The circumstances that befall this year has made the unprecedented 2020 a year of many firsts. After a trenching recession in the global and especially local fashion industry, the month of August was a revival for fashion makers, enthusiasts and its stakeholders through the first of its kind Nusantara Fashion Festival 2020 (NuFF), a collaborative initiative by the Ministry of State Owned Enterprises (Kementerian BUMN) sponsored by Bank Rakyat Indonesia to endorse and strengthen the national campaign Bangga Buatan Indonesia and celebrate Indonesia’s 75th Independence Day.
This month-long event, organised by Samara Live, was an immense and fully virtual experience that gathered 75 local fashion SMEs, labels and designers to collaborate for multiple fashion-related events scheduled throughout the month; namely fashion talks broadcasted by Vidio as official partner to the event, a fashion auction and shopping experiences, along with a virtual fashion show and gala.
From their daily Fashion Talks that covered a wide range of topics related to industry growth, trends, and developments, a spirit for collaboration stood out the most. Pincky Sudarman, CEO of PT. Alun Alun Indonesia Kreasi, recapitulated it best in one of the Fashion Talks titled New Normal for Local Fashion Retail on 20th August: “Collaboration is important because we cannot walk by ourselves. The biggest market for local products is in Indonesia so if we work together and collectively to support Indonesian products, we will undoubtedly keep up.” Therefore, it is in this synergetic energy that different institutions, businesses and individuals gather to support the local fashion industry and ultimately empower homegrown creatives through NuFF.
To enrich the experience, a special Fashion Auction was organised as one of the programmes. In this event, exclusive collaboration items created for the festival were auctioned via the official NuFF website. Whether they were sneakers made by Sepatu Compass x Sejauh Mata Memandang, a “wearable artwork” by TANGAN x Abenk Alter, or a blazer by senior fashion designer Didi Budiardjo with young streetwear-slash-artistic collective DGTMB, the thousands of bids manifested a great enthusiasm for local talents. Elsewhere, e-commerce giants Tokopedia and Bukalapak as official partners of NuFF supported the event by hosting a marketplace of curated items from local labels.
At the climax of NuFF’s month-long festival, the Virtual Fashion Show and Gala were held to coincide with Indonesia’s independence day on 16th and 17th of August. Broadcasted live and exclusively on Vidio, the two-day programme ran fashion videos (which took months of preparation and production) by participating local fashion brands who showcased their recent and upcoming collections of the season. The evening of the Gala was reserved for showcases by high-end and prestigious Indonesian fashion houses, like Rinaldy Yunardi, Heaven Tanudiredja and Sejauh Mata Memandang. Similarly, each production exhibited a spirit of collaboration between directors, artists, designers and models who explored the depths of creativity to present a remarkable fashion show despite the oddities of a virtual experience.
NuFF was officially concluded on the last day of August with thousands of viewers who streamed the talks, fashion shows and gala combined. This event was unlike any fashion events ever seen before in terms of its scale and experience for being fully online. Two keys to take note from NuFF: we should pursue collaboration as a way to stand strong against the challenges we are collectively facing and, undoubtedly, Indonesia is indeed home to flourishing and talented creatives with great potential to make our nation even prouder. #BanggaBuatanIndonesia.
