Galeries Lafayette is profiling nine exciting young local designers in its Fashion Lab program, which opened with a trunk show. (JG Photos/ Sylviana Hamdani)
Jakarta has more than its fair share of upscale department stores from distant lands, all vying to cater to the city’s booming middle class with its growing purchasing power.
And of all these stores, arguably the most prestigious is Galeries Lafayette, hailing as it does from the international couture capital that is Paris and serving as an ambassador for French high-street fashion.
But the department store is also doing its part to promote the booming local fashion scene, and its latest endeavor in this direction is the Fashion Lab program, adapted from a similar scheme, called Labo Mode, rolled out in 2004 by the Galeries Lafayette store in Berlin to highlight up-and-coming local designers.
Mellisa Siswanto, head of marketing of Galeries Lafayette Jakarta, notes that Labo Mode has helped German designers such as Kaviar Gauche, Pulver and Sisi Wasabi gain widespread international recognition — and a place in departments stores around the world.
Nine Indonesian designers have been selected for the program here, in which a 50-square-meter section of the department store is dedicated to showing their ready-to-wear designs.
Trunk show
(JG Photo/Sylvia Hamdani)
The Fashion Lab area is divided into three main sections, which are quirky, premium and luxury.
Occupying the quirky section are Jii, Monday to Sunday, and Monstore, all with clothes that sell for Rp 300,000 to Rp 800,000 ($25 to $66). Featured in the premium section is the designer F. Budi and the label Major Minor, with prices ranging from Rp 500,000 to Rp 2 million.
The highlight is the luxury section, with Tex Saverio, Yosafat Dwi Kurniawan, Toton and Patrick Owen, whose designs cost Rp 1 million to Rp 21 million.
A trunk show was presented at the opening of the Fashion Lab program, with the participating designers presenting their autumn/winter 2014 collections.
Monstore was up first with a series of black T-shirts and sweaters embellished with bold white skull-and-crossbone patterns, while Jii, the brainchild of the designer Gloria Agathe, featured a series of A-line mini dresses. Cute penguin motifs imparted an adorable touch to the sleeveless dresses.
Major Minor presented a range of black-and-white office suits for women, the innovative designs and clever color blocking giving them a chic and contemporary look.
From the luxury collection, Patrick showcased pieces from his autumn/winter series “God is Great.” The collection comprised oversized blouses, jackets and sweaters for men and women, embellished with digital prints of religious symbols.
“It’s going to be very exciting because finally we’re going to have a lot of customers looking at our products,” Patrick says of the Fashion Lab.
His clothes were previously only available at a boutique on Jalan Cikajang, South Jakarta, and the online store bobobobo.com. A limited number of boutiques in Singapore, Shanghai and Seoul also carry his products.
“I hope that we can continue to showcase our products here,” Patrick says.
Yosafat, who presented a series of cocktail dresses and sweaters embellished with nature-themed prints, said he was excited about the Fashion Lab program.
“I’ve always wanted to enter the domestic retail industry for quite some time, but haven’t had a chance until now,” he says. “The domestic market is actually quite big and lucrative.”
Before now, Yosafat’s collections were only available in selected stores in Australia, the Middle East and the United States.
“And we’re going to refresh the collection every week,” the designer says. “So you have to keep coming back to the Fashion Lab.”
Fashion forward
(JG Photo/Sylviana Hamdani)
The Fashion Lab program runs until Nov. 9, and is being held in collaboration with Jakarta Fashion Week’s Give Back program, which in turn is part of JFW’s Indonesia Fashion Forward initiative.
Introduced in 2012 at Jakarta Fashion Week in collaboration with the then-Tourism and Creative Industry Ministry (now just the Tourism Ministry), the British Council and the London-based Center for Fashion Enterprise, the IFF is designed to pick out some of the most talented young Indonesian designers and prepare them for the international market.
Since it started, the program has helped raise the profile of 30 up-and-coming designers. Beneficiaries include Tex, Yosafat and Toton, who got to show their collections at Paris Fashion Week, and the ready-to-wear label Major Minor, which, thanks to the exposure and promotion, is now carried by the Isetan department store in Singapore and online by upmarket British retailer Harvey Nichols.
“The ministry of tourism and creative industry has given tremendous support to this program so far,” says JFW creative director Diaz Parzada. “But we realize that sooner or later the program has to be self-sufficient and able to support itself.”
To reach that goal, JFW created the Give Back program, in which designers who have participated in the IFF program are encouraged to contribute to the continuity of the program.
These designers aren’t required to make a financial contribution to the IFF (although they can). Instead, they are asked to come up with designs that can be sold at special fashion bazaars in collaboration with online stores or shopping malls, such as the Fashion Lab at Galeries Lafayette. Part of the proceeds from the sales go toward funding the IFF program.
A number of Give Back programs have been held this year, notably an online-only sale of limited-edition designs by Tex on the website Odioli.com in June. For the collaboration, the designer created three special pieces to be sold at lower prices than his designs usually go for.
“It was very successful,” says, who is best known for a fantastical dress worn by US pop star Lady Gaga for a fashion spread in Harper’s Bazaar in May 2011.
“Almost everything was sold out by the second week, which was great. I love being able to help the next generation of Indonesian fashion designers through the Give Back program,” Tex says.
Going international
Galeries Lafayette plans to make the Fashion Lab program an annual event. But that doesn’t mean that once this year’s program wraps up, the spotlight on the local fashion industry gets turned off.
That’s because when the Fashion Lab ends, Galeries Lafayette will choose some of the best-selling items from the participating designers and offer them to buyers for Galeries Lafayette stores in other countries.
“We’ll lobby the international fashion buyers [for Galeries Lafayette] to also carry some Indonesian brands in their stores,” says Mellisa, the store’s marketing chief.
“Galeries Lafayette has the same mission as the ministry of tourism and creative economy, which is to expand the reach Indonesian fashion designers to the international market. So we hope to be able to collaborate with the government and local industry in the future to grow the Fashion Lab and highlight more Indonesian fashion designers through this program.”
Fashion Lab
Galeries Lafayette Jakarta2nd floorPacific Place Mall,Sudirman Central Business District,South JakartaThrough Nov. 9
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