Doesn’t it make us proud when we see designers from other countries choose batik as the material for their collection? Aren’t you curious how our traditional fabric will turn out to be on their hands?

Some international designers did it. And recently three designers from Malaysia, China and Japan showed their collection with batik as the material during Cultural Evening Performance on World Batik Summit 2011. So, it wasn’t only Indonesian designers that took part on that event as you can see from previous article, but also those three designers, Lu Kun (China), Kaoru (Japan) and Deanoor (Malaysia).

Deanoor

Deanoor is said to be a famous designer in Malaysia. She owns a boutique in Milan and she has showcased her collection in Paris and New York. Despite her achievements, personally I don’t like the motif of its batik. For me, the animal print and stripe motifs don’t even look like batik. It’s getting confusing because the press release states Deanoor combined Madura and Parang Kencana batik for this World Batik Summit.

Kaoru

In designing her collection, Kaoru collaborated with her husband Prof. Masakatsu Tozu who has been a batik researcher for 42 years. Her exclusive design even reaches $ 25,000. This time she decided to use old batik from Madura, Solo, Cirebon, Pekalongan, Jogja and also batik with Hokokai motif. Although it is stated that she used old batik, I don’t think her collection looks old-fashioned. Instead, it successfully merged Japanese sensibility and Indonesian heritage.

Lu Kun

Before World Batik Summit 2011 happened, Lu Kun had showcased his collection that features batik in a fashion show in Beijing. One of the people who ever worn his design was Paris Hilton. For this Cultural Evening Performance, Lu Kun created the attires using Danar Hadi Batik.

What do you think about the three designers and their collection? Do you think they successfully made the most of our batik?

Photos by Arselan Ganin