Oscar Lawalata, International Winner, International Young Fashion Entrepreneur (IYFE) 2008

Oscar (1977) has two boutiques and three fashion labels: Oscar Lawalata Culture, Oscar Lawalata Couture and Oscar Lawalata for Uniforms and has won several awards across Asia. In 1999 the Indonesian Fashion Designers Council invited him to participate in the ASEAN Young Designers Competition in Singapore and in 2004 he was invited by Taiwan’s Department of Tourism to promote Indonesian fashion and culture in Taipei. In 2006 he was a guest designer of the Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week as well as being invited by the Japan Foundation to join the “Asia 5”, a program that gives promising young Asian designers the opportunity to meet with Japanese fashion leaders. His small enterprise employs 20 full-time staff and has a monthly turnover of US$10,000.

Oscar won the British Council IYCE Fashion Award 2009 at the London Fashion Week, in February. He beat off competition from Brazil, India, Poland, Srilanka, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Tunisia, and Vietnam. Thanks to this triumph, Indonesia became the only country in the world to have won four times since the British Council IYCE Award was first established in 2005.

Oscar won the prestigious award on the basis of his community initiative to engage hundreds of artisans across Indonesia producing traditional textiles and jewellery he then successfully combined with contemporary designs. In his xxx years of working with these communities of traditional artisans in poor outer regions of South Sulawesi, Bali, Nusa Tenggara Timur and Java, Oscar Lawalata successfully improved the economy of 100 weavers and jewellery makers. More than just sourcing for traditional fabrics, Oscar empowered these weavers and jewellery makers to access the current trend of textiles and introduced new skills and technology in textile-making. While improving the weavers’ income, Oscar - through his Oscar Lawalata Culture - was praised as Asia’s leading fashion designer to bring Indonesian locally-made traditional clothes to the world.

Using his £7,500 prize, Oscar will be taking Indonesia’s textile onto the international stage through the “Weaving the Future” project with British Council. He plans to introduce Indonesia’s rich textile tradition to UK designers and fashion schools. In return, Indonesia will benefit from UK’s cutting edge designs and knowledge of high-end European market.

UK jury citation:

"Oscar’s entrepreneurial approach uses product development and promotion to take traditional textiles onto the international fashion market, employing many in the process. His striking level of aesthetic and impressive understanding of local context and the inherent value of heritage is an approach which is to be commended. The judges believe that his approach is a model of best practice, which presents opportunity for the fashion sector in many emerging economies."