Growing demand for stylish yet still modest fashions in the world's most populous Islamic nation is helping power efforts to bring Islamic fashion into the modern age, a movement symbolized by changes to the iconic kebaya, a blouse-dress combination.Fun prints, intricate detailing, colors so bold as to be psychedelic and a mix of delicate lace all graced the catwalk at the recent Jakarta Fashion Week. One designer even paired the kebaya with red-and-yellow striped tights.
"I think it's a good presentation because if you wear Muslim clothing like this, it's not necessarily boring," Jakarta Fashion Week project manager Petty Fatimah told Reuters.
"You can definitely expect to see more Islamic fashion in the future and it is for everybody. If you're not a woman who wears Islamic clothing you can still wear it."
Though Islamic clothing is not mandatory throughout much of this vast nation, many women struggle with the desire to be both fashionable but dress in line with Islamic principles that rule against showing hair or skin.
In a nod to local mores, U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama donned a headscarf on her visit to Jakarta's Istiqlal mosque earlier this month. But wearing the headscarf is not mandatory and regulations concerning clothing are fairly liberal save for Indonesia's West Aceh district, which is the sole upholder of sharia -- or Islamic -- law.
Earlier this year, authorities in West Aceh began giving away long, loose skirts to Acehnese women wearing tight jeans.
Yet despite coming across as "sexy" to some due to its tight fit and use of see-through materials, the kebaya has managed to escape censure even from Islamist groups such as the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), who criticized the wives of the president and vice-president last year for not wearing headscarves prior to the presidential elections.
SYDNEY business leaders have called for the demolition of the Sydney Entertainment Centre to allow for an expansion of the exhibition and convention space at Darling Harbour. In a submission to the NSW government, which is reviewing the future of South Darling Harbour, the Sydney Business Chamber says demolishing the Entertainment Centre and its car park would make room for an extra 20,000 square metres of exhibition space in a multi-purpose facility with a hotel.But the proposal to pull down the largest indoor concert venue in Sydney's CBD has met concern from the music industry. A promoter, Michael Chugg, said it would be ''a horrible thing to see the Entertainment [Centre] disappear''.
A music industry analyst, Phil Tripp, said it would be ''kind of crazy to take a venue that has been recently renovated and destroy it'', which would leave the Acer Arena at Homebush Bay as Sydney's only large indoor concert venue.
''We have so few venues in Sydney, they have those huge mothers out there at Homebush: the 15,000-seater which is Acer, and then we have 10,000-seater Entertainment Centre and after that there ain't much,'' he said.
But the chamber's executive director, Patricia Forsythe, said Sydney was losing conventions to cities including Singapore, Beijing and Seoul because of a lack of suitable space near the CBD, and the most logical place for more space was at Darling Harbour.
''We need more convention space in the CBD to attract high-profile international events to Sydney that will boost the economy and cement Sydney as a regional business and cultural powerhouse,'' Ms Forsythe said.
There would be a shortage of venues if the Entertainment Centre was demolished but it would only be for a ''a short period of time''. ''I think most of us think the Entertainment Centre might be unique but it's a 1980s-style [venue] and we can do much better,'' she said.
The Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority owns the Entertainment Centre, which has struggled in recent years as the Acer Arena has flourished. The Entertainment Centre's general manager, Steve Romer, said he was not permitted to discuss his venue's performance except to say ''it's going well''.
