Exhibition to display woven fabrics with traditional flair

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A five-day traditional weaving exhibition is set to be opened Wednesday to present some 200 weavers from 12 major producing provinces, the country's industrial ministry said Monday.

The exhibition will be held at Jakarta's convention center and will display woven products from small and medium enterprises, including hand weaved innovations from 12 domestic fashion designers, the organizers said.

"The designers have also trained traditional weavers, so the products will be rich in designs and colors and will be more fashionable and comfortable to wear," said Yusran Munaf, director for small- and medium-scale clothing industry at the ministry.

Yusran said the weavers had undertaken a four-month training workshop organized by the Indonesian Fashion Designers Association (APPMI).

The designers include Ghea S. Panggabean, Thomas Sigar, Oscar Lawalata, Merdy Sihombing, Tuti Cholid, Stephanus Hamy and Taruna Kusmayadi.

Yusran said although the products were designed more creatively, they still applied traditional patterns from provinces including Bali, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, as well as North and South Sumatra.

The products to be displayed would include traditional clothing, household appliances, accessories, sofas and decorations for homes and offices.

Yusran said the exhibition was aimed at promoting woven fabrics as part of the country's cultural heritage to both domestic and international markets.

Last year's exhibition booked about Rp 1.76 billion (around US$190,000) in revenue, or around Rp 352 million per day.

"This year, we expect the exhibition can book a 20 to 25 percent increase in revenue," Yusran said.

There are about 170,000 weaving business units with 300,000 weavers in 19 provinces.

Yusran said to help develop their businesses, the ministry would gradually try to introduce machinery weaving equipment so they could increase the volume of their products with various patterns.(ndr)