VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

3 Indonesian fashion brands participated in the pop up store at L'Exception, a well-known concept store in the Forum des Halles area, central Paris, to be exact. Two of the fashion brands have routinely exhibited their work in the Paris Fashion Week series, the SOE Jakarta brand and WilsenWillim, but for the first time explored their participation in the pop up store in Paris for 10 days from 14-23 June 2019.

"This is a very good opportunity to see interest in fashion design from Indonesia not only in the local community of Paris but also in foreigners, given the location of this pop up store in the center of tourists," said Diaz, lead designer WilsenWillem. SOE Jakarta, is optimistic that its design is able to meet the current trend of sustainable and ethical fashion and states that "we always involve handweavers from various regions in Indonesia for the development of materials used".

In addition to these 2 designers, there are also 1 Indonesian brand specifically to hold workshops on making accessories from leather, namely Kaula Leatherworks which will take place on 26-29 June 2019.

The implementation of the pop up store was organized by a fashion agency in Paris called Rendezvoo which raised the theme of French Kiss Asia, involving 7 countries namely Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, China, and France.

The opening program was packaged in the cocktail concept, which took place June 13, 2019 at L'Exception. About 300 French buyers, designers, actors and journalists present were presented with various Indonesian snacks and drinks. In addition there are also Indonesian music that accompanies the festive atmosphere of the event. Also present were Ms. Nur Indah Sari, wife of the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Paris, who wore Indonesian batik. Indonesia's Trade Attache, Megawati, revealed that the existence of snacks and Indonesian music aimed to create an Indonesian atmosphere, so that the invitees were more comfortable seeing the work of Indonesian designers.

French needs for fashion products are quite large with a trend of increasing demand by 6.16% during the 2016-2018 period, especially for apparel products classified as HS 62 and 61 (Articles of apparel and clothing accessories). This is in line with Indonesia's ability to export the HS product group to France with the trend of an increase in exports of 6.04% over the same period, and a 4.58% export growth in the HS product code from USD 90,556,635 in 2017 to USD 94,705,127 in 2018. (Source: Indonesian Embassy in Paris)