Top Indonesian designer to lead Batik workshop

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Olivia Grange has welcomed to Jamaica the world-renowned Indonesian fashion designer, Indah Darry.

Darry who is known for her ability to seamlessly weave cultural heritage with contemporary design elements is in Jamaica to conduct a free workshop in the ‘Art of Indonesian Batik Making’.

The workshop, which will take place from May 27 to 29 at the Jamaica Business Development Corporation location at Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston – is being staged by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport in association with the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia.

At a reception last Friday evening, Minister Grange said she was “happy to welcome the very accomplished Indah Darry and her team to Jamaica” and that she was looking forward to the workshop and how Jamaican designers would use the new skill.

Indah Darry has built a reputation in global fashion over the last two decades, showcasing her designs at fashion events including New York Fashion Week, Indonesian Fashion Parade, and Milan - A Thousand Masterpiece.

Minister Grange thanked the Government of the Republic of Indonesia for facilitating the workshop which falls under her ministry’s economic opportunities programme that has been providing training, certification, grants, equipment and supplies to several communities and groups including villages contiguous to the Blue and John Crow Mountains, Accompong, Port Royal and members of the Rastafari community.

“We believe that with the right interventions – such as this workshop with top-class trainers – as well as with more coordinated support and investment we will convert the success of our cultural, creative and sports brand into the kind of hard economic outputs that we require: jobs, growth and competitiveness,” Grange said.

One hundred and twenty-five Jamaicans will be trained during the workshop, including local trainers who will be able to sustain the programme.

The trainees will participate in a fashion show at the end of the workshop at the S Hotel Kingston on May 30.