Ideas Development

 For my development exercise, I decide to further develop the AI image of ancient Indian God inspired costume below. 

 DeepAi (2025) costume design of ancient Indonesia young god, include gold accessories, long train skirt and dramatic drapery, holding a bow [Digital Art] Available at: https://images.deepai.org/art-image/cbc7e9175feb4870a1267e440fd64d70/costume-design-of-ancient-indonesia-young-god-include.jpg (Accessed: 01/04/25)

As there's quite a lot of Indonesian elements that I want to include into my costume design, I thought that by making a moodboard of all the elements that I might want to include will make it easier for me to connecting it into the design. Therefore, using an A3 paper, I sketch several elements and heritage of Indonesia that inspire the collection. 

*The picture above is temporary, as I will be re-draw it using ink pen and scan the image

On the picture above, on the far upper left, I draw Sinta goddess wayang (shadow puppet). Wayang kulit is a traditional Javanese shadow puppet performance that is played by a single puppeteer known as dalang. (Tannebaun, 2018). Wayang kulit is often played to celebrate special occasions in today's era. The performance main purpose is to tell tales with meaningful moral stories to remind the society about the importance of good moral. However, decades ago people usually gather up regularly to watch the wayang kulit performance that mostly tells the stories of Mahabrata and Ramayana, Indian epics about the kingdom life in ancient India. In my costume design, I was thinking beside of including the wayang kulit pattern and motif into the design, I want my design to tell the stories of Ramayana epic, either from using the characters from the epic or adding elements from the tales into the garment.

Wayang Ramayana 

Bali is also known for its wood carving craftsmanship. Most Balinese house have a wood relief carving decoration on the door, gates and walls, which often tell old tales where important scenes are carved into the wood. "Due to Bali's deep connection with Hinduism and Buddhism, it is not surprising that wood carvings often portray gods, goddesses, and other spiritual figures from these religions. These carvings can be found in temples, shrines, or other religious settings. Most homes have many pieces found throughout the garden, family temple, and inside their homes" (Lyn, 2023). The 'baroque' motif that often appeared in Balinese relief carving is what I want to include in my costume design, which is also appeared a lot in wayang embellishment. 

Balinese Wood Carvings

I also draw several accessory pieces usually worn by the king and queen of the ancient Javanese kingdom.  On the right down corner of the paper, I draw cendrawasih birds, an exquisite fauna from papua. "The bird which has a mix of more than three vibrant colors on their feathers are originated from this island. Its exceptional beauty makes Cendrawasih named "The Bird of Paradise" by the British people, who previously refused to believe in its existence because of their beauty" (Wonderful Indonesia, 2025). The beautiful yellow-white silky feather of cendrawasih bird will add a beautiful embellishment in my design, perhaps I could re-make it by using faux ostrich feather dyed in white and yellow gradation for the skirt. 

Cendrawasih Bird

For my ideas development sketches, I'm also in progress of experimenting different silhouette and styles for the woman, man and children costume design, which are also taking inspiration from the current fashion trend forecast. This will be further discuss on the next post. 

    References:

Lyn . “Beyond the Beaches: Uncovering the Traditional Wood Carving Arts of Bali.” Ramblyn Jazz, 24 Apr. 2023, www.ramblynjazz.com/post/beyond-the-beaches-uncovering-the-traditional-woodcarving-arts-of-bali. Accessed 4 Apr. 2025.

Tannenbaum, Kristina. L. Carving out a New Future: Wayang Kulit Craftsmanship in Central Java, Indonesia. May 2018, pp. 18–20, scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/3da39fb7-0946-4b36-89ba-caf80f7994d6/content. Accessed 4 Apr. 2025. 

Wonderful Indonesia. “Cendrawasih, the Bird of Paradise.” Indonesia.travel, 2025, indonesia.travel/gb/en/explore-indonesia/maluku-papua/papua/jayapura---cendrawasih-the-bird-of-paradise. Accessed 4 Apr. 2025.