The Indonesia Modest Fashion Week ended last week. We profiled Diane Pelangi, a young designer who started her career a few years ago, and now she is an icon, a known name, in the modest fashion industry.
Pelangi added a new flavor to the global Muslim fashion scene, pushing norms and traditional boundaries. Her new modernized look of modest outfits has attracted a broad demographic from all over the world. Through her influence, she is credited for introducing Indonesian Islamic fashion to the rest of the world.
The young designer has so far held fashion shows in London, Paris, Germany, Holland, Dubai, among other places.
Growing up among Indonesian craftsmen and seamstresses, she learned to draw and sew from a young age.
“I pay close attention to the Islamic rules that I apply to every collection, but I don’t forget about the creativity itself. Here, I can say that I combine between faith and fashion. They are two different things but I think they can be combined beautifully,” Dian told Goltune.
Pelangi’s early childhood
Every big name has a humble beginning. Pelangi was just born when her parents founded the brand in 1991.
Hailing from the Sumatran city of Palembang in Indonesia, she was born with the name Dian Wahyu Utami. She chose the name Pelangi for her brand, inspired by a local name for Indonesian traditional clothes.
Pelangi could also mean rainbow, while Dian means light. Combined, it translates to “the light of the rainbow”. For Dian, this rendition is a perfect depiction of the local Indonesian taste of vibrant colors.
Even though Pelangi started becoming more involved in the business after she finished her education, she spent her entire childhood in her family’s company. Growing up among craftsmen and seamstresses, she learned to draw and sew from a young age.
“Because the Dian Pelangi label had operated since I was a small child, I felt like I was given a responsibility. So since I was a little girl I’d been taught how to serve customers, and I learned how to make clothes. I learned how to draw and how to sew. And when I reached adulthood it never occurred to me to pursue any other field.”
Goltune interview with Pelangi in 2017 in Jakarta
Once Pelangi graduated from École Supérieur des Arts et Techniques de la Mode in Paris, she started becoming more involved in managing the company. Over the years, the brand expanded to include 500 employees and 14 retail stores across Indonesia and Malaysia.
New modern modest look
Throughout her career, the Indonesian designer has been known to add a new flavor to the global Muslim fashion scene, By pushing norms and traditional boundaries. Her new modernized look of modest outfits has attracted a broad demographic from all over the world.
Pelangi’s fashion identity is uniquely Indonesian, and not necessarily from the Gulf countries, where modest fashion is more dominated by black abayas. Her collections add strong elements of traditional Indonesian culture.
“My trick as a fashion designer is to be able to do push-and-pull marketing. I have to push my character, my personality, and the signature style of Dian Pelangi, but I have to pull from the tastes of the people, what types of clothes they like, and what is trending,” she said.
Driven by a mission to promote her own culture and Indonesian designs, the brand prides itself on its exceptional craftsmanship and the use of traditional woven fabrics. To maintain this high level of craftsmanship, each piece is handmade by artisans using ancient techniques.
“Everything is handmade so I want to show through my collection not only the beauty of modest fashion but also the beauty of craftsmanship,” she said.
Pelangi and Indonesia’s modest fashion
In Indonesia, every city has its traditional fabric. For Pelangi’s hometown of Palembang, batik, tie-dye, tenum, and beadwork prevail. Of all her collections, the rainbow tie-dye is her signature, which has become so popular. This play with colors, the clash of yellow, mgenta, royal blue, and maroon flowing into one another in watercolor-like gradation fading to white, has become her trademark
Pelangi uses traditional Indonesian textiles like the songket, tenum, and batik in contemporary designs.
“I prepared one special collection called Gloradera, which means the spirit of a woman. For this, I used the songket material, which is commonly used by both Indonesians and Malaysians. So I chose this to show the unity and diversity,” she said.
Originally reserved for weddings and ceremonies, songkets used to be traditionally made from threads that have been dipped in molten gold or silver. But, with the help of her father, Pelangi managed to devise a new way to recreate this material with the weaving machine, making it more wearable and preventing the colors from running.
“If you cut a songket to make a piece of clothing the Palembangese people will be angry because it’s their tradition,” Pelangi explained. By creating it with the weaving machine, “we are able to adjust the cloth to make it wearable, to prevent the colors from running, to make it machine-washable and easy to care for. The fabric is thinner so that people don’t feel hot wearing it.”
Traveling the World for Inspiration
While Pelangi remains loyal to traditional Indonesian textiles, she allowed herself to get inspired by her travels. She has developed an independent view and a unique outlook on modest fashion.
“My ideas and inspiration mainly come when I am traveling. I love to meet local people and learn about their cultures so I can take it away with me and represent it within my collections,” she said to the press at London Fashion Week 2016.
“If you cut a songket to make a piece of clothing the Palembangese people will be angry [and feel insulted]. ”
“Experiencing places I’m not familiar with makes a huge impact on me, not just in terms of my view of the world, but also in terms of my work and creativity,” she added.
This can be seen from a collection that she showed at one of the Jakarta Fashion Weeks that she participated in shortly after her graduation, featuring African-inspired batik turbans and necklaces with large beads made of billowy fashion and silk cloth color splashed with punchy jumputan.
Through her feed, we see a different side of Pelangi; a young woman who likes to travel, snap selfies with her friends, and meet her peers at fashion shows.
She has also been named one of the 500 most influential figures in the fashion industry by the UK-based publication Business of Fashion.
As Pelangi was riding the wave of modest fashion influencers, her growing followership and global recognition was a turning point for her company, which had only reached a limited audience in previous years.
“I think that right now, the trend of modest fashion is rising. Even big brands started approaching this market. And I know that it will be a big thing in the future,” she told Goltune.
Photos are the curtesy of Pelangi’s Instagram page.
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