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Kamiseta and the arrival of asian fashion franchises

There is a new outlet in Pondok Indah Mall 1, Kamiseta. The interior of the shop resemble a cute country house with soft pastel colours and sweet scent in the air. Clothes are scattered on chairs, sofa, and tables around the shop. The clothes are not bad, although some reminds me of clothes sold in Matahari Dept. Store, and the price is not so expensive, but not that cheap either. A blouse is priced around Rp 180k. Curious with the familiar design and not-so-expensive price, I typed "Kamiseta" on Google. It turns out that Kamiseta is a fashion brand from the Philippines. Another Google entry leads to a discussion in Philippines' local discussion forum that leads me to another Filipino brand, Bayo. Unlike Kamiseta, which franchises are spread in several other Asian countries, Bayo is only available in the Philippines. But some Filipinos prefer Bayo to Kamiseta.

Asian fashion brands are getting more popular than ever before. Started by Japanese brands, followed by Korean and Taiwan brands, now Philippines brand is coming to town. While Japanese, Korean, and Taiwan brands, that are sold in middle to upper class department stores such as Sogo and Metro, are quite popular among SES A community, the popularity of Kamiseta is still for time to prove. How about Indonesian brands? We are aware of the popularity of designers' clothes, such as Biyan, Ghea, etc. But they are really expensive. The second line includes (X)S,M,L which targets on youngsters. Other than that, I am not really familiar with Indonesian brands. What about brands that originated from distros? Ouval research is the only brand I know of.
One thing for sure, Japanese and Korean fashion are influencing Asia. Check this out! When will Indonesia reign?

The truth is, Indonesian garment industry are not that dead. When my professor informed us of an underwear brand named Honey Lady, I became aware that Honey Lady Group (based in Indonesia and owned by an Indonesian) has exported its products all over the world for famous high-class brands, such as Victoria Secret. Interesting, huh?

I believe the key is innovation and maintained quality standard, other than endorsement from famous public figures, of course. The popularity of Japanese fashion is brought by Japanese artists who went world-wide since the 1990s. So, probably Indonesian artists who decide to start a world career can wear Indonesian clothing with pride. But before, let's show Indonesians that Indonesian brands are good! (Homework remains...solving the problem of Indonesian industry stagnation and weak investments)

What Samuel Mulia looks like

Is this how he looks like?

Samuel Mulia is a columnist who writes PARODI, a weekly article published every Sunday on KOMPAS daily. His sharp tongue and blunt opinions unfortunately described reality in most of the times.
When I was looking for information about him, I found out that there are a lot of people who admire him!
So I found this photo of his on this blog: Maverickid

For those of you who have never read his articles, you can check this out: Enlightenment

Quite interesting......

What The World Needs Now Is…Love

It is true that this world really needs love. or at least Indonesia. Indonesia is out of love now. love from the politicians, love from the people, love from the bureaucrats. Every single human being in this country acts for his own short-term interest. No wonder we are facing disasters after disasters. Natural disasters are enough to worsen our lives, but it seemed that man-made disasters are still adding up.

A couple of weeks ago I spoke to a young professional dealing with managing people. How to manage people? He answered that we must be able to show them what this work has for them, what are the benefits, and they will do it. Unless you do that, they won’t do the tasks delegated to them by the company. And I’m talking about a company. Ideally, every achievement a company makes can and will benefit the employee in long or short term. But they only want to see the short term. What is it for me that I can instantly see?
Managing people at work is one thing, but imagine if all the members of our community own this mentality! The politicians and the employee of the government say, “What is it for me?” It’s a disaster on its way! Nobody think of other people anymore! What about the idea of rising together? The idea that community advancement will make better living for all of the members? The idealism has gone. Isn’t it pathetic?

Misleading Advertisements

I am quite concerned by advertisements that often provide incorrect information. For example, a recent TV ad for an coil insecticide directed to mosquitoes, depicted an animated mosquito living in dirty places, inside trashcans and polluted sewers, bringing germs inside the house of humans. Inside the house, the animated mosquito is showed to drop small black things, which I presumed to be dirt or germs. And then the same mosquito also spread dengue and malaria disease.
And I thought, this is just wrong. It is exactly why environmental control of the continuously spreading dengue fever constantly failed: the lack of laymen comprehension of the mosquito behavior. It is misleading to believe that mosquitoes live in dirty places. On the contrary, Aedes sp. prefers clean freshwater where they can lay the eggs safely. Consequently, the water has to be still, not flowing like in the sewer, and certainly not polluted. Neither trashcans nor sewers, this mosquito prefers indoor habitats. Different to that of Aedes sp., the habitat of Anopheles sp., the carrier of malaria Plasmodium, is freshwater with soil or clay base. They need to have contact with soil.

Another example of misleading advertisement is a testimonial given by a consumer of milk. This milk is claimed to be fortified with vitamin A and other supplements that can rejuvenate the eyes. Impaired eyesight due to exhaustion and old age can be repaired. As the lady testified, “I can see clearly now and I even dare to stare at bright lights and the sun.” I believe you can tell that it is certainly not true.

Another incorrect advertisement, not only scientifically, but also politically is a recent TV ad for cereal beverage containing vitamin A. The ad depicted a boy who witnessed his friend having difficulty in sports due to shortsightedness. After that, the boy asked his father how he can keep his eyes healthy, and his father answered that the boy can maintain his eyes’ health by consuming adequate amount of vitamin A. Since when is shortsightedness caused by inadequate supply of vitamin A? I remember learning that shortsightedness or nearsightedness or myopia is resulted when light rays from distant objects fall in front of retina and therefore can only be seen as blurred images. It is caused by abnormal length of eyeball and the vision can be repaired using eyeglasses or contact lenses that shift the position of image formed by light rays. I believe it has nothing to do with vitamin A.
Not only that this advertisement is incorrect scientifically, it is also politically incorrect, since it implied that nearsighted people are unhealthy. It is a defect, yes, but it is nothing to do with eye health.

The question now, what can scholars like us can do to fix this condition? Many of our society members are uneducated and young audiences can be misguided by these ads.
This might be useful to read: Misleading Milk Ads

Circle of Ill Intentions

It is dreadful to find that our community is currently trapped in circle of ill intentions. One of my lecturers told me that Indonesians do not complain. And I found out myself that it is true for most of the time. And it is reflected from the response most people give when they receive complaints. They grunts and responded harshly. It is a pity, because complaints are feedbacks that should be accepted open-mindedly because complaints can give some perspective on the quality of goods or services that is sold or given.

Moreover, the problem does not end here. People being complained, in feeling disagreement towards the complaints, lessen the quality of their service and therefore causing more dissatisfaction from consumers’ side. Consumers, receiving no improvement from their complaints, stop complaining but rather than stop shopping, they sabotage. What I mean by sabotage is, they give no respect to the seller, but ruining the quality of service to other customers while they shop. One example is one of the biggest hypermarkets in Jakarta, which in my opinion, is experiencing a degradation of service quality, especially customer service. Some customers eat unpaid fruits inside the store; others shop but left the groceries unpaid inside the store, and other examples. This is what I called sabotage by customers, because what they do add more cost to the hypermarket, for having to pick up all the trashes and groceries they left behind. And it’s only one example from many others.

I hope I’m making sense here, in trying to explain this in English. I do believe that this is a circle of ill intention. The seller no longer happy to serve the customers and neither does the customers and therefore each of them sabotages each other, probably unconsciously, as a result of disrespect. And all of a sudden this domino effect has degraded our quality of life. And this is scary. What do you think?
Picture from http://mariandioguardi.com/md/cart.asp