I went to the club with some new friends on Saturday. They just moved to town a couple of months back so we decided it’s time for their downtown club experience. Wow, it had been ages since I last went dancing. Back in college, I used to go quite a lot. After graduation and having a job with weird hours (including many, many overnight cases), the club visits decreases to near zero. Before I know it, the people I used to hang out with have gone either out of state or out of the country. I can’t even remember the last time I went, maybe earlier this year…
Before settling for this outfit, I probably went through a dozen clothing changes. What do people wear to dance nowadays? Oh my! So I decided to keep it simple with this ’90s black dress and put the fun in the lace tights. Good thing it was a rather warm night, so I was ok without a jacket. Most of the clubs here don’t have any coat and bag checks , which is rather annoying.
Night life here ends pretty early at 1am, so when we arrived at 11:30pm we only had 1.5 hours to dance and drink. My companions, all just passed the legal age, were excited and danced through the night. I tried to keep up, really.. but I feel rather awkward. Maybe because I haven’t been dancing for a long time or maybe (for tears and joy) because I’m getting rusty?
After I posted my batik post last week, a friend asked me “Do you even wear batik?” So, i guess i take that i need a second installment of my batik post. Yes, I do wear batiks. Though I don’t have very many pieces, I treasured each one that I have with me. Aside from being pieces of clothing, they also serve as reminders of my home country. Sounds cheesy, doesn’t it? But after spending almost half of my life living away from home, small things that reminds me of home gets me excited. For example, when me and a friend went to NYC, we had lunch at an Indonesian restaurant in Queens. We got so excited to see so many authentic dishes on the menu that we ended up ordering too much for both of us. We didn’t stop there too, we actually brought some frozen rendang (beef stew) back to Nebraska with us. We probably had the same excitement as Grace Adler when she found a KFC in Cambodia (in an episode of Will & Grace, that is).
So, anyway about the outfits. They are from my flickr photostream, uploaded to the wardrobe remix group earlier this year. Outfit details are as follow, they’re also clickable to their original flickr posts:
t-shirt: U2 / cardigan & belt: thrifted / batik skirt: my mom’s from the ’70s / boots: JC Penney / necklace: antique store / hair pin: f21
Note: With the recent disasters that hit Asia Pacific, including a 7.9 richter scale earthquake in Sumatra, please keep them in your prayers and thoughts. May they be given courage and patience to endure these trials.
Batiks are clothes traditionally made by painting the fabrics with hot wax. Although the technique is common in Asia and Africa, batiks are popularly believed to be originated from Indonesia. Traditionally, in Java in particular, batiks are worn to compliment kebaya. Javanese aristocrats wore different motives of batik according to their status in society as well as the events’ importance. When I was younger, batiks are mostly worn to attend formal events or as house dresses. It wasn’t part of our daily “going out” wardrobe that were mostly western influenced. Nowadays batik regains its popularity. Many local fashion houses and designers incorporated batiks in their collections, as formal and casual, traditional and modern wears. We don’t only see the traditional earthy colored batik patterns from central Java, but also those colorful ones from coastal Java and other traditional patterns from different parts of Indonesia (such as the Asmat pattern from Papua).
Today (October 2), UNESCO designated Indonesian batik as world’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. To celebrate this, many Indonesians show their pride and wear their batiks out. Hopefully it is not just a fad. I mean, who’s going to appreciate our heritage if we don’t appreciate it first?
Below are examples of batik creations, each pictures are clickable to their sources:
2008 Jogjakarta Fashion week (pictures from Fasity.com)
I especially love the one on the right, the tiered skirt is amazing.
Danar Hadi (pictures from xtemujin’s flickr)
Traditional batik motives with modern designs
Danar Hadi (pictures from Antara.com)
Traditional batik wears (the 3rd and last pictures) and modern ones
When I was younger batiks are mostly worn to attend formal events. It wasn’t part of our daily wardrobe that were mostly western clothes. Nowadays batik regains its popularity. Many local fashion houses and designers incorporated batiks in their collections, as formal and casual, traditional and modern wears.We don’t only see the traditional earthy colored batik patterns from mainland Java, but also those colorful ones from coastal Java.
(thrifted dress/thrifted belt/thrifted Bruno Magli peep toe/Old Navy cardigan/AA circle scarf/DKNY tights)
2. Eat warm food.
(Vietnamese Pho Bo / fried shrimp)
3. Take a quick snap with the sunset and dash back into the car before the cold gets you.
(By the road side, on the way to a friend’s house which we crashed for some cable TV).
Bye-bye summer’s warm weathers, welcome foggy and rainy days. Fall officially started this Tuesday with a temperature’s drop to low 60s. It was also the beginning of tights wearing season and me catching a cold. Even after four years since I live here, I still dislike the cold. How I long for my tropical homeland when the temperature starts to drop below 75°F.
But enough whining about the weather. Fall is still my favorite season for its changing colored leaves and hearty and warm meals. The day actually turned out pretty good too. We went for dinner at our favorite Pho place, which really made me feel so much better. Next, we crashed my friend’s house to watch Hell’s Kitchen (I know.. it’s bad yet so good).
Well, the morning was spent mainly on twitter. There was a random crazy/weird stunt pulled by an Indonesian movie director, which you can read about it more here. So I was curious and follow the feed (not the person). I mostly curious about his motivation (blame the years of studying human psyche). Why do you think someone acts against both the law and social norms? To attract attention? To make a statement? To simply live the life? Well, at the time it was a nice distraction for the sick me:, curling up under the blanket and read all those tweets.
46 years ago in Indonesia, thousands of people raised their fists to the air and shouted the word “Merdeka!” after our founding fathers recited the declaration of independence. “Merdeka” means freedom, and that was what celebrated that day after long years (about 3.5 centuries) of colonization. Every year on August 17, Indonesians commemorate its independence day.
Back home, the day would be filled with flag raising ceremonies, different types of traditional games for kids and adults alike, and many kinds of traditional food. When I was little, I used to participate in those games, competing with friends from the neighborhood. My favorite is “Sepeda Hias” or decorated bicycles competition. For this particular competition, we decorated our bicycles with colorful crepe papers, ribbons, and our red and white flag as to be the best looking bike in the neighborhood.
There was no such festivities in where I live now, thousands of miles away from home. However, my fellow Indonesian friends and I decided to do a little get together at my house in which we had some comfort traditional food and watched an Indonesian movie. A friend just came back from summer holiday in Jakarta and he brought back a beautiful and inspiring movie called Laskar Pelangi (The Rainbow Squad). I was a fan of the book, which came out a couple of years prior to the movie, and had heard my friends back home raving about the movie. The movie tells the story of 2 never-say-die-teachers and their 10 students in a poor tin mine village, Belitong. Even though their school was in such a sad condition (it got flooded every time it rained, the building itself had to be supported by a big plank from the side so that it won’t fell out, etc), the two teachers believed that these poor children had the rights to get an education. They also always reminded these children that they need to have aspirations and to never stop working hard to achieve them.
It is such a beautiful and engaging movie, not only for its portrayal of Belitong’s landscape but also for its meaningful messages it carried. I was also in awe by its 12 child actors in the movie who were all native of Belitong and had never acted in movies before. Usually I’m not a big fan of a book turn into a movie, but this is a special case. I was totally blown away by it, I can imagine many people came out from the theaters and greatly inspired by this movie. Here’s its trailer I found on YouTube with an English subtitle:
“You need to have courage, a strong will, and don’t ever give up to face any kinds of challenges” -Laskar Pelangi
