Anne Avantie is busy applying finishing touches to dozens of beautiful kebayas strewn across her Jakarta boutique the morning I arrived at her store in Grand Indonesia Shopping Town.
Having arrived in the capital from her home base in Semarang, Central Java, just a few days earlier for fittings with clients, it was straight to business for the celebrated designer, who was on a tight schedule.
“She’s currently preparing [kebayas] for [actor] Raffi and [actress] Nagita’s wedding,” Anne’s senior assistant, Sapto Noegroho, explains to me.
The hands-on designer seems unfazed by her busy agenda amid a whirlwind of activity: A team of assistants help finalize intricate details on traditional batik-styled garments, clients such as dangdut sex bomb Julia Perez pop in and out for appointments and I sit waiting for an interview.
As she sits down to speak with me, the renowned designer — whose couture kebayas can cost up to Rp 50 million ($4,000) — is relaxed but poised with the presence of mind to make sure she can keep an eye on all the activity in her boutique at the same time.
Humble beginnings
“My entire life has been a journey of faith, light, hope, and also obstacles,” Anne explains, reflecting on how her career began.
Born as Sianne Avantie in Semarang in 1964, Anne says she had a tough upbringing due to the challenging economic conditions. The high-profile designer didn’t finish high school and believed her dreams would be impossible.
“That’s why I’ve never dared to dream of anything since I was a kid,” she says. “I realized that I have so many shortcomings in life.”
When her father died shortly after, Anne and her daughter returned to her family’s Semarang home. Anne and her mother, Amie Indriati, were left to support themselves, along with Anne’s two younger siblings.
As Anne tells it, it was during this time she found her calling. The now-renowned designer and her mother did everything they could to survive — from selling candied fruits to making stage costumes for schools in Semarang.
This foray into sewing formed the foundation for her success as a designer.
While she admits that she couldn’t sketch or make patterns, Anne and her mother designed on mannequins, cutting and sewing away as they saw fit.
Setting up their first boutique, Griya Busana Permatasari, in the garage of their rented home in 1989, their work soon became famous among artists and students in Semarang. Soon enough, Anne expanded her business from stage costumes to kebayas, party dresses and bridal gowns.
But despite local success, Anne never thought of herself as a fashion designer. It wasn’t until a master of ceremonies introduced Anne on stage during a joint fashion show in her hometown in the early 1990s that she accepted the title as her calling.
“I couldn’t believe my ears when the emcee called me onstage as ‘Anne Avantie, the fashion designer,’ ” Anne explains with a laugh during her recent fashion show to celebrate her 25th anniversary.
With her profile quickly growing, she joined the Association of Central Java Fashion Designers (PPMJT) in 1993 before opening her first boutique in Semarang.
Some imprudent business calculations saw Anne lose her boutique after just a few years, forcing the designer to move to Solo, Central Java, to live with her mother and work at Amie’s boutique.
As Anne was picking up the pieces of her life, she suffered another setback when the mall where her mother’s boutique was located burned down during the 1998 riots. In that same year, Anne’s mother was diagnosed with Stage III cervical cancer.
Looking back at the start of her career, Anne describes those bleak moments as “blessings.”
“Blessings, for me, are not just moments where everything is going well,” Anne says. “In fact, through the hard times, I’ve come to know God’s good grace in my life.”
Her reflections on these experiences came to form the basis of the memoir “Anne Avantie: Inspirasi, Karya dan Cinta” (“Anne Avantie: Inspirations, Works and Love”).
It was her second husband, Joseph Henry Susilo, who inspired her to start over by dabbling in something that she enjoyed most — designing kebayas.
Her good friend, fashion designer Musa Widyatmodjo, also helped launch this new career path, inviting Anne to join forces for a multi-brand boutique at Kelapa Gading Mall in North Jakarta.
“I didn’t want to go [to Jakarta] at that time, because I was afraid of Jakarta,” she says. “But [Musa] persisted.”
When Anne finally made the trip to Jakarta, she opted to take the train over a plane — a preference she still holds today. Traveling to the capital with her assistant each week, Anne would bring along large suitcases filled with her latest collection of kebayas each time.
It wasn’t long before some of the country’s top magazines started to take notice and they started to approach Anne to borrow kebayas for their fashion shoots. With her fresh designs splashed across fashion magazines in the capital — Anne’s asymmetrical-cut kebayas are seen as very on-trend — her profile is gaining a new ascendance.
The designer now counts among her clientele some of Indonesia’s top celebrities and government officials.
But for Anne, the biggest miracle came in 2000, when her mother was pronounced free of cancer.
“That’s the greatest miracle in my life so far,” she explains.
“And that miracle has led me to many other things in my life.”
Giving back
Grateful and relieved for her mother’s recovery, Anne volunteers at Santa Elisabeth Hospital in Semarang.
As she tells it, Anne read a story in the local newspaper about a young boy, Aris Mansori, from the small town of Rembang, Central Java, who suffered from a condition called hydrocephalus — an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the brain.
Touched by the boy’s story, Anne donated money to his parents, who in return, brought Aris over to her house to personally thank her.
“When I held out to [Aris], he took my fingers,” explains Anne, who admits that she was inspired to focus her volunteer efforts on kids with hydrocephalus after meeting the young boy.
In collaboration with Santa Elisabeth Hospital, the designer launched the Wisma Kasih Bunda halfway house in Semarang in 2003.
While the organization was built to treat kids with hydrocephalus, Anne says they have started to treat kids with other medical conditions due to increasing demand.
“Each day, we receive kids with hydrocephalus, kids with anal atresia [a perforated rectum], kids with tumors, kids with special needs, kids who become victims of road accidents and many others,” she explains.
Midway through our interview, Anne politely stops our conversation to take a look at her beeping BlackBerry and read a message from her daughter.
“Intan is now the head of operations at Wisma Kasih Bunda,” Anne explains with a smile. “She keeps me posted day-by-day, hour-by- hour and minute-by-minute of the operations at Wisma.”
Showing me the message, Anne explains that her daughter constantly provides her detailed updates of the kids currently being treated at Wisma Kasih Bunda.
To date, Wisma Kasih Bunda has financed the surgeries of more than 800 kids from across the archipelago, with parents bringing their kids to Semarang from across the country.
So just how does this Anne divide time between her busy career, her family and her philanthropic efforts?
“When God has chosen someone to do His will, He will enable them,” she explains.
For Anne, her dream is to set up Wisma Kasih Bunda as a children’s hospital in the future. When I ask her for a timeline on those plans, she replies: “When it’s in time with God’s calling.”
Anne self-identifies as a practicing Catholic.
Next chapter
Having marked her place as one of the country’s top fashion designers, Anne is no stranger to dressing the rich and famous for special events.
“I think what makes Anne very successful is herself,” explains her friend and fellow fashion designer Musa Widyatmodjo, on the sidelines of her 25th anniversary fashion show.
“She has a very strong will to succeed and she is willing to work hard for it.”
Taruna K. Kusmayadi, chairman of the Indonesian Fashion Designers Association (APPMI) agreed that Anne’s hard-working spirit allows her to prosper in such a competitive industry.
“Some people have creative talents and some people have the willingness to work hard,” Taruna says.
“But Anne has both. Therefore, APPMI is so proud to have her as our member. She’s a source of inspiration for our other members.”
Anne, who has been a member of APPMI since 2003, says she has unique formula for her success.
“Commitment, hard work and ‘sumeleh’ [lying down]. In ‘sumeleh’, we let God’s hands do the rest [of the work].”
For Anne, success is not defined by the level of fame or by the wealth of an individual. Instead, the designer says, “success is achieving the equilibrium between our relationship with God and other people.”
Therefore to capitalize on her own success, Anne is planning to develop a ready-to-wear label, Anne by Avantie.
“Ready-to-wear doesn’t take much of my time,” explains Anne, who lives in Semarang with her husband and three children — Intan, Ernest and Ian.
“I want to have more quality time with my loved ones.”
Today, when she’s not working on one of her detailed kebayas, Anne is working with activist Seto Mulyadi to help set up a school for kids with special needs in Semarang.
“God has created these kids as special human beings,” Anne says, adding that she and Seto hope to have the Semarang school for children with special needs up and running by next year.
“We want to foster their talents. But not only their talents: We also want them to care and lend a hand to their peers.”
As for Anne, the talented designer professes just one simple wish:
“I want to live long, be healthy and become a kinder person,” she says with a smile.
The post For Fashion Designer Anne Avantie, Giving Back Is Always in Style appeared first on The Jakarta Globe.