Toton Januar: Reinterpreting Ethnic Garment into Contemporary Wearable Fashion
Asian fashion has always been influenced by cultural and beliefs. "Beyond its love of impressions and images, Asian fashion thinking is permeated by an influence that is irrelevant in the west: Religion" (Bullis, 2000). Religion and its spiritual identities has been the root of style evolution in Asian fashion. The garment could take a modern style from the latest trend, but if we looked deeper, it will always associated with their cultural and traditional features. One designer that reimagine ethnic and traditional heritage through new vision and current trend is Toton Januar, an Indonesian designer who is widely recognized for bringing Indonesia's culture into prominent fashion weeks.
Raised by his single mother who worked as a seamstress, sparked Toton's fascination with couture design on his early age. He studied civil engineering in his hometown Makassar to follow his family's aspirations, but it only lasted a year before he switched to media broadcasting as a compromise with his mother. Although he didn't get to pursue his study in fashion on that time, but along his broadcasting study, he also worked as designer assistant and model for Taruna Kusmayadi, one of Indonesia's prominent fashion designers (Rindiantika, 2019). Realizing his deep passion towards fashion, he decided to take a course in Parson New School of Design in New York.
Studying abroad, for Toton was life-changing. “It opened my eyes to and gave me a different perspective, especially about myself and where I came from,” stated Toton (cited from Rindiantika, 2019). At first he thought that the countries abroad was better than Indonesia, but when he went to New York a lot of people were asking where he came from and how his country was, which brought a sense of pride to Toton. “What I have in Indonesia is unique, it’s special, it’s something that other countries don’t have. And it falls on us—the people—to appreciate it, to make the most out of it and to basically represent it to the world. I think that’s the most important part that I discovered when I lived in New York” stated Toton (cited from Ridiantika, 2019).
This aspiration is what formed his fashion label's vision, which is to present Indonesia's rich heritage and culture through fashion couture. Textile is one of the strongest part of Indonesia culture, every province in Indonesia has its own weaving technique and textile motif. Indonesian's abundance of textiles is what Toton wanted to showcase worldwide through his collections. Another thing that also inspires Toton's creation is religion and its deep philosophy. "Religions and spiritual beliefs are themes close to me because I was raised as a Moslem by my mother, but along the way, I have found many things in life that contradict my beliefs, and questions have surfaced" stated Toton (cited by Wang 2021).
Toton 2021 Spring/Summer Collection:
Dewi Fashion Knights
These inspiration can be clearly seen from Toton's 2021 spring summer collection (see fig 2). A collection that featured ancient hindhu and buddhist artifacts sculptures into a contemporary muslim garment. Toton Spring/Summer 2021 contemplates how beliefs and religions define the nation's cultural identity (Toton, 2025). The main statement from this collection is the paper clay bodice sculpture of ancient goddess statue (see fig 4) that are found a lot in temple ruins all across Indonesia. It is sculpted in detail, presenting the goddess's intricate jewelry and waist accessories on top of its bare bodice (see fig 4). On the collection, these paper clay sculptures are painted in rusty gold and light blue, and it is used like a corset with ribbons tied at the back (see fig.2).
What is unexpected is that through this 2021 collection, Toton not only incorporated one spiritual belief of Indonesian people but he presented 3 religions, hindu, buddhist, and muslim. Muslim teachings and culture is very contrast with hindu and buddhist, which is why Toton's 2021 collection is quite unique for me. Muslim attire can be characterized as modest, loose fitting and mostly covering the body from head to toe, which can be seen from the use of head scarf, long-sleeve top and bottom covering the ankle. Whereas hindu and budhist doesn't have strict attire rules. Indonesia is a country with 281 million people and 87% are muslim, therefore it's not uncommon for most fashion label to set muslim people as their biggest market. It's fascinating that Toton are able to combine a very contrasting beliefs into one unified collection.
The predominant color palette used in this collection are pastel colors like pink, light blue, ultimate grey and beige which are the spring summer 2021 London colour palette as cited in Pantone (2021). The collection's silhouette takes inspiration from traditional costumes from muslim regions, Aceh and South Sulawesi that are characterized by loose-fitting blouse but with a twist of the current trend, it uses sheer pink organza and pleated drapery.
Toton's collection inspires me about the endless possibilities of introducing our cultures and heritage into the world of fashion. Toton's approach of combining 3 different beliefs into his collection further opened my perspective of how I can incorporate Indonesian cultural aspects into my AP2 project. As it's also relate to my project brief which is to create a national costume design, Toton's 2021 collection gave me fresh ideas of the silhouette and textiles technique I can include to my own design.
References:
Bullis, D. (2000). Fashion Asia. New York: Thames & Hudson, p.11.
Pantone (2025). Fashion Colour Trend Report: London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2021. [online] Pantone. Available at: https://www.pantone.com/uk/en/articles/fashion-color-trend-report/london-fashion-week-spring-summer-2021?srsltid=AfmBOoofQdEGtp-XwBkQqhpAMMcoKQReIHEWCxVOy3uozb_31TW6BdiL [Accessed 3 May 2025].
Rindiantika, C. (2019). Toton Januar: for the Love of Indonesia. [online] Prestige Online - Indonesia. Available at: https://www.prestigeonline.com/id/people-events/people/toton-januar-for-the-love-of-indonesia/ [Accessed 3 May 2025].
Toton (2021). Toton. Spring-Summer 2021. [online] Toton.id. Available at: https://toton.id/collection/ss21 [Accessed 3 May 2025].
Wang, N. (2021). Conversation with Indonesian Fashion Designer Toton Januar, Part 1. [online] Fashion & Market. Available at: https://www.fashionandmarket.net/home/process/conversation-with-indonesian-fashion-designer-toton-januar-part-1 [Accessed 3 May 2025].
Good detailed work - well done
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