Inspired Cosmopolitanism: Indonesian Modest Dress in National and Transnational Context

Fashion design has long relied on forms of creative fertilization glossed as “inspiration.” This process generates a divided global fashion map, in which designers in the global capitals of Paris, London or New York are recognized as autonomous authors of artistic expression inspired by global travels, while designers outside of those capitals are simply conveyors of traditional culture. This talk reverses this dynamic by situating Jakarta, Indonesia, as an alternative fashion capital. I describe how modest fashion designers in the world’s largest majority-Muslim country take the concept of inspiration seriously, treating inspiration as both an aesthetic and spiritual process. Drawing on diverse textile traditions from across the Indonesian archipelago, and from transnational travel to East Asia, the Middle East and Europe, Indonesian modest fashion powerfully articulates Indonesian conceptions of cosmopolitaneity.