Category: Research

From my interview, most people said that their environments are now used to seeing them expressing themselves and even though some remarks still come out, it isn’t as annoying as before. This explains that people have to be familiar first with it to finally accept it. But I think as these self-expressions are niche and don’t have one clear space to nurture it, it’ll be hard for people to get used to them. There is also stigma and prejudices about these people. I think by providing narratives alongside the visual, it will let people to better understand why someone chooses to present themselves in a certain way.

Self-expression itself is “…expressing one’s thoughts and feelings, and these expressions can be accomplished through words, choices or actions.” (Kim & Ko, 2007). The importance of self-expression differs according to the area and the culture it belongs to.

1. I found some studies and case that strengthen my idea of space for self-expression: At Georgetown University Medical Center, each year they celebrated self-expression by making a space called “What Makes You?”. At the event, student and faculty staff can show diverse perspectives, identities, and artistic talents that otherwise won’t be known. It’s a unique space where everyone at Georgetown University Medical Center is welcome to be vulnerable and sharing something intimate about themselves. The performances then documented and celebrated through a photo series titled “More than Medicine”, commenting that these talents or identities can be overshadowed by the rigour and commitment required in medicine. There are two people in the stories that inspired me to do the interviews like this: one shared about how she used to act in a theatre and she still struggled how to navigate her identity as an artist and medical students. The “What Makes You?” able her to show her other identity that she thought won’t be brought up in medical school. Another story came from a faculty member, who shared about an individual who took care of her children during her time in medical school that left a great impact on the family. People who heard the story felt that the faculty member seemed more human and made her seen in another light. The story, that won’t be brought up without space makes people felt more connected. This is why I feel it’s necessary to create this open space and that connected feeling is what I aim for GILIGILI and create a documentation for people to celebrate it whenever and wherever.

2. As for having interview and documentary series, Burger (2015) explained that “public self-expression is anchored by the intersection of public participation, identity and self-expression, and focuses on how people publicly express and work on their identities. In the process of describing the participatory turn in culture, media and communication studies, different forms of self-expression are identified. It is argued that even though some of these forms are noisy and narcissistic, they are meaningful to the individual who creates them. Some of these forms offer opportunities to voice opinions that might otherwise not be heard in the public sphere. Most significantly, public self-expression affords the ordinary person the power to (re-)imagine the self in the wake of the many changes the world faces due to globalisation and hegemonic power relations.” Internet pushes globalisation even further without border. Globalisation disrupts stability and tradition and characterises contemporary modern global societies with its turbulence, discontinuity and mobility, all of which are accelerated by constant change (Appadurai 1996, 4–7 as cited in Burger, 2015). David Gauntlett (2011, 7) argues that the segment of Internet users who are not primarily browsers but who are actively creating information online boasts a ‘making-and-doing’ culture, instead of a conventional ‘sit-back-and-be-told’ culture. For my participatory-style projects (as pandemic situation still hanging in Indonesia), Gauntlett theorises three reasons why it is gratifying for active Internet participants to create something online: 1) it is meaningful to people to be creatively involved on the Internet (Gauntlett 2008, 2); 2) they feel they are connecting to other people through the Internet in what he calls ‘making is connecting’ (ibid, 2–7), and 3) they have the opportunity to do identity work and share their life stories with others, which also signals connecting to others (Gauntlett 2011, 7). That is why I think people are happily participating.

Also, the therapeutic ethos of telling one’s story is commonplace in the territory of talk radio and television, where participatory mass media formats have been described as ‘talk therapy’ or ‘the talking cure’ (Shattuc 1997, 111). – I think this therapeutic ethos also works for digital content like podcast and @humansofny. The reward for people who participate in such formats is the validation that ‘I am worth talking to’ and, more importantly, ‘I am worth listening to’ (HOW I WANT MY INTERVIEWEE TO FEEL!!!) (Andrejevic 2004, 86–88). Digital storytelling and identity expression often take place in close-knit communities or demes, and this contact with other people is meaningful to the individual (Hartley 2015, 5). In combining the idea that interactive mediated platforms offer opportunities to connect with others in meaningful ways, with the therapeutic value of telling one’s life story through a mediated platform, it is no wonder that philosopher Thaddeus Metz (2013a, 235 and 2013b, 420) argues that an original, compelling life story creates the feeling that one’s life has meaning. In other words, in making sense of the many changes experienced around the world, some people choose to have a creative engagement with their sense of self, by telling their life story as a private project or making it public by sharing it with others through numerous audience-based mediated opportunities. This creating and sharing of identity with others may validate the self and satisfy the social human need.

Another set of self-expression is found in alternative cultures – especially in youth subcultures – that typically identify themselves as struggling or engaging with, and opposing mainstream cultures. At the same time, they need to express this opposition to the very mainstream culture by which they feel marginalised. – this is GILIGILI towards mainstream fashion dominated by influencers that are carbon copy of each other. In contrast with the vast sources of inspirations, as social media is the second foremost reason for using the internet for Indonesian, they tend to be oriented towards influencers (Zaenudin, 2018). These influencers create a certain standard, where followers copy the influencers’ ideals in hope to conform with the current social norm (Brucculieri, 2018), resulted in creating a homogenized expression of self.)

I’ll show an example of 5 influencers (@alikaislamadina, @ayladimitri, @rachelteresia, @elxielvina, and @_gittayunanda):

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All have the same patterns: brand-sponsored events, holiday, ootd (but if you look closer they have similar styles and endorsed by similar brands). They’re all passed the ‘beauty standard’ (fair skin, long straight hair, and have slim body type).

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Even the same bio (the top three wrote “traveller”). The bottom ones wrote another thing but they all have their holiday diaries in their stories highlight.

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They’re even doing the same virtual photoshoot with the same ‘glass’ effects and edits. It’s not even unusual to see their preferred Lightroom setup. I don’t say this is a bad thing, and becoming something like this is 100% their choice and I know they worked hard for it (@_gittayunanda is my friend so I heard stories) but most of them were born wealthy and if the ‘influencers’ are all like this people will have a hard time accepting themselves and finding their own self-expression. They’ll feel that they need to conform to these influencers to be accepted as attractive. This influencers culture is one thing I want to oppose as they’re also included in “extraordinary” fashion, not “ordinary”. People need to realise that these influencers are not “human” anymore, they’re a “brand”–as Ms Alessandra in her book Contemporary Indonesian Fashion, they moved from “the blogger” to “the brand”–with brand guide and personality that is shaped based on their audiences’ preferences OR by data.

3. Fashion as a signal of identity and self-expression.
Understanding the “real-life issues” of fashion also means giving attention to “not just how the body is represented within the fashion system and its discourses on dress, but also how the body is experienced and lived,” Entwistle (2000, 344) argues. Taking the perspective of the lived body, or understanding fashion as a situated bodily practice, does not only mean a shift in scale to the micro-social order, however but also a shift from fashion as wear (object) at the boundary between self and other to fashion as the practice of wearing (activity) connecting body and the other through interacting (Hallnäs et al. 2006). In addition, a dynamic perspective also highlights another central function of fashion: to associate material goods with existing cultural categories, fashion also creates new cultural meanings and new cultural categories (Levi-Strauss 1973; Thornquist 2017). As Vinken (2005, 4) also points out, fashion is not only a representative function of social life and structures but also a poetological activity, a cause rather than effect, that constructs and subverts its expression and thematize itself with a performative power that is capable of inducing a change in individuals and social life.

In relation to the process of establishing and maintaining a sense of self through dress, wearing is not primarily a process of presentation or representation; it is a continuous practice of negation with yourself and inward experience constituted in the process of trying, changing, and experiencing (emotionally evaluating) the body/self through different ways of wearing (Kozel 2008; Ziesche 2014; Martin-Larsen 2016). Wearing as an activity is, therefore, a mediation between mind and body in the sense of Merleau-Ponty (2002); it is a transitional and interacting state of corporeal consciousness that opposes more static linguistic analyses of fashion. In the process of being worn, as when shoes transform body posture, the elasticity of the object initiates an endless bodily struggle against the material, the weight of the fabric directs a pattern (Martin-Larsen 2016), and the oversized hoodie expands the self in space. Fashion is not any more defined through types and a representative relationship but through the expression created by the body and wear in a wearing that conceptualizes an interactive embodiment as the process of moving—thinking—feeling (Shusterman, 1999; Kozel 2008). Accordingly, the material presence of things and acts, such as the activity of engaging and interacting with clothing, is at once an object of consciousness and consciousness itself—ways of wearing as the perceived identity of a person.

References:
Cortese, G. Creating Space for Self-Expression at “What Makes You?”. Available at: https://gumc.georgetown.edu/gumc-stories/creating-space-for-self-expression-at-what-makes-you/.
Kim, H. S., & Ko, D. (2007). Culture and self-expression. In C. Sedikides & S. J. Spencer (Eds.), Frontiers of social psychology. The self (p. 325–342). Psychology Press.
Burger, M. (2015) ‘Public self-expression, identity and the participatory turn: The power to re-imagine the self’, Communicatio, 41(3), pp. 264-286. doi: 10.1080/02500167.2015.1093318.
Thornquist, C. (2018) ‘The Fashion Condition: Rethinking Fashion from Its Everyday Practices’, Fashion Practice, 10(3), pp. 289-310. doi: 10.1080/17569370.2018.1507147
Zaenudin, A. (2018) Influencer di Media Sosial, Penantang Tangguh Iklan Konvensional. Available at: https://tirto.id/influencer-di-media-sosial-penantang-tangguh-iklan-konvensional-cEfr/.
Brucculieri, J. (2018) Instagram Influencers Are All Starting to Look the Same. Here’s Why. Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/instagram-influencers-beauty_n_5aa13616e4b002df2c6163bc/.

As I decided to focus on the documentation of individuals personal style in Indonesia, I tried to observe some books and websites that focus on doing street style.

1. FRUiTS and STREET

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Made by Shoichi Aoki, both FRUiTS and STREET are one of the best street style documentation. FRUiTS is also the first magazine that spread the Harajuku street style crazed. Unlike the newer publication, FRUiTS purely filled with pictures with no interviews. It focused on capturing the style and details of individuals in Tokyo (FRUiTS) and London (STREET). I also think that these two cities have the strongest street style.

2. NYLON STREET

NYLON did this book in 2006. It’s focusing on several cities: London, Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris, New York, Melbourne, and Tokyo. The format is still the same with other street styles, but as a magazine, NYLON added the photos with the individuals’ name, age, and several casual questions.

3. DROP Tokyo

Out of all the examples, DROP Tokyo has the hugest base community as it is not only in Tokyo, but also Kansai, New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Korea, Taiwan, and–to my surprise!–Bangkok and Vietnam (on Instagram). South-East Asian country–except for Bangkok probably–are being looked halfway when it comes to fashion. So this is a positive sign. Created in 2007, Drop Tokyo has been the first fashion forum that discovers the “faces” that symbolize Tokyo’s next-generation streets.

4. Tokyo Fashion

From all these examples, I think Tokyo Fashion is the closest to what I want to do. They snap street style but also create articles and guides for experiencing fashion in Tokyo (though the last one is written in 2018. This struck me: do people don’t care about these article/interview or it’s just not the content needed or they just simply not able to do it anymore (as from what I see, they’re talking more about release of collections, and other information on brands that probably is faster to know from the designers/brands itself)? And I understand for street style you can’t take too much time of the person). But it’s fun to see that they linked their snaps with brands that they wear and their music preferences.

Tokyo Fashion solely focuses on Japan (Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku & others). Its gallery is less crowded than Drop Tokyo, might be because they have less to cover.

Another thing that I like about Tokyo Fashion is they’re documenting fashion moments and interviewing people on the streets more intimately (though, again, the last video is from 2018). But from the videos, I’ve seen positive responses about the individuals.

5. @jogjastreetstyle

The only platform in Indonesia in this list and probably the only one. Well, we also have @lookbookindonesia and @ootdindo (inactive since 2018) but they collected photos from users and not taking it themselves. Also, the style that gets represented is similar to each other and they tend to favour influencers. So I don’t think they’re the right platform to look into. On the other hand, @jogjastreetstyle is more diverse and raw. I found this while desperately looking for Indonesian street style and turned out the owners and I followed each other on Instagram. I got the chance to talk and hear about its creation and the impact @jogjastreetstyle has in Jogjakarta.

A lot of people messaged them saying they’re grateful that the account exists as it encouraged them to be braver on expressing personal style. A lot of street style accounts emerged after the success of @jogjastreetstyle. They got covered by media and did an exhibition in 2016 by showcasing photographs of individuals chosen with their stories. The interesting factors (like how someone looks like a hardcore punk on the outside but actually a Sufi and gave a speech once a week–was off the record tho). But this twist makes it interesting–you can not always judge a person based on their appearances–there are a lot of factors that influenced their decisions. This is what I want to convey with GILIGILI. I feel so grateful that Tita (one of the two owners of @jogjastreetstyle) was very open on the experiences and provided me with a lot of insights.

One more thing, on their account @jogjastreetstyle, wrote not literally on the street–which means this condition not only happen in Jakarta–even in Jogja people don’t have the street to express themselves. But they named it street style otherwise since after doing some research, they found that street style itself is the spirit and it doesn’t have to be on the street.

Also, I’m interested in this one essay I read by Luvaas B about street style in Indonesia. When he came and tried to do street style in Jakarta and Bandung (see the essay here), he was bedazzled by how the ‘street’ is indoors and it is hard to get ‘cool’ people with ‘style’. He felt that his style radar (that built up taking street style in the US) flawed.

While the concept of ‘cool’ probably differ across the border, the reason why he felt that his style radar flawed in Indonesia because he looked at the wrong place. If, as quoted from the essay, street style is documentation of exceptional style which ‘superadded, rare, desired quality’ (Johnson-Woods and Karaminas 2013: 13), that applies to probably no more than one in a hundred people, then the ‘cool’ people must be a niche population in Indonesia.

As street style is an unfamiliar concept, people did not practice it and to find those who are ‘cool’ and have ‘style’, I think Luvas lacks the knowledge of the community on where to find the right folk to interview and the right place to conduct his experiment. I think this is the clear gap that I can fill in, as I’m an Indonesian and I belong in the community. I believe I’d be able to find the right places and the right people by networking and connecting between circles starting from my own.

Besides all the above, a lot of different documentations like Korean @streetper or a very niche @thats_so_csm. Or a more non-fashion like @shanghaiobserved and one of my personal favourite @humansofny. I think it would be nice if I can help people to open up and share stories like @humansofny does.

All in all, I can see that narrative is still something that is missing for fashion. Documentation like this is good for the sake of documenting it as inspo and anthropology. But I want to connect fashion with narratives–with stories of the wearer. Why they chose to wear what they wear today? How did the style evolve before it got to its present time? I wanted to create an open environment for people to express themselves and to share their stories so the readers will understand their decision making better. To understand people and remove judgement/prejudices.

I interviewed 29 people that fall into my target audience category (male and female, 18–30 years old, live in big cities, and interested in fashion) for my primary research. I did it all together with the interview about the COVID-19 pandemic. But for this one, I want to know their stories of self-expression from the first time until now. The questions are:

1. Is it hard to express yourself through fashion within your environment?
2. What do you think about the representation (beauty ideal, body image, style preferences) by media and brands in Indonesia? Are they diverse enough?
3. If you ask the question to yourself–do you feel represented by media/brands in Indonesia?
4. What kind of content that you’re engaged the most? Where do you consume these contents?
5. What kind of content you’re hoping to see on self-expression? (no content like that or there are some and you wish to see more of them)

These are basic questions–I’ll adds more questions according to their answers. These questions aim to know their stories, the environment, what type of media and social channels that they use to further prove what I’m going to make.

Some of the evidence I can show (some people didn’t want to be recorded and some wanted to do voice call instead):

Notes taken from the interview (mixed with the dressing up during pandemic interview written half and half in Bahasa and English):

From the interviews, there are some points to highlight:

1. Rising demand for diversity. It is starting to be more diverse now, but some people still feel like brands are just jumping on the diversity bandwagon or doing a gimmick. They want to see if this will lasts.
2. No media focusing on the topic too–though some discussing it through other issues (e.g. femininity and gender), somewhat it’s always only the tip of the iceberg.
3. In Indonesia, the beauty ideal is fair skin, long-haired, and you’ll get plus points if you’re caucasian looking–or half Indonesian. A lot of caucasian models gracing brand catalogues, even for celebrity and influencers, the one that always put in the spotlight are these type of girls. In reality, women in Indonesia have a darker complexion. For men, the beauty ideal is not really a problem, but they have a problem with body image–as the men represented and loved most is the alpha male, masculine type with the slim, fit muscle-y body. None of the movies or tv series shows a bigger, chubby build as the main protagonist. And women have been struggling with this body type problem too. For people aged 19–64 years old in Indonesia, the average height for men is 168 cm and women 159 cm. But media, brands, and designers are using tall models that don’t represent the real people. Some said that it’s hard to get the right size for their body types and the shape of the clothes don’t look as good when it’s worn on their body.
4. Especially to the queer community, as a Muslim majority country, it’s been hard for them to express themselves, especially within their families.
5. The Muslim women who wear hijab are not all adhering to the ‘standard’ modest wear. And these type of hijabers wanted to see more contemporary hijab fashion editorial.
6. For people who are commuting with public transportation, they tend to tone down (not wearing anything flashy and jewellery) and cover themselves because they don’t feel secure being the centre of attention (infrastructure problem). Most of them are also toning their style down to respect their environment (especially family and workplace) and they want to avoid hearing negative reactions or remarks (they usually experienced it before).
7. The media or brands usually expose certain groups of influencers or celebrities and not ‘real people’. Some even said that they don’t trust influencers as much anymore since they’re getting paid to say what they say.
8. Majority of people said that now they know where and with who they can feel safe, and they realised if they just ignore what people say, their environment will get used to what they wear and it will be more comfortable. Even though some comments still come out once in a while, they just brushed it off.
9. Most of them look up to brands and icons from outside of Indonesia because they feel more connected with the style from outside of the country–this also made me realize that Indonesia doesn’t have “style icons”. Almost all of my interviewees chosen foreign people/brands or the more contemporary and edgy brands (like @dibbaofficial, @aestheticpleasure_, @calliecotton). We have some fashion influencers, but like I said they have similar styles (probably because they got endorsed by the same brands too) and just like a theory I found before, these influencers create a certain standard, where followers copy the influencers’ ideals in hope to conform with the current social norm (Brucculieri, 2018), resulted in creating a homogenized expression of self. People think the ones with the most followers are the ‘attractive’ ones, while I think people should know there are different styles out there and I want them to dress and express themselves, not to just copy influencers.
10. They usually search for people or brands (so the flow is either they follow the people then see what brands they’re wearing or they resonate with a certain brand and look for who’s wearing it).
11. They want to see content on real people that they can relate to in terms of style. They want to know more about how (how to style, how-to DIY tie-dye your shirt, how to deconstruct your clothes, etc) and why they wear something. Types of content that offer how outside of fashion (e.g. cooking and gardening) are also the ones that they engaged with the most. The channels are Instagram (saved feature), Youtube, TikTok (for the younger ones, 19–22 years old in this case), and Pinterest (mainly for inspo).
12. Most of the interviewees are familiar with Instagram filter, and they played with quizzes and background filters. I think it’ll be a good engagement for the brand if we can do a collaboration with artists to create that kind of filters as well. (Especially for artists who can’t make their own filters) so we can help them and get the engagement also from their followers.
13. From this interview, I decided to erase the nonconformist from my research questions, as people that I perceived as conformist or a conformist also have the drive to be a nonconformist as well, or doing it very subtly (like a friend of mine wearing the clothes that is the norm for her workplace but she adds polka dot patterns that are very her, or another friend wears flowery/patterned socks just to add the ‘me’ factor when she gets to work).

After quite some time, I’m thinking of approaching the issue of self-expression through space–creating a place for voices from Indonesia–via multimedia. I’m always interested in a different medium and one of the drives for me going to London is to learn different ways of producing media beside still and film. I’ll need to look for the academic support–but I had a talk with my cousin who’s a communication officer for the government and she’s very frustrated as our government still using a traditional approach to convey messages to the public. For example, my cousin is responsible to create a campaign for kids and teenager to snack fruits at school and at home. But instead of using fun visualization and familiar language with the target, they stick to a conventional, full of text campaign that no one will even bother to read. From there I was thinking of making an interactive media or website to make fashion and its discourse ‘easy’ and find to digest. So I ask my cousin to help me in some ways on journalism, as I trust her ability and if this is something that I’ll continue in the future it would be beneficial to have a partner that in the same interest.

So I contacted another friend back home to help me with website development, design and editorial. I told friends and collaborators from my past projects about the idea and asked for their hands so I got a good team in Indonesia. I plan on finishing the concept in May/June so the team can start the preparation before or right after I arrived in Jakarta.

A lot of ideas came to my mind, I want to highlight Indonesian who rarely but deserve to be in the spotlight. I want to reinterpret Indonesian folklores to contemporary media like editorial, fashion films or VR. I want to make a section on the website full of traditional clothes with fun editing (e.g. Yu-gi-Oh!, pokemon or Cardcaptor Sakura power cards) with interactive settings so reading the history of the clothing won’t be boring. I want to make documentation on big fashion event and identity, but more through the social and psychological approach. The discourse that I want to talk about will be around body, identity, subculture and representation.

So I did some research about the interactive website on Awwwards.com (an awards website for design, creativity, and innovation on the internet) to discover unique interactive websites that I can probably base on (and trust me this website is hella fun!! I played many games, read stories and stuff from on the websites listed).

This was a fun research and intermezzo in one place. I’m happy 🙂

Beside of website, I’m thinking of holding an exhibition in Jakarta to present the work as I’m trying to make it into different mediums so I think it would be better to set up the proper way to enjoy them. This will be a lot of work and I need more collaborators/partners to work with, as well as experts to make sure that I’m doing it the right way without appropriating the culture (as traditional attire often sacred to certain culture) and Kirk from DLL to help me with the pathway–what to learn, which one first, etc. Meanwhile, I’m also going to cooking the concept more.