This Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday, Malaysian Sharifa Ahmad is determined to make heads turn in her “Made in Indonesia” outfit —a black flowing chiffon robe with embroidered neckline and matching headscarf hand stitched with Swarovski crystals.
“The dress is perfect for the holy day — modest yet elegant. I’m definitely going to rock my little black Islamic dress,” the 35-year-old civil servant said.
Ahmad is among a growing number of Muslim fashionistas across the region who visit Indonesia to splurge on new festive clothes to celebrate the end of the Ramadanh on Friday.
PHOTO: AFP
The country’s Islamic fashion industry reported a spike in sales of between 20 percent and 30 percent as early as June, thanks mainly to buyers like Ahmad from Malaysia and Singapore, retailers said.
Busloads of women flock to textile markets in cities like Jakarta and Yogyakarta to buy fabric, ready-to-wear dresses and headscarves, textile seller Azizah said.
“They will come in tour buses, choose what they like and buy 10 to 20 pieces of fabric. When they return to their countries, some telephone us to place more orders,” she said.
Ahmad flew on a budget airline from Kuala Lumpur in July, bought the fabric at a textile market in Jakarta and sent it to an Indonesian seamstress “to work her magic” before getting an friend to post it to her in Malaysia.
“I paid 600,000 rupiah [US$66 dollars] for it, half of what I would pay if I had it made in Malaysia. It’s a bargain for designer quality,” she said.
Chiffon, silk and crepe fabrics draping the silhouette in softer pastel colors, highlighted by delicate embellishments on the neck lines, are top fashion picks this year. Plainer headscarves strewn with Swarovski crystals replaced last year’s heavily embroidered beehive and turban craze.
“Some people shop for themselves. Others buy to resell. They would buy 10 yards of fabric of the same design in three colors, tailor the dresses here and sell them at a higher price in their boutiques back home,” textile merchant Vishal Kumar said.
Hoping to cash in on one of the most important dates on the Islamic calendar, Islamic fashion designer Dian Pelangi flew to Cairo, Abu Dhabi, London, Australia and Malaysia several months ago to hawk her wares. She said she sold “thousands” of pieces from her Eid collection at exhibitions in those countries for about 2.5 million rupiah each.
“Arab women are glamorous. They love their bling. My Islamic brown robes with hand-drawn batik detail at the bottom were sold out. Those with beadwork and rhinestones were also popular,” she said.
“Middle Eastern customers don’t bargain much and when they like something, they buy a lot. Some buy 20 to 30 pieces at one go. It’s a very lucrative market,” Pelangi said.
Sales of her Islamic dresses, priced from US$20 to US$300, tripled in July and jumped 10 times last month as local buyers joined in, she said.
Indonesia offers lower prices, quality workmanship, creativity in design and a variety of fabrics, from batik and ikat weaving to gold-threaded songket.
Hassan Marican, director of Singaporean company Second Chance Properties, said it imported 20 percent of its ready-made festive dresses from Indonesia and sold them at double the cost price.
“We buy from Indonesia because it’s cheap. For us businessmen, it all boils down to the price. Also we want some embroidery and beadwork. Our suppliers in China and Malaysia can’t provide that,” he said. “For Islamic fashion, Malaysia and Singapore always look to Indonesia for pointers. They’re very creative. Their headscarf designs are unmatchable.”
Industry Minister MS Hidayat said export of textiles and textile products this year was projected to reach US$10 billion, up from US$9.26 billion last year, or about 8 percent of total exports.
While fashion creations represented only a small fraction of those exports, there is great room for expansion, he said.
“Fashion products have great potential to be developed. We’re rich in natural resources and cultural heritage which can be inspiring and spur creativity,” he said.
He hopes Indonesian designers can help change the world’s perception that Islamic attire is dull, stuffy and unfashionable.
“Sometimes when you mention Muslim or Islam, people develop an allergy. They think it’s a very scary religion,” Indonesian Fashion Designers Association chairman Taruna Kusmaryuda Kusmayadi said.
“Islamic attire can be both modest and stylish. And also fun. They aren’t worn only during special Islamic days by country folks who read the Koran day and night. Modern city women wear them too while filling up gas for their BMWs,” he said. “Islamic fashion is borderless.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS