Expanding the Versatility of National Batik Through Modern Fashion

As the youngest child in my family, it is to be expected that the older sibling will pass down their clothes to the younger sibling. I accepted this tradition when I was younger because my interest in fashion was not developed yet. As I grew older, I realized fashion is not simply the clothing we wear, it is an extension of one's personality. I wanted to develop my own sense of style and identity through my wardrobe. Growing up in the south of Jakarta, I was exposed to the urban lifestyle that has influenced my style of clothing. This urban lifestyle and culture that is popular amongst the youth have inspired me to create my own style. A style that is unique with unconventional. Fashion was no longer just clothing; it became my form of self-expression. New styles and trends emerge in fashion designs as it spreads rapidly throughout social media caused by its absurd characteristics, which interest young teenagers like myself. As a young teenager, my friends and I share the same interest in fashion and would always try to get the latest and “hype” clothing following a trendy and new design.

I have observed how people embrace modernity and stray away from tradition in this digital era. In this new age, our fellow Indonesians start to globalize out of this country and embrace Western culture. It truly saddens me that some of my friends and even some family members stray away from the Indonesian culture. As a teenager who frequently uses social media, it’s apparent to see that many of my friends in the same age range have globalized outside of this country. Being raised in Indonesia, the nation maintains a special place in my heart, which I will never forget. With my passion for fashion and love for my country, this personal project was an opportunity to integrate those two interests of mine into one project. I took this opportunity to design modern streetwear with elements of batik to accredit our culture so that the Indonesian youth today can use the everyday street-wear and remember where they came from.

The opportunity I was presented with allowed me to show how I can incorporate our own culture in unique and bizarre eye catching fashion designs with the latest trends. My project aims to research current streetwear trends and Indonesian culture and design a clothing collection then produce a look-book showcasing the highlights of the clothing collection.

Global Context

My project explores the global context of Personal and Cultural Expression because fashion is a way of expressing myself artistically. I chose this global context because designing clothes and creating a lookbook requires the personal expression I find in fashion. The cultural beauties of Indonesia will be expressed through the designs and incorporation of the latest fashion trends that will allow its readers to appreciate the Indonesian culture and the beauties of it. From this project, I discovered the culture of Indonesia and my personal expression of fashion. Designing and creating the lookbook requires creativity to integrate Indonesian culture with modern streetwear fashion.

Product

Since the beginning, the goal of my Personal Project was to explore the global context and successfully fuse batik into currently trending streetwear. The “Retrace” collection has fulfilled my expectations by achieving the goal and fulfilling the requirements for the rubric that has been created. With my product, I have explored the selected global context; Personal and Cultural Expression. As a lookbook showcasing the clothing and fashion collection, it has expressed my personal expression through its trending fashion wear designs that I personally desire combined with batik, the craft of Indonesian culture. The “Retrace” collection has fused the current streetwear trends and culturally traditional batik into one. The lookbook includes a wide range of clothing ranging from masks to shirts and vests with the current streetwear trends fused with traditional Batik from different parts of Indonesia.

One thing that I am very proud of is the design of the collection. The collection’s unique clothing design shows an innovative side of fashion using batik in everyday fashion wear and streetwear. With seven different products, the lookbook showcases and highlights the use of batik in modern fashion to a substantial degree. Intending to bring back tradition and modernize batik through trendy streetwear, the lookbook has achieved this goal by showcasing the versatility of batik through its incorporation with modern streetwear.

See my lookbook below!

Reflection

Throughout this journey, I absorbed countless lessons and knowledge that I never thought I would achieve. One of the most valuable pieces of knowledge I absorbed was about batik. I gained a greater understanding of batik. The knowledge I acquired on batik such as its meaning, value, and how it impacts our culture certainly made me love batik even more. My love for Indonesia also grew as I hope to support the youth to embrace our culture with my project. Not only did I learn the beauty and elegance of batik, but this project also gave me a fresh perspective of fashion that I was never familiar with.

Not only was this project able to teach me valuable amounts of knowledge, it taught me some useful morals that will help my life skills. The project taught me never to give up even when the most challenging obstacles come at you. Sometimes I felt like giving up when I couldn't make up interesting designs or when I couldn't develop my ideas, but I knew that I had to keep striving, to push myself to the limit, and to work hard because giving up was not an option I was willing to take.

Overall the process of this journey has developed my understanding of the global context, Personal and Cultural Expression. My experience taught me that fashion was a way of my personal and cultural expression. This journey showed me that fashion wasn’t all about clothing, it showed me fashion as a form of art to express yourself. Working with the global context taught me that I and many others as young teenagers express ourselves in our own unique ways. It is our job as part of Indonesian history to collectively band together to express Indonesia in us.

IB Learner Reflection

In the process of the project, every student develops and strengthens their IB learner profiles as we progress further. Although all IB learner profiles were evident throughout the process of PP, my profiles as a communicator, risk-taker, and inquirer were the most significant throughout this process. Especially in a pandemic, communicating was essential to my project’s success. It strengthened my communication skills by keeping in close contact with supervisors, interviewees, and teachers. To acquire the critical information that I needed for my project to succeed, I had to concisely and confidently communicate my ideas and intentions.

Before this journey, fashion designing was an unfamiliar subject. I didn’t know what I could get myself into going into this project. But being a risk-taker was something that I was familiar with. Selecting this topic was already a risk itself, but as an IB learner, I reminded myself of the importance of taking risks to build both my character and skill profile. Fashion was something I was passionate about. I took the risk of setting myself a challenging goal. Taking the risk was a step further than what I could reach, but for what it’s worth, I certainly enjoyed the process thoroughly.

As fashion designing was a subject I was relatively unfamiliar with, my curiosity grew larger and larger with my passion for fashion. With that curiosity, I had to be an inquirer to know the underlying information to discover. Being an inquirer helped me succeed and achieve further with my desire and the need to acquire the data. Indeed being an inquirer was very prominent throughout this journey as I researched through numerous methods developing my inquiring skills significantly.