Jakarta, Indonesia Sentinel — Cita Tenun Indonesia (CTI) recently captivated audiences with its showcase at Jakarta Fashion Week 2025, Wednesday, October 23. The showcase entitled “Dialectics,” aimed to create a dialogue between Indonesia’s rich cultural heritage and modern-day fashion.
The concept of “Dialectics” was central to CTI’s approach, drawing from a method of arriving at conclusions through the synthesis of contrasting elements. In this case, it served as the perfect framework for CTI’s three renowned designers to explore how heritage weaves, deeply rooted in tradition, can coexist with today’s dynamic lifestyles.
Designers Asha Smara Dara (Oscar Lawalata) showcased West Sumatra’s Halaban songket, Felicia Budi highlighted Southeast Sulawesi’s Sobi Muna weave, and Era Soekamto featured West Kalimantan’s Cual Sambas textile. Each designer brought a unique perspective to these traditional Indonesian weaves, reflecting a blend of cultural heritage and contemporary fashion on the Jakarta Fashion Week 2025 stage.
Halaban Songket Weave by Oscar Lawalata Culture
Asha Smara Dara’s Oscar Lawalata Culture collection used Sumatra’s Halaban songket, weaving its distinct textures into ready-to-wear designs with a sophisticated flair. The line featured tops with diverse sleeve styles, from sleeveless to long-sleeve, as well as a variety of necklines, including V-neck and high collar designs. One distinct feature present across the tops was a fringed hemline, adding a bold, modern twist.
Halaban songket, with its signature dimensional texture, achieves its raised patterns through the unique addition of weft threads over the warp, creating a luxurious depth. While the traditional songket weave is often associated with bold hues, this collection introduced softer shades like mint, peach, taupe, and violet, presenting a fresh perspective on the classic textile.
Sobi Muna Weave by Felicia Budi
With her label fbudi, Felicia Budi brought a bold, free-spirited energy to the runway, reimagining Sulawesi’s Sobi Muna textile in a way that evokes adventure and the open landscape of a forest-surrounded savannah. This streetwear-inspired collection included silhouettes ranging from mini dresses and shorts to blazers, vests, and tube tops, capturing a sense of modern, unrestrained energy.
The Sobi Muna weave is distinct for its technique that results in motifs only visible on the front side of the fabric, leaving the back plain. This effect is achieved by interspersing weft threads that dip below the warp, a process known as the “Sobi” technique, originating from the Bugis people and found across Sulawesi, including in Wakatobi and Muna.
Cual Sambas Weave by Era Soekamto
Concluding the “Dialectics” showcase, Era Soekamto presented her collection “Pakerti,” which blended the Cual Sambas textile from West Kalimantan with Javanese batik. The collection evoked a formal atmosphere, as though summoning women of different royal lineages from across the Indonesian archipelago.
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Era’s collection featured diverse silhouettes, from traditional baju kurung to high-collared dresses reminiscent of cheongsam and kebaya janggan, along with sleeveless outerwear and peplum blouses. The luxurious Cual Sambas fabric, adorned in shades of gold, maroon, blue, and copper, underscored the collection’s regal character, amplified by the addition of batik embellished with gold prada motifs.
Dating back to the 17th century under the Sambas Sultanate, Cual Sambas weaves combine ikat and songket techniques, producing motifs through intricate dyeing processes that tie threads according to desired patterns. Era notes that unlike other weaves, Cual Sambas is uniquely unbound by strict rules, offering a sense of freedom that reflects the spirit of her designs.
Through “Dialectics,” Cita Tenun Indonesia (CTI) has not only paid homage to Indonesia’s textile traditions but has redefined their place in contemporary fashion, bridging past and present in an evolving dialogue on the Jakarta Fashion Week runway.
(Raidi/Agung)
