Geralda Almira
SCHOOL
Raffles Design Institute Jakarta
INSTAGRAM PROFILE
instagram.com/bygeraldaalmira/
instagram.com/geraldaalmira/
ABOUT GERALDA'S COLLECTION:
Latitude
Indonesia is a country that is very rich in culture and diversity. If people hear about Indonesia, most of them will think of Bali, but in fact, Indonesia has many cities that are rich in culture. Each city has its own culture and philosophy, as well as Yogyakarta city which is my birthplace. There are a lot of cultural things in Yogyakarta that are rarely known by people. As one of the cities that still have a kingdom which is ‘Keraton’, this city still maintains traditional values in the middle of this modern world.
In this collection, I am inspired by the culture of Indonesia, more specifically from Yogyakarta city which is the philosophy, the story of GKR Mangkubumi (the princess of Yogyakarta), the soldier, and the main fabric that I use in this collection is the traditional batik prada from Yogyakarta. Batik is a wax-resist dyeing process that is applied to a plain fabric. Batik is created by either drawing dots and lines in the resist with a spouted tool known as a canting or printing the resist with a copper stamp known as a cap. Indonesian Batik was officially recognized by UNESCO on October 2, 2009, as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. Batik prada is not a batik from the Prada brand, it is a batik that has 3D glitter effect to make the batik look more luxurious. This fabric has a very long history and has been used in Indonesia, especially in Yogyakarta. Not many people know this kind of batik. This batik is still rarely used for clothing, usually, people just wrap it around the body. The process of making this batik is still done by hand until now, and all the batik that I use in this collection are self-produced. My life is always related to batik since I was a child, that's why I choose batik as the main fabric in my mini collection.
I named this collection “Latitude”, which means freedom from normal limitations and freedom to behave, act, or think the way you want to. The reason why I choose this title is because in this modern world, even in Indonesia, cultural things like batik are often forgotten or covered with modern things. There is a stigma that batik is outdated and it makes people feel ashamed of their own culture. We don’t have to remove either the traditional things or modern things, we can combine them into something beautiful. There is no limit for someone to express themselves. All the batik that I made are already modified to become more modern without removing the philosophy of the batik itself. I am also inspired by GKR Mangkubumi, who has the biggest potential to become the next sultanah (queen) in Yogyakarta but got rejected by a lot of people because of her gender. The rule said that the one who can lead the city is only a man. She doesn't give up, she proves that she is capable enough to lead.
I interpreted my inspiration into my collection through the silhouette, fabric, details, and construction. All of my looks have a strong and bold look to represent the strength of a woman to lead. Some of the colors that I use in this collection are also inspired by the color philosophy of Yogyakarta which is gold that represents prosperity, brown represents hope and humility, black represents eternity, this color is used in almost all of the soldiers uniforms, then blue represents protection. The purpose of this collection is to introduce the culture of Indonesia, especially Yogyakarta’s culture not only to Indonesian people but also to the world. This collection is not only a garment, it is a storyteller.
