Jalan Sutera

at the end of December i got the chance to join a tour titled "Jalan Sutera". this is a tour to a fabric store in Jogjakarta. The tour was created by my friend Elia of Simalakamma and Kunci Cultural Studies. Jalan Sutera is also a parallel event of Biennale Jogja 2011. since the theme of Biennale this year is about Indonesia and India, so we hopping around Jalan Solo, Jogjakarta to visit some textile store owned by India people.

the scarf and the catalog 

Elia as the tour guide

first visit is Prima Textile. this store owned by Mrs Hira. this store is the biggest fabric supplier for uniform in Jogja. they use variant of cotton fabric to serve demand for uniform in a massive amount.

when i first came in, i recognizing the interior right away, and suddenly sense the classic luxuriance of India. and one thing that you wont missed is the "don't bargain" sign board is everywhere in the store. LOL. straight to the point. got that!

Mrs Hira

second visit is Rama Gordyn, owned by Mr Jackie (not Chan ;p)

first impression is the interior (again) because i think rich people from India shows their wealthiness through the interior of the house, as seen on those Bollywood movies. it has to be luxurious, it has to be elegance, and it has to be in gold. that's exactly what i saw on Rama Gordyn.

if i'm not mistaken, Mr Jackie moves to Jogjakarta from India in 2004 to help his wife's family business. he stays here since then, and find it not that hard to learn Bahasa. most of his big family are still in India, so he go back there once in a while to visit his family and do some shopping for the store.

even the air conditioner matched the interior

third visit is Parissa. i don't know who's own the store because we meet the employee instead. he's a talkative person from Sri Lanka, named Anan. he knows a lot about fabric. specially brocade and cotton. he shows us the difference between the expensive brocade, and the cheap one. oh i learn nothing. seriously, the expensive and the cheap brocade looks almost similar to me. i couldn't tell the different. haha..

i do some shop here. a plain cotton fabric in a great colors. i couldn't stand to not buying them. good fabric, good price!

uh oh, we also found something unique here. they have a patch-work fabric, like literally a patchwork. and its only 40.000 IDR per meter. i think that's a cheap price for a patch-work, comparing to the making process.

colorful cotton fabric. love!

the patchwork fabric

it stitched, one piece to another

last store is Wijaya Textile. err..i forgot the owner's name.

here, we told a lot about brocade for wedding dress. the owner explain about the trend in wedding dress nowdays. he said that lately, most people love to mix and match more than two colors for their wedding dress, and he got the natural talent of doing that. even an unmatched colors looks so damn good in his hand. just like this picture as shown below. silver and gold, put it together and voila! somehow they made a nice combination :D

love this ornament! i want one for my room, please..

sooo, that's the end of the tour. it was an interesting experience, really. we're having a great time, aren't we girls? :D