Everyone is waiting with much anticipation for this year’s Jakarta Fashion Week (JFW) after last year’s mayhem. They’ve chosen a new venue for it, Senayan City, and a new time of the year to start (after the middle of October instead of the usual first week of November). There was another change that was quite surprising for me, which is the time they chose for the opening show: it started as early as 11 AM on Saturday, October 19, 2013. The first show JFW show usually fell on on a Saturday night, followed by a mini cocktail party where the crème de la crème of Jakarta would mingle in their fashionable outfit of choice. I was so ready to take one of my LBDs out for a ride to JFW and put on my towering heels once more, but once I realized that it would be held during the daytime, I traded in my heels for flats and opted for a laid-back Saturday look instead. In a way, I kind of miss the “magic” of JFW opening night, but changing the opening schedule to the day meant that it was followed by a line up of great fashion shows that all invitees could actually come, with it being a Saturday.
The opening show itself? It being the sixth opening one of the most prestigious events in Indonesia’s fashion scene, the ceremonial speeches were unavoidable. It was opened by Her Excellency Mari Elka Pangestu, amongst other speeches made by a roster of important people. But by the time we sat through the third speech, I couldn’t help but put on my poker face and pretend I was interested. Give me the fashion show already!
Identité
The opening ceremony saw some 31 designers participating in JFW 2014 walk down the runway with their respective muses, who gave a glimpse of the collections to come. It provided a sneak peek into what next one week will be all about, and all I can say is that it’s going to be quite an interesting one. Some designers who I thought were not able to move forward from their comfort zones are actually send me feeling butterflies in my stomach, and the few that I have high hopes for fall short of my expectations. But as the days unravel over the next remaining six days, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be an interesting week, and I’ve got the feeling that this year’s JFW is going to be owned by the young blood from the many previews that we’ve got.
Peggy Hartanto, Rinda Salmun, Stella Rissa
As much as I love having a sneak peek, I miss the bang that previous JFW shows created: from the decadent parade of kebaya in 2010; the alliance of four of this region’s talented designers represented by Biyan (Indonesia), Ashley Isham (Singapore), Bernard Chandran (Malaysia) and Tube Gallery (Thailand) in the stage of 2011 JFW runway; and lastly last year’s beautiful view of butterfly from Lie Sang Bong of South Korea and the Italian tile-deco inspired from Sebastian Gunawan. With that said, dear JFW, please bring back the bang of the opening night show! I love the idea of being able to spend my Saturday oh-so-fashionably with the Fashion Forward shows, but maybe a Friday night opening show would be a great idea 🙂
Ardistia New York, Major Minor, Toton
On another note, if you’re interested to getting a ticket to the fashion show, go online and visit www.jakartafashionweek.co.id to get yourself a seat to the show that you’re interested. Also don’t forget to follow @fashionesedaily on Twitter and Instagram for the latest #FDFrontRow updates.
