Jakarta - Dressed in simple black pants and a white T-shirt with a length of textile draped around his neck and shoulders for a splash of color, Oscar Lawalata sits on a large soft-white leather ottoman in front of a huge raw timber-framed mirror in his Blok S, South Jakarta, boutique.
The 30-year-old fashion designer speaks English gracefully, delicately choosing his words and constructing sentences so lovely they flow like silk. The flawless skin of his attractive face is bordered by the long, perfectly straight black hair that falls halfway down his back.
He begins by saying that he has been drawn to the arts for as long as he can remember, in particular, fashion and textiles.
"I appreciate textiles ... it‘s something you can feel on your body, it‘s art but different to other art, like architecture, as it moves with you," he tells The Jakarta Post.
After graduating from Don Bosco Catholic high school in Jakarta, Oscar applied to study fine art at the Bandung Institute of Technology, but he was not accepted. He then enrolled at Esmod, an international fashion school based in France with branches in 14 countries, including Jakarta.
At Esmod, he planned to complete a three-year program to obtain an international diploma in fashion design. However, he had to leave halfway through his studies in 1998 due to the Asian monetary crisis.
"The tuition fees were in U.S. dollars. We were an ordinary family and my mother was a single mum ... we just couldn‘t afford it," he says. "But I really enjoyed my time studying at Esmod, it offered a different method of teaching ... it opened my mind."
He decided to use what would have been his tuition money for the remainder of his studies to start up a small business. In 1999, he opened his Blok S boutique -- from where he still runs his business -- and focused on "learning by doing".
He says a limited number of brands and lack of fashion choices at the time, coupled with the fact he couldn‘t find clothing for himself that he actually liked, led him to create a small collection of ready-to-wear garments at his boutique. His initial customers included friends and people from the fashion community in Jakarta.
After the economic crisis, he says, the "lifestyle" in Jakarta experienced a boom -- with shopping malls popping up all over the city, as well as more clubs, cafes and other lifestyle and entertainment venues. He began to receive more orders as local products became more affordable.
Not long after he opened his boutique, the Indonesian Fashion Designers Council invited him to participate in the 1999 ASEAN Young Designers Competition in Singapore. Although he says it was hard to "sell" the idea of traditional-style garments and textiles, he came second in the competition after showcasing his own version of a "baju bodo", a traditional piece of clothing from South Sulawesi.
After this event, Oscar became better known among celebrity circles and orders from artists such as Titi DJ and Krisdayanti started coming in for his gowns and couture items.
Shortly afterward, the Matahari department store chain commissioned him to design new uniforms for its staff. And that is how his uniform division started; he has since designed uniforms for companies such as Telkomsel and for several hotel chains and airlines.
Aside from his uniform division, Oscar‘s business also covers three other divisions, including a ready-to-wear (off the rack) label, an exclusive boutique, where he explores and incorporates Indonesian culture and textiles into his pieces, and a party wear division which produces gowns and couture items.
Oscar‘s designs have featured in many local and international fashion shows and he has regularly participated in fashion weeks both nationally and in the region, including the fashion weeks in Jakarta, Bali, Malaysia and Singapore. He took his designs to Taiwan in 2002 as part of an Indonesian government program to promote Jakarta.
He rates a trip to Japan in 2006 as one of the highlights of his career so far; he was invited by the Japan Foundation to join the "Asia-5", a program that gives promising young Asian designers the opportunity to broaden their knowledge of textiles and fashion design on an international level.
Oscar was born on Sept. 1, 1977, in Pekanbaru, Riau province. His mother, Reggy Lawalata, a well-known sinetron (TV soap) and film actress from the 1980s and 90s, is of Javanese-Ambonese descent.
His father, who left the family when Oscar was four, is from Minado and has Dutch and Chinese ancestry. Oscar has a younger brother, Mario Lawalata, 28, who followed in the footsteps of their mother to become a sinetron and film actor.
Oscar says his mother, who helps manage his team and the four divisions of his business, is a very positive influence on him.
"We have good communication ... she was always strict, but open-minded, fair and supportive. She was a single mother ... it made me tougher not having a father. I learned a lot about life early on and grew up faster than other people my age."
Oscar says he has long been interested in exploring ikat (traditional weavings) and other Indonesian textiles, but added he has found it hard to find information on them.
"I don‘t know why, but it‘s difficult to find books and information on Indonesian textiles, like batik, even in national libraries. The ikat and batik-making processes are very involved, and we need to learn more about them.
"Our textiles have important stories; they are a heritage treasure for me. Behind the textile there is an idea -- of course, there is the history in that they were perhaps once used, or are still used, for cultural reasons, like for ceremonies et cetera. But I believe the ideas and techniques are also very important."
Oscar says he is particularly interested in exploring the textiles of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and last year was invited by the wife of the Alor regent to visit the region.
"It was sad to see the situation there (in NTT) ... they are really creative but they don‘t have the means or the channels to promote their textiles. It is different to the textile industries in Java, Bali and Sumatra, which have already been built up ... but not there, it‘s quite sad."
During his trip to Alor, Oscar spoke with local government officials and urged them to open a library on textiles and to work on marketing strategies to promote their textiles so the "creativity would not die". He then traveled on to Flores and Kupang to meet other traditional textile producers and establish networks.
While in NTT, he says he discovered that producers in the region are facing difficulties in finding cotton, as supplies are slowly dwindling. He plans to hold an exhibition and show in Jakarta this June, which will feature garments made from NTT cotton and highlight the cotton-supply dilemma threatening the region.
Through his work he hopes to inspire fellow Indonesians to love and appreciate their country‘s cultural heritage and open their minds to their own unique cultures and the beauty of their textiles.
For the past two years he has stayed out of the celebrity spotlight; declining interviews and appearances on TV shows and opting to focus on his work.
"I want people to know me for my profession," he says, adding that many current TV gossip shows embellished the facts and used celebrities for their selling power.
"They often don‘t know what they are talking about ... it‘s just advertising to them, it‘s not at all educational. So, I didn‘t want to waste my energy that way. I wanted to refresh my vision, focus my creativity and network with those who share the same vision. To me, that has been much more worthwhile."
Oscar is now preparing pieces for the opening of his new boutique, which will feature garments that he says "explore Indonesian textiles".
He acknowledges it is not easy to change tradition, but says people need to be open to some form of change to prevent cultural art from vanishing forever. For example, he says, ikat and batik designs and colors can change to suit the style of the times, but the art itself should not be neglected and lost.
While he doesn‘t want to tell people what to wear, he is concerned that Indonesians are becoming too "Western minded" and are forgetting their own culture by opting for mass-produced international brands and labels over locally made fashion items.
"I don‘t want Indonesian people to look at our textiles as mere heritage items or fabrics to be used for interior design. For me, yes it‘s a costume, but it is also fashion.
"We are fortunate to have a textile-rich culture and we should take the time to explore this, learn more about it and carry this heritage into the future ... not leave it in the past."
Source: old.thejakartapost.com (15 April 2008)