Young People Spread the "Virus" of Jambi Batik

Extraordinary admiration to local batik is like a virus that spreads in the city of Jambi, giving birth to a variety of products, fashions and new events that carry the masterpiece. Young people are behind the expansion.

KOMPAS/IRMA TAMBUNAN

A female craftswoman (right) stamps motifs on sheets of cloth at the Batik Diana Jambi handicraft business, Tuesday (10/1/2023). Batik businesses that all grew in the Seberang Kota Jambi area are now expanding to various surrounding areas.

Diana Batik Gallery in the Seberang area, Jambi city, is not only filled with batik fabrics. There is also everything from shirts, bags, scarves and veils to batik-patterned paintings by Fikri Muhairi (30), who fills out the outlet. All of them use the batik-waste production of his sister, Diana (37).

The idea of processing batik waste into batik shirts started from his confusion when seeing a pile of residual stitches of batik cloth at home. After paying attention to the motives in the waste fabric patchwork, he found the initiative to pin it on a plain shirt. He made a hole on the front of the shirt, then the batik cloth that had been cut was sewn from the inside of the shirt. A piece of a batik cutting-patterned shirt appears. This batik shirt is popular among young people.

At the celebration of the 66th Anniversary of Jambi province, in early January, batik shirts again filled the MSME exhibition. A few weeks earlier, he also fulfilled orders from Bank Indonesia’s Jambi representative office in the form of 120 sheets of batik cutting shirts, as well as batik bags.

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The brother and sister were in batik because they continued efforts of their mother, Rogayah (69), who retired from making batik. Diana continued the legacy of batik cloth production, while Fikri worked on development in the production of shirts, readymade clothing, bags and hijab.

"All have the batik theme," said Fikri, on Wednesday (11/1/2023).

The Seberang area in the city of Jambi has given birth to batik writing and batik stamping, which generally utilize natural dyes. One of them was pioneered by the batik family of these three generations, namely Asmah (late), Asmiah (late) and now continued by Dhita Khairunnisa (28).

Eight years ago, the health of Ibu (Mrs.) Dhita's continued to decline. Dhita was moved to learn batik. Slowly, she took part in taking care of the inheritance until finally able to handle the business management which is now named Rumah Batik Azmiah (RBA), located in the Olak Kemang subdistrict.

KOMPAS/IRMA TAMBUNAN

Reka Dian Utami (32) in her studio in the Pasir Putih area, Jambi City, Tuesday (10/1/2023). He uses Jambi batik in his various designs.

In Dhita's hands, the RBA business is growing well. Moreover, Dhita still maintains the typical colors of Jambi, which were processed by the late mother. Jambi character attached to the flora motifs is maintained and continues to be developed. "Recipes and quality [coloring] are maintained, the quality of batik canting [one of the traditional types of batik making] is increasingly applied," she said.

The classic motives of RBA identity are also maintained. However, Dhita also developed a re-composition of contemporary motifs and classic motifs so that customers get more choices.

Batik RBA is not only in demand in Jambi, even marketed in Jakarta, including in the roundabout on Jalan MH Thamrin and Batik Chic Gallery in Kemang, South Jakarta. In addition, Batik RBA filled the exhibitions of wastra nusantara (Indonesia’s traditional fabrics) from Jakarta and Japan to the Cultural Festival during the Qatar World Cup 2022.

Fashion design

In addition to being enlivened by the young generation of the batik-making family, Jambi Batik is now also echoed in the hands of fashion designers and young fashion stylists. The batik shows now appear in hotels and malls until batik is increasingly valued more and more highly," said Bella.

"In order to enable Jambi batik to attract the hearts of young people, we make events in public spaces," said Reka Dian Utami (32), deputy chairperson of Jambi Fashion Society (JFS).

One of those events was the Gentala Sunset Fashion Week last September. The fashion models swayed with a variety of batik fabrics on the Gentala Arasy Pedestrian Bridge, which divided the Batanghari River.

DOKUMENTASI JAMBI FASHION SOCIETY

Batik fashion show at the Gentala Arasy Bridge, September 2022. The story of Jambi batik is now enlivened by the creativity of young people, one of which is through various fashion shows on the streets to the pedestrian bridges.

Previously, the batik-themed fashion show was held in the Car Free Day event at one of the sidewalks in the center of Jambi city, Jl. Sumantri Brojonegoro. At this event, in addition to adult batik clothing, the collection for children was also exhibited.

One of the designers who took part in the event was Bella Burhan. According to her, the shows in public places are increasingly igniting the interest of a wider range of residents. As a result, the clothes of her work are increasingly selling well.

The development of batik in the city of Jambi is inextricably linked to the establishment of the Indonesian Fashion Entrepreneur Designer Association in Jambi city, in November 2019. After that, the JFS community was formed in 2021. The development encouraged collaboration with business people, art workers and creators. From there was born a new event with the theme of batik.

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"Batik makers, designers and fashion stylists also built collaborations with each other so that batik was increasingly supported," said Bella.

Strong support was given by the Jambi city government to promoting batik, including to young people. Routinely, every year, the city government holds a Jambi batik-motif design competition for junior- and high-school children.

"Students who win the competition get prizes. The work of the design was then printed to become a batik uniform for civil servants," said Jambi Mayor Syarif Fasha.

Batik makers, designers and fashion stylists also built collaborations with each other so that batik was increasingly supported.

Batik orders for civil servant uniforms also encourage the sustainability of batik business in the city of Jambi. There are 8,000 civil servants and contract employees in the city of Jambi who are required to dress in batik every Thursday.

Head of Bank Indonesia (BI) Jambi Representative Office Suti Masnari said, the existence of a regulation on the use of regional batik cloth as one of the routine uniforms of civil servants gave multiple effects on batik sales. In addition, the use of digital facilities expanded market access and facilitated transactions.

BI Jambi Representative Office also supports the growth of Jambi batik creativity in various ways, including by conducting business management training, technical training and building a Jenama Batik (Batik MSME) that is run by young people.

"Creative ideas meet and give birth to many new works and creative activities," she said.

This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo.