland as the paradox of land conversion. Silk Lagoon featured the wealth of Indonesian vegetation on fabric and textiles. On collection named Secret Forest, a manifestation of natural resources exploitation and environmental degradation caused by humans. Working through the construction of textile and sartorial, the last collection Wysteria illustrated blooming nature as a hope to recover the nature.
Collectively, the four designers took different positions and characteristics in terms of design, but carry the same spirit, shown through its inspiration from local wisdom, modesty, simplicity, and elegance on each fashion presentation. Each designer contributes to sustainable movements in different ways, implemented onto organic material and less waste production, recycling initiative and collaboration with WWF to support preservation.
Besides four main collections, Indonesian celebrity designer Ivan Gunawan also showed a total of 12 pieces dress on the runway during the peak event of Fashion Rhapsody at The Tribrata.
In the future, Fashion Rhapsody will be simultaneously promoting sustainable fashion as the core mission, presented in the different annual thematic event.
