The Iwan Tirta Private Collection brings a 1920s flapper touch back, mixing it with batik to produce a modern yet sophisticated style.Long before many Indonesian designers embraced and experimented with batik, Nusjirwan Tirtaamidjaja — popularly known as Iwan Tirta — was already passionate about the fabrics. He took the beauty of batik to a new level, from one stage to another and out into the world.
Almost a year after he passed away, the batik maestro “came back to life” with the latest display of his Iwan Tirta Private Collection (ITPC).
Set up by the designer himself, the private collection offers exclusive hand-made and high-end batiks with original royal patterns and luxurious materials like superfine cotton, silk organza and linen.
The collection blends both authentic and contemporary pieces in which royal techniques are still preserved, making them a combination of modern-day fashion and royal tradition.
The collection was created and designed by a special design team that used to be led by Iwan himself.
Back then, the famed flapper dresses were simple with straight silhouettes, dropped waistlines toward the hips and showing a lot of skin.
Today, Iwan’s designers combine the famous flapper style with the boldness and beauty of batik motifs like a coat with a pretty orchid pattern teamed with a long dress with the bird motif sawunggaling, a classic batik pattern that used to be worn by nobles.
Besides orchids and the sawunggaling, plumeria flowers in bright hues and the bird motif lokcan (phoenix), which is said to be the symbol of good fortune, were also seen in the collection.
Boleros, balloon dresses and Jodhpur pants were also seen on the runway. One design had Jodhpur pants with the ancient motif jlamprang (eight-rayed rosette motif set in squares or circles), paired with a bolero with a colorful sea algae motif.
Accents like tassels, gold coins and bells strengthened the flapper look.
Aside from the latest collection, the show also had the Restrospective collection as a tribute to the maestro.
A number of former models who used to work with Iwan Tirta, including Ria Juwita, Citra Nartomo, Dhanny Dahlan and Sarita Thaib, got on stage to showcase Iwan’s masterpieces.
Ria Juwita, for instance, dressed in a mini dress with a Hokokai motif, a motif that began to emerge during the Japanese colonial period in Indonesia.
The motif can be also found in a silk cropped jacket paired with an organza dress. The two aforementioned collections belong to Danny Dahlan.
Sharita Thaib strutted her stuff on the runway in Iwan Tirta’s Private Collection in a two-piece batik with the sawunggaling motif stunningly combined with the jumputan (tie-dye) technique of South Sulawesi’s Palembang region.
Prominent fashion designer Chossy Latu displayed his collaborative works with Iwan, showcasing two organza batik coats in two different motifs – the classical nitik and lokcan.
The batiks certainly remind us of the great works from the man, who dedicated his life to preserve and promote batik in a passion that he nurtured since winning a research grant from the John D. Rockerfeller III Fund.
Iwan Tirta, who studied at the London School of Economics and Yale Law School, fostered his interest in Javanese fabric when he did a research project about the sacred dances of the Susuhunan of the Surakarta Royal Court in Central Java.
His interest was also triggered by his mother’s batik collection, which included some of Indonesia’s best batiks.
In 1966, he wrote a well-acclaimed book on batik titled Batik, Patterns and Motifs, detailing the historical and sociological aspects of batik as well as the 1996 book Batik: A Play of Light and Shade. Iwan also custom-designed silk batik shirts for 18 attending heads of state at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference held in Jakarta
in 1994.
The batik maestro may have gone, but his legacy lives on.
source
Posts
Post a Comment