Indonesian Female Youth: Fashion, Beauty, and Bloggers

Approximately 20 years ago, the teens in Indonesia defined beauty and fashion through the cover of local magazine. Among the famous one are Gadis and Aneka magazine, a trends, fashion and lifestyle magazine that are considered as having authority in its domain. Ten years laters, MTV was on the national television, Cosmopolitan magazine were available at the street merchant, beauty concept was slightly different. To be ‘indie’, ‘masculine’ and ‘free’ is a major currency among Indonesian teens. Beauty then, was a bit deconstructed. Recently, beauty and fashion has it’s own reference. It’s now the era of the common people, the girl next door who put up online post on high heels and blazer could be considered also as a 'fashionista'.

Dian Sastro Phenomenon

Who is Dian Sastro Wardoyo? She’s the Indonesian teen icon of two decades, from mid 90 to early millenium. She’s a cover girl contest winner for Gadis Magazine in 1996. Since then her face showed up in many brand ads as well as video clip. Her Asian-Javanese face made her different from many other teen celebrity who is mostly “Indo” (half western half Indonesian). Beauty then for many female teens was referred to being like Dian Sastro Wardoyo. There’s even a Dian Sastro t-shirt sold and easily found in the street saying “Let me Introduce you to my girlfriend” and there’s the Dian Sastro face below it.

Dian is a media phenomenon, she redefined the meaning of beauty for most teens through magazine, big screen movie and tv ads. Her big screen debut ‘Ada apa dengan cinta’ (translated: what’s up with cinta) was a major hit. The story tells about ‘cinta’ a highschool teen who is in love with a mysterious  and introvert boy who loves poetry. Back in these era, beauty is centralized around the image provided through the mainstream media. To be beautiful is to have long hair, skinny body, white skin, as well as looking like a western girls or like modern Javanese like Dian.

Cosmo-zine

Afterward, in early 2000 there was the era of teen magazine with western flair. Go-girl, Cosmopolitan, and Cosmo-girl were considered as the ‘bible’ of fashion for most teen female. For the young Indonesian teens, it’s not solely about fashion, it’s also considered as a reference on lifestyle and relationship guides. Since then relationship between children and parents are quite rigid among Indonesian families. These magazines provide valuable information that the young teens need. Because, Sex and  relationship issues are perceived as taboo to be discussed within the household.

During the popular times of these magazine, there’s a lot of youth that bit by bit dare to appear edgee in public in terms of fashion. They for example, show up in campuses with ‘army’ style theme or wear a pink theme clothes from tops to bottom. The kind of scene that was not present in previous time because the young people in Indonesia are quite concern with public opinion.  Recently, the ‘brave’ spirit to look edgee escalade, we could see more teens wearing a more ‘personal style’ outfit. It’s the fashion bloggers that initiated this trends.

Fashion Bloggers

The fashion bloggers are the common youth that have the audacity to show their passion and interpretation on fashion to other young people. Suprisingly what this fashion bloggers do is contagious in so many ways. Let’s take for example the ‘hijab gaul’ (fashion hijab) trends. Not too long ago, hijab is regulary wear by the adult female who are already engage in a marriage. Or, found among the young teen that on daily basis preoccupied with religious Islamic activity. Mostly this specific group of youth are exclusive, they don’t hang out much with other youth and consider pop culture as a ideological menace.

But through the hijab fashion bloggers who gather a community called hijabers, the segmentation of youth with hijab change dramatically. Nowadays, hijab is also considered as an apparel with high fashion values. Actually, what the hijabers did is pretty simple. They put many tutorial on the net about how to put hijab in a more fashionable way. Add to that, they also put tons of sample on fashion theme that a youth could refer to without leaving out their hijab.

The real context behind this trend is the intention of most young female to put on a hijab is actually pretty high.But, they’re afraid to be considered as old, conservative, and in some cases extremist. In the presence of many fashion bloggers who show tutorial on how to stay ‘POP’ using hijab, more and more female youth are keen to adopt hijab.

Personal Style and Freemind

The increasing influence of the fashion bloggers push more offline event that involve specific youth community. It also push the young female to really explore and express more their personal style. There’s no more dominant fashion style, no more Dian Sastro. Everybody’s interpret beauty and great fashion through their own definition. This also involve teens at very early age. Like Evita Nuh (jellyjellybeans.blogspot.com) the 13 years old fashion blogger who put her first fashion post when she was 9. Fashion exspression is no longer for adult!

This “long tail” trends happened not solely because of technological facility, there’s a huge social-psychological context that lies beneath it. The Indonesian young people who face on daily basis with social environment that enforce them to be only a passive listener crave also to show their true personality. To be a 'fashion activist' that dare to express oneself through fashion in public means that 'i'm a freemind youth'.From this year forward i believe we will see more and more fashion blogger as a form of respons against the current urban social environment that necessite people  to think and feel the same. More and more youth will draw back themeselves from the pressure of globalization, joining themselves in community and showing that they could also be beautiful in their own definition.

Muhammad Faisal (Kandidat Doktor di Bidang Psikologi) Pengajar Psikologi Sosial-Politik, Pendiri Youth Laboratory Indonesia (Youth Laboratory Indonesia)

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