Pasar Klewer, All-time Batik Center

[caption id="attachment_27449" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="suaramerdeka.com"][/caption] Indonesia is in the mood for batik. This might be the best expression to say what is going on in Indonesia's fashion industry. On the streets, you can see people wearing this indigenous garment for daily activities. Students, workers, and housewives are crazy about products made of batik. Taking a closer look to this trend, batik from places in Java and Madura is still dominating the market. Historically, the city of Solo, the older brother as well as the main competitor in batik industry of Yogyakarta, is one of the largest batik center in Java. For its batik mass production, Solo once won the competition and unofficially crowned itself the title City of Batik. Apart from having hundreds of batik artist loyally devote their time for this artwork, Solo came out as the winner also from having Klewer Market. Pasar Klewer or Klewer Market, one of preserved traditional market on the city, was built with the main purpose for providing batik craftsmen and industry a representable place to sell their products. Built in 1971, Klewer Market is situated on the downtown within a walking distance from Sunan's Palace. This marketplace is regarded as the first market specialized for a specific product in Indonesia. It was also the first batik and garment trading place. Being the pioneer, Klewer Market boasted itself the center of Indonesia's batik trade ever since. [caption id="attachment_27451" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Wikipedia"][/caption] Although no longer being the largest garment market from the development of Tanah Abang market of Jakarta, Klewer Market today is still maintain its prestige as one of the major batik trading place in Indonesia. Maintaining traditional bargaining concept becomes its strong point. Batik traders in Klewer Market use most common yet best strategies to maintain their loyal customer, direct communication and personal treatment. Special offers such as discount, down payment, and priority for new products are given regularly. Most of all, there is no fixed price; all products are free to bargain. Another thing Klewer Market offer is the availability of complete collection of product from various type and price range. In more sophisticated term, Klewer Market is a one stop batik shopping center. It provides wide range of machine printed, hand printed, and handmade batik, wide options of motif and style. As a traditional marketplace, Klewer market contributes quite much to the domestic income of Surakarta. Accommodating as many as a thousand traders from all over area, the money cycle in Klewer Market could reach IDR5-6 billion daily. From this number, the tax paid by merchants is around 3 billion annually. For this great achievement, Klewer Market becomes an important icon for tourism industry in Solo. It is hard for a customer to get out of Klewer Market empty handed, or at least empty stomach. Among seductive sights other than batik are artistic craft works and potteries. For years, Klewer Market is also famous for its tasty sega liwet and tengkleng, the combination of steamed rice and goat meat boiled in thick, spicy curry.