CELEBRATING A LIFE IN FASHION
IKA (pronounced ee-ka) means “a thousand islands with one unity”. Like her name, the talented designer creates multi-faceted and multi-dimensional designs like no other – a thousand creative ideas with one unity.
Fashion designer, Ika, treats designing as a serious issue. “For me, fashion design is not persay a career but a way to express myself day to day. My roots contribute to the major strength in embroidery which I use a lot in my collections.”
Born in Indonesia, Ika was raised and educated in Bali – the islands of the Gods. Driven by her interest in fashion, she spent several years in Europe to be trained in apparel design. The calling of Asia drew her back to the Far East where she made Hong Kong her second home, founded Butoni Limited in the early 1980s and has been committed in delivering her work until present. Hong Kong is now her work base while Bali becomes her source of inspiration.
HER PRESENCE AND ACTIVE
Her presence and active participation in Butoni has contributed greatly to its success. Today, the company is dealing with global market and showcasing their garment with ‘one of a kind’ design. Her strong team formulates continuous developments in a quest to do beyond themselves in each creation.
Ika founded the Bali Fashion Week (BFW) in 2000, as a celebration of lifestyle and life itself.
The passion she has for the apparel is not limited to the mere task of designing. She participates in any opportunity to nurture the young people. She has been invited to lectures hosted by Unilever to share her knowledge to the younger generation.
The BEDO (Bali Export Development Organization) is one organization which she has founded and actively participated. The organization is to sustain economic growth for Bali’s SMEs and its entrepreneurs with social and environmental responsibility.
IN TERMS OF HER CAREER
In terms of her career, she realized at the early stage that there is no alternative to hard work for each design represents distinctive perception for the audience. Having reconciled to this term, she discovered that there were successive layers of inspiration in creating a masterpiece. She considers herself as the spectator of human growth in the imaginary world.
“I firmly believe that I draw inspirations from my travels and interactions with people from different land. They give me ideas on my sprinkles of creation, energize myself and my team on constant research of the fabrics, the thriving experiments with new embroideries as well as staying abreast of new technologies. I have always wanted to be creative and different in every approach to being artistic. The name ‘designer’ was not so important perhaps because in Germany, where I started designing, designers were always called Stylist.”
Ika possesses an ever upbeat attitude and positive outlook on life. She is a committed person on searching for new things; incorporating her experiences into all her designs. “I appreciate four human traits and the first is ‘resilience’; never giving up. The second is ‘ethics’; room to move and parameters for action. ‘Curiosity’ is the third, for it encourages constant research and endless journey into the unknown. The forth and final trait is ‘discovery’, where leaf after leaf is turned over, to find treasures hidden underneath. Creative people draw inspirations from just about anything around them. All these become inspiration that once aligned into the work of art would change the boundaries of a particular craft.”
CAREFULLY CHOSEN MATERIALS
Carefully chosen materials and fabrics are always “Ika-nized” and topped with her professional touches. Combining a myriad of materials in interesting ways, she creates a new symphony of designs each season. Each collection is always uniquely “Ika” graced with her signature.
Each seasonal collection is an evolution of her ranges of design, indulging in completely fresh ideas; each with completely different themes but correlated to the happenings around the world. It is an Ika saga and a dialogue with her followers.
Themes of past collections includes: Ground Zero (Fall/Winter 2003); Gladiator ( Fall/Winter 2003); Black & White (Fall/Winter 2003); in response to the Bali Bombing, 9/11; Shanti(Fall/Winter 2004); Modern Mystic (Spring/Summer 2004); Celebration of Life (Fall/Winter 2005); Sahara Crossing (Spring/Summer 2005); Figure 8 (Fall/Winter 2008); On the Desert Road to Alexandria (Fall/Winter 2009); Global Sphere (Fall/Winter 2010), Time of the Tides (Spring/Summer 2011); Butterfly Momma (Fall/Winter 2011); Beauty and the Beast (Fall/Winter 2012) and the most recent one, Afrique (Spring/Summer 2013).
Her ranges of collections are showcased on the runway of Hong Kong Fashion Week & World Boutique twice yearly and fervently covered both by local and international media. Ika has also received and fulfilled special show invitations from different parts of the world such as Buenos Aires, Shanghai, Beijing, Paris, Milan, Moscow, Johannesburg, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Taiwan and Korea.
HER RECENT WORKS
Her recent works were staged at the January 2012 World Boutique Hong Kong, February 2012 Indonesia Fashion Week, April 2012 Fashion Access (Hong Kong) and July 2012 Hong Kong Fashion Week.
Ika’s typical creation is fashionable and ready to wear. Many worldwide corporations enjoy the benefits of her delicate touch. She has been commissioned to design corporate and office wear for hotels and retail brand shops on various projects.
Her unique approach won her many awards, recognition and flows of loyal buyers who present her collections to reach the each corner of the world. Her collections are now sold in 35 countries such as Japan, Germany, France, USA, Canada, Middle East, Australia, South Africa, China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, through KINJI 8 Boutiques. Besides the “Ika” label, others include Butoni, Iccha, Linea Sanremo and Ikabene.