Between December 2nd and 4th 2011, the biggest denim exhibition in South-East Asia was held. This annual denim event, established in 2009, is known as the “Wall of Fades“.
Located in Jakarta, Indonesia, this event was held to educate the market and public about raw denim and its history. The theme of this year’s Wall of Fades is “The Denim Journey”, which will tell the journey of denim from the beginnings of this legendary material. Focusing largely on the cowboy era, this year’s event provided lots of information about vintage American denim.
The main sponsors of the exhibition are classic denim brands Lee and Wrangler, who provided various vintage collections from both brands. This seemed fitting to this year’s theme, considering both brands’ iconic involvement in denim history.
Wall Of Fades 2011: Lee 101 Installation
Wall of Fades 2011: Wrangler’s Exhibition Table
Wall Of Fades 2011: Lee 101B Model
The content of this event included the Wall Of Fades itself (which displays a number of beautifully faded jeans) and a host of both local and international brands such as Samurai Jeans Co., Eternal, and Ande Whall were present.
The Wall Of Fades 2011
Wall Of Fades 2011: The exhibition floor
There was also a demonstration of sewing denim using the legendary Union Special by Batavia Jeans Studio, in which one tailor (a gentleman known as Mr. Fikar) provided hemming services with a Union Special 43200G (for further reading on this wonderful machine, hop over to our past article “Drool Worthy – Self Edge’s Union Special 43200G“) and repaired jeans with vintage machinery.
Mr. Fikar at Batavia’s Union Special workshop
Of course, the denim market paid homage to the many premium local Indonesian denim brands using both local and Japanese fabric such as Esre, Old Blue Co., Akaime Denim, Mischief, Pot Meets Pop, Elhaus, Alter Cotton, Mommo Company, Reverts. There were also denim related goods like workshirts by Light House and Vaya Con Dios, leather goods by Voyej, and shoes by Zevin, all of whom are local Indonesian brands.
Wall of Fades 2011: Local Indonesian Brands
Wall of Fades 2011: Local Leather goods, Voyej
Lastly, there was a workshop about Indonesian natural indigo hand dyeing by Bluesville. The natural indigo that they used is an extract from the plant in a form of a paste, and this workshop displayed natural indigo colours as well as how other natural colours all comes from plants and fruits. It was also showed how the extraction process is very similar for all natural colours.
Wall of Fades 2011: Hand & Indigo-Dyed Yarns on Display
Wall Of Fades 2011: Great Turnout!
This year’s Wall Of Fades exhibition was well attended, and we hope to see everyone at the event next year!
Stay Raw!
