No.041/VIII - Jun/Jul - 99
No Island
is a Culture Unto Itself
Bali's ethnically diverse roots
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Where to Lombok ?
Plans for Lombok's tourism industry
Buffaloes
in Black and White
The races, Sumbawan style
Gallery
Quo Vadis
Balinese Painting ?
Saraswati's
Gift
A community school in Ubud
Postcard
Cat Food
Food
Blast from the past
Adventure
Almighty mountain
Fashion
T-shirt design:art or fashion?
Books
Bali art biblio
Fiction
The beautiful rice paddy
Bali
Living Promotion
Natura
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Bali
boasts a number of well-known t-shirt designers, whose designs add a Balinese touch to the
world’s most international, unisex item of clothing. T-shirts, that is, have become a
kind of souvenir. Wayan Suardika spoke to some of Bali’s most prominent t-shirt
designers
Bali is a hot place. Just try going to Kuta or Nusa Dua. Not only are these places Bali’s most popular tourist resorts. They are also the hottest places on the island - or at least it feels that way if you happen to go there in the middle of the day between October and April. Maybe so-called domestic (Indonesian) tourists can adapt to this kind of heat. But for a lot of foreign tourists, especially those from cold countries, the climate can be rather a shock. And for them, the most appropriate kind of clothing for this climate is a t-shirt. That’s why t-shirt shops abound in tourist areas all over Bali. Even in Ubud, where locals feel the climate is relatively mild, tourists still feel it is hot enough to wear t-shirts and shorts around. T-shirts are not only cool, they are also casual, and therefore they are as popular among domestic tourists and Balinese locals as they are among foreign tourists. Bali’s climate has ensured that t-shirts are one of the island’s most saleable and profitable souvenir items. Designers compete with each other and attempt to corner markets by experimenting with designs and materials. Many of them include Balinese motives in their designs. T-SHIRTS AS FASHION Everybody, it seems, is in on the t-shirt market. Recently, the names of international designers such as Stussy, DKNY and Calvin Klein have started appearing on the t-shirts that hang in the shop fronts of Kuta. Whilst foreign tourists usually seek t-shirt souvenirs that have some kind of local nuance, among locals there is a kind of prestige attached to wearing international brand t-shirts. Many are even prepared to pay up to Rp200,000 (the average price of a t-shirt is Rp15,000) for the real thing! But as well as these ‘superlocal’ designs, Bali abounds with local products displaying motives that make them appropriate as souvenirs. If you go to the art market in Kuta, you can find a number of t-shirts, including those of the rayon kind with tassles hanging off the sleeves and sporting a barong motive, or one bearing the characteristic Balinese gate, temple or typical rice paddy scene. T-SHIRTS AS ART
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But
these are not the only sorts of t-shirt designs that are appropriate as souvenirs. For
over the past ten years, t-shirts have become the medium for a number of well-known
Balinese artists, thus making available more ‘tasteful’ and more interesting
souvenirs than the regular barong or temple motive. This recent trend was begun by
cartoonist Tony Tantra, who began designing t-shirts displaying his cartoon motives in the
nineteen eighties. In fact, Tantra was responsible for the popularisation in the souvenir
market of the Balinese term ‘Sing Ken Ken’, which roughly translates as
‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’.[top] copyright © 1999 Bali Echo. All rights
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