For my final project, I decided to continue on my research proposal from the last term: self-expression within the conservative environment in Indonesia. I chose the topic as it’s closer to what I want to do in the future, which is documenting the voices from Indonesia. Enclothed cognition is also a good base, yet it requires a more scientific approach and big primary research. I don’t think I can carry that alone. But for the self-expression, I realised that the topic is still very wide, and I got some takeaways from Ellie:
1. Have a solid definition on introduction for words like ‘non-conformist’ and ‘self-expression’ how do I approach these words?
2. The words ‘alienated from society’ need further validation–how is it play as actual experience of my subjects and what is the source that will be providing substantial evidence on these grounds?
3. Primary research: the sample is quite small and I have to be aware of the risk of generalization towards the result
4. FGD will need a coherent pre-established format that can direct the process in a controlled way.
5. I need to acknowledge that this could also potentially manifest in the opposite way as a possibility for biased observations – and being prepared to address that is vital for the validity of the research outcome (I agree, right now I’m trying hard to see and judge it more objectively).
So these are the point where I need to fix and improve for my final essay later.
So, this idea of self-expression came from some findings that I stumbled upon. The first one is a zine by an Indonesian female photographer, Nadia Rompas, called ‘Anak Perempuan’. I addressed the issue here on the blog before, about intergenerational femininity, gender stereotypes, and identity. How your mom has very different ideas about how you should dress, who you should date, where you should work. So the girls presented in the zine are the ones that have two appearances: their true identity and their identity in their mothers’ eyes. The frustration is there, but I feel the need to know the reason why they keep dressing the way their mothers want despite not liking it–is it respect? Love?
The second one is from an essay that I did for critical research, Shooting street style in Indonesia: A photo essay (2014) by Brent Luvaas. He is a socio-cultural anthropologist that has been photographing street style for years and has vast knowledge on the condition in Indonesia due to his student exchange days in the country. Despite being one of a country with fast-growing fashion industry and–at that time–brimmed with innovative personal style blogger, Indonesia remains absent on the street style map of the world. Even the concept of street style itself is foreign and different from its counterpart in western countries. He found that the street style in Indonesia shifted to indoor, especially malls. I was also interested in this before reading the essay and did my secondary research on Japan. Harajuku flourished to be one of the most stylish street thanks to the ban of cars on the street, allowing people to hang around and build communities there. They have the street–the space to grow. While Indonesia, in history, never have a fixed place where fashion is centralized.
Today, with Fruits (Japanese bespoke street style magazine) decided to quit prints because there is a lack of ‘cool’ kids on the street, signalling the death of the legendary site. This happened because cars are now allowed to move on the streets, internet enabling people to look for information and communicate from afar and the invasion of fast fashion interrupted the once creative scene. Young people in Japan don’t have to go all the way to Harajuku to get cool stuff or meet people, they can do it from their home, with a tap from their fingers. The communities are now spreading across Japan, no longer concentrated in one place.
Looking in the global discussion today, I think that is also the case with most countries. For people who love fashion, the inspirations are now in the shape of a square that they can scroll, no need to go to the library or buy dozens of magazine–unless you’re studying or working or interested in the industry–and most people aren’t. The fast-fashion brands also provide them with the latest runway look. Fashion has become easy–it is no longer a privilege exclusive for the rich and stylish.
But to be fair, Indonesia doesn’t really have a big history of fashion. The country’s weather is hot all year, a lot of people belong to the middle and lower class that they don’t prioritize their appearances, and the fashion heavily influenced by western culture, as this video by ESMOD Indonesia shows:
Another issue that attracted me is the topic ‘how much is your outfit cost’ became such a hot issue in my country after an Indonesian Youtuber did it. The video exploded as the people in it wore millions to hundred millions of Rupiah worth of clothes and accessories. And that is one thing that people in my country like: what are the rich are wearing and the price of the thing (I swear this is not me judging I have evidence for this e.g. LINE, a messenger app in my country has an official account that update news every day and their headline news always–always–include an article about the cost of someone’s something or how luxurious someone’s house or party). I’ll probably need to find academic journals to further proof the assumption.
Seeing this makes me rethink my concept of fashion and style. People have diverse motivation behind wearing certain clothes or embracing a particular style, whether it’s for their own comfort, symbolic status, etc. Is that what fashion right now? Symbolic status of a person? Then is it also part of self-expression? What is self-expression here?
I had discussions with some people back in Jakarta and a part of them have a distinct style like arms full of tattoo, colourful hair and one person who bleached his hair and shaved his eyebrows, shared me his experience. His name is Stephen, a short male model.
When he decided to change his look drastically, a lot of people told him that they’re uncomfortable and he looked weird–especially in my country there’s a myth if you shaved your eyebrows you can see ghosts (which clearly not true)–people hated it. When he entered the modelling career, due to his height, he struggled to get into an agency as the industry still favour the tall models and his look made it worse– too distinct and the agencies afraid he won’t get any jobs. Glad that he gritted his way now as people become more welcome towards a unique look.
There is also a group of young fashion enthusiasts that come to We The Fest (a huge three-day summer music festival in Indonesia that has the concept of Coachella–where you dress to impress) every year with strong individual styles.
Their looks are certainly uncommon in Indonesia. They especially don’t sit well with the conservative folks. As a Moslem my self, though not very devoted, I understand that Islam and some other religion perceived homosexuals as taboo and they probably felt disturbed seeing the photos. But to attack the group I think is not a good way to communicate. With street harassment and catcalling, and the internet also not being a fully safe space, do we need to create contents to make them understand? Can we provide a safe zone for anyone to feel free to show their identities? Of course now it’s better for queer communities and minorities to be open in the public, but can we really ensure their safety?
The last one I saw the emergence of a new movement–that demands traditional clothes to rise again. An account on Instagram called @remajanusantara_. It’s a lookbook-like account with pictures of youth in Indonesia mixing traditional and modern, contemporary clothing.
I think it’s interesting because these youth are trying to make traditional cool again. They’re trying to look for a silhouette and identity unique to Indonesia. Yet this, along with topics that I explained before, rarely–almost none!–got highlighted or studied. There is only one zine I found named Buah (literally means fruit) made by an Indonesian diaspora, Teta, who lives in the US. She made it in order to connect with other Indonesian diasporas in different countries. Teta gave these people a corner to voice the Indonesian afar from home, how their heritage still attached to them even though they’re thousands of miles away.
Buah shows that with the help of the internet, we can connect and be vocal on issues of our own culture. This is in contrast with the shift–the street, the space–to the virtual sphere, has made Indonesia’s fashion scene grown bigger and bigger yet the documentation is very little. I wonder why and what can I do to fill this gap? I hope at the end of this unit I can find an answer to this.