Jakarta, November 6, 2009. To mark the beginning of the much anticipated Jakarta Fashion Week 2009/2010, a Charity Dinner will be held on opening night, November 14 2009. The event is a special celebration organized to recognize the wonderful collaboration, which is the highlight of Jakarta Fashion Week 2009/2010. Two cultures that have greatly influenced each other will merge in the form of a dazzling exhibition of fashion and dance. Last June, two Indian designers, Malini Ramani and Tarun Tahiliani, came to Jakarta to obtain Indonesian traditional fabrics, courtesy of Cita Tenun Indonesia, Allure and Afif Syakur. One month later, Priyo Oktaviano and Sebastian Gunawan from Indonesia arrived in New Delhi to explore the wealth of Indian traditional textiles. The result of this extraordinary exchange will come full circle as the four designers showcase their creations for the first time at this Charity.
Tarun Tahiliani is a senior designer from India. A graduate of the prestigious Wharton School of Business, he started his fashion career from the retail side by opening a boutique in 1987. Eventually, Tarun decided to entirely embark on a creative career in fashion design. He went back to school to another prestigious institution, the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Now Tarun is one of the few Indian designers who have won international acclaims.
A New York native, Malini Ramani studied Fashion Buying and Merchandising in Fashion Institute of Technology before deciding to return to India to become a fashion designer. Her design philosophy is to create clothes that she can wear herself, adopting glamorous vibrant colors and plunging necklines. Adorned with beadings, sequins and embroideries, Malini’s figure hugging designs are definitely made for daringly fabulous women.
Indonesia’s Priyo Oktaviano began his foray into Indonesia’s fashion world in the early 1990’s when he won Femina Group’s fashion design contest. A decade later Priyo became the top graduate of ESMOD Paris which won him an apprenticeship at the House of Balenciaga. He is now one of the most talked-about young designers in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
As one of Indonesia’s most acclaimed designers, Sebastian Gunawan’s creations are all about luxury, elegance and elaborate techniques—qualities that make him the darling of Indonesia’s high society . Sebastian is a graduate of the Instituto Artistico dell’ Abbigliamento Marangoni in Milan, Italy. He has been a major force in Indonesia for more than two decades.
In conjunction with the cultural showcase, the Charity Dinner will also serve as a fund-raising event to support the victims of the West Sumatra earthquake. UNICEF reported that a third of the victims were children. Femina Group has created a special fund (called ‘Dana Anak Korban Bencana’ which means ‘The Fund for Children, Victims of Natural Disasters’) in a special bank account to help rebuild and rehabilitate schools in the area. The group is asking its readers, clients, friends to participate in the effort. Proceeds from the sale of the Charity Dinner tickets will go to this fund.