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| ‘There are people who are beautiful, yet they have a bad attitude, and it becomes their minus point.’ Vivi Yip, gallery owner. |
With such societal shifts have also come changing attitudes towards fashion, beauty and cosmetics. We talked to three women well known in their fields — an art gallery owner, a businesswoman and a lifestyle editor — to get their thoughts. We asked them about their personal style, the importance of keeping up with current trends, items they can’t live without and the nature of beauty itself.
Vivi Yip, owner of the Vivi Yip Art Room on Jalan Warung Buncit, South Jakarta
After she graduated from Trisakti University in Jakarta with a degree in graphic design, Vivi spent 10 years working as a specialist for Indonesian paintings at Sotheby’s Auction House in Singapore. In June 2008, she returned to Jakarta and opened her gallery.
For Vivi, feeling comfortable in her clothes is more important than following trends.
“From day to day, I like to wear jeans, leggings or short skirts,” she says. “This is me, in season or out of season.”
But she readily admits an affinity for Indonesian designers like Tri Handoko (“I think his clothes are well-structured”) and Stella Rissa, as well as the edgier styles of designers like Jeffry Tan. “I also like indie local designers, like Nikicio and Majic + Far,” she says.
For clothing from outside the country, Vivi says Hong Kong and Bangkok are both hot spots for cool, smaller designers and independent boutiques.
And when she does hop aboard a plane for a weekend of shopping, her bag is a model of literary simplicity. “I travel very light. As light as possible. If I travel for three days, I’d bring along three sets of clothes, not six, unless I go to places where I cannot shop. What I do bring along is usually books.”
There are a few essentials, however, that she says are always floating around in her favorite purse, like MAC lipstick, Prada perfume and a special hand cream from Shanghai. “It’s made from snake oil,” Vivi says. “It’s very cheap, but very gentle and non-sticky.”
For keeping her locks tamed, she carries a comb from Zhouzhuang, China. “It’s a famous product of that region,” she says. “It’s very good for the hair, especially since mine tends to get dry. They say that the comb induces the scalp to generate natural oil.”
With no hard-and-fast regimen — “I go to salons when I need to” — Vivi says that outer beauty is reliant on one’s inner thoughts.
“There are people who are beautiful, yet they have a bad attitude, and it becomes their minus point. But there are people who are just OK, yet they’re fun to be with. I think that’s better.”
Ayu Hakim, owner of Rumah Maroko, an events venue in Menteng, Central Jakarta
Ayu got her master’s degree in business administration from Boston College in the United States. She worked for several years in Australia before returning to Jakarta to manage the family business in 2005.
Like Vivi, Ayu says that comfort is an essential element of her style.
“Personally, I like fashion that’s comfortable,” she says, adding that bending to current trends and following brands is not her style.
“It’s not that I follow fashion, but fashion has to follow me. I don’t really like to wear things by brand. So what’s comfortable on me is something that I personally prefer,” Ayu says. She likes a lot of young, upcoming Indonesian designers and labels, such as the Proklamasi brand.
“Indonesia should be proud. There are a lot of creative people and not necessarily always found in the malls. In fashion, I see a lot of new designers that open their own little shops somewhere, or they also have it online. These are young, creative minds. As for the Indonesian designer who really brings out the style of Indonesia, it’s definitely Obin [Komara],” she says.
Ayu is also an admirer of Tasha D, an Indonesian jewelry designer who made it big in Europe and the United States.
When out and about, Ayu says she keeps it light, carrying lipstick and not much less. “For people to carry a lot of things, first it’s heavy and second, when you’re out you should enjoy your time out and not be busy grooming yourself. You groom at home before you leave,” she says.
And for Ayu, beauty comes from within. “From the inside, it means someone who is confident in herself or himself and fulfilled and happy,” she says. “That’s beauty. From the outside, you can do a lot of things, but it will never cover inner beauty.”
To keep up appearances and a healthy attitude, Ayu says, it’s more about breaking a sweat than visiting the salon.
“For me, a beauty regimen is more related to exercise. By exercise, I mean exercise with a lot of sweat. Once in a blue moon, maybe [I’ll have a] facial. I hardly go to a hair salon. I try to be as casual as possible.
Ni Luh Sekar, editor in chief of Dewi magazine
Sekar was a finalist at the Wajah Femina (Femina Faces) beauty pageant in 1998, and has written for a number of newspapers and magazines.
Having been editor in chief of Dewi magazine since 2005, Sekar keeps abreast of current trends. But more important to her are combining fashion and style, and knowing how they’re different.
“Fashion is something that’s today, right now and it’s going to change tomorrow, or next week or next season. Style is something personal that needs a long time to develop,” she says.
“If you follow the trends without your own style, you’ll be a fashion victim. But to persist in your own style without following the fashion trends, you’ll be someone stubborn, as you reject newness, and that’s not good. Because life’s about now. Today. That’s what I bring to my readers: that style and fashion has to be balanced.”
Like Ayu, Sekar is a fan of Proklamasi’s clothing. “Design-wise, it’s very silent with a twist,” she says, adding that Max Mara and Lanvin are currently making women look stunning, and Loro Piana is putting out the finest wool clothing she’s ever seen.
For shoes, Sekar is partial to the lightweight European designs of Giuseppe Zanotti and Barbaba Bui.
But Sekar says there are also plenty of noteworthy Indonesian designers.
“I like Priyo Octaviano for his precision and perfectionism, Ghea Panggabean for her unique Bohemian style and Biyan for [adopting] international standards for his labels,” she says.
Sekar says she loves traditional markets like Pasar Mayestik, as well as “any flower market in the world.”
Overseas, she likes stores with an “edge,” like Bonjour Records in Tokyo and Rockstar in Singapore. She even has a favorite tableware store in Paris (Astier de Villatte).
“Oh, I’m a serious traveler,” she says. “I have a list of places to go to. This year, I had 10 destinations in Indonesia, from Weh Island [Aceh] to Raja Ampat [Papua].”
It’s evident that Sekar puts the same level of thought into her luggage as she does in her outfits. “I always have big bags, my Bottega Venetta, with a special compartment for purse and passport in it, my Loewe canvas [bag] and a small luggage for the cabin. It happens so very often that my luggage doesn’t make it to the destination, so in the small luggage, I always prepare one pair of clothes, cosmetics and pajamas.
When it come to the question of what is the nature of beauty, Sekar has her own unique opinions.
“You know what I don’t believe? I don’t believe in inner beauty. But if you ask me what beauty means to me, I think the meaning of beauty is when you see things differently. When you can capture things that people don’t.
“When you see a father and his son selling gado-gado on the streets, when you can feel it, when it touches you, I think that’s beauty,” Sekar says.
“When you can appreciate Jakarta’s sky, for example. I mean, this is Jakarta, not Papua, or Lombok or Tuscany, where the sky is so blue and the sunshine is beautiful. But if you can find beauty in Jakarta’s sky, you must be special, because you can capture beauty in unusual things.” (thejakartaglobe)
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