The Textile Explorer Chitra Subyakto
“It is not fair for the younger generation if we don’t make changes so they can have a better future.”
Chitra Subyakto a Jakarta based textile explorer, founder and creative director of Sejauh Mata Memandang talks about her love for Indonesian culture, textile, mother nature, and using her company to bring an awareness to educate others about the importance of sustainability and protecting our planet.
When traveling to Indonesia if you are looking for modern Indonesian brands to shop for, a household name Sejauh Mata Memandang will definitely come up. Sejauh Mata Memandang which in Bahasa means “as far as the eye can see” encompasses founder and creative director Chitra Subyakto’s vision for starting this company back in 2014. Chitra believes that as Indonesia continues to modernize, many young Indonesians are forgetting their mother tongue and choosing these words to create her brand is to remind herself and others that the Bahasa language is rich, poetic and beautiful, to remember where your roots lie.
Born in 1972, as the youngest child of 5, Chitra grew up exploring the vast biodiversity and ethnic cultures that Indonesia has to offer. It wasn’t the coolest thing to do she says, "when your Dad would take us around the country when our peers were traveling to neighboring countries like Singapore, but in hindsight that experience really left a strong imprint in my DNA”. Chitra’s father spent his early career as an ambassador for Indonesia in former Yugoslavia and Turkey before returning to Jakarta with his family where Chitra was born. He enforced his kids to learn Indonesian culture, dance, gamalyang music at a young age. As a grown adult now and watching how Indonesia is starting to lose its traditions and culture offerings, Chitra is grateful that her father taught her how to appreciate her culture so that now with Sejauh Mata Memandang she can try to preserve Indonesian traditions from textile design, production, manufacturing to creating timeless pieces that all have stories to them.
Chitra’s journey to starting her own label and business is no coincidence! She remembers admiring her mom's collection of kebayas, a traditional Indonesian blouse-dress, it is the country’s national dress. The kebaya is usually worn with a sarong - a long cloth wrapped around the waist. Chitra’s mom had a collection of kebaya’s made by many famous Indonesian textile artists at the time. Designers from the 60s such as Go Tik Swan and Iwan Tirta who are household names that really brought Indonesian textile design to the world.
Chitra on the request of her late father studied business as to not follow her older artist siblings path. It was left to her to study something more practical in the eyes of a traditional Asian family. Art does not put food on the table. Upon graduating from college with a degree in economics, she spent her earlier career working as a fashion stylist for Cosmo Girl. Often trying to source Indonesian designed fashion pieces that would be suitable to use for the photoshoots, it was difficult to find modernized items so Chitra found herself making a lot of the clothing items herself! She then went on to work as a creative buyer for Alun Alun Indonesia, a concept store focusing on curating Indonesian brands. In Java artists know the technique very well, they are skilled but they lack the eye for what the modern consumer want, it was her job to bridge that gap. The aim “was to make their products better so people will want to buy it”. She spent 6 years of her time at Alun Alun traveling to Solo, Pekalongan and Yogyakarta to meet with designers to work closely with them to design and produce products for the global market.
With a background in business, an eye for design, a passion for Indonesian culture, a deep network with producers across the country, Chitra decided to combine her love for her country and textile roots to create Sejauh Mata Memandang in 2014. She felt that she needed to create modernized kebaya’s so that the younger generation would also find pride in wearing their traditional costume, to develop national pride that so many take for granted today.
Since the conception of Sejauh Mata Memandang, Chitra has produced 12 collections! Instead of creating a seasonal collection like most fashion brands, Chitra decided to align with Indonesia’s crop season Rintik Hujan (rain) and Kemarau (dry). Everything Chitra creates is a timeless piece that is comfortable to wear rooted in traditional craftsmanship. In the last 6 years since she started her brand, Chitra has continued to spend time studying fabrics, textile, batik techniques constantly trying to do research on combining technology and traditional techniques to produce garments. In the process she has become an advocate for circular fashion as well as being an environmentalist.
When you purchase an item from Sejauh Mata Memandang it is a ceremonial experience from the packaging to how you open the item, the touch, feel and how you wear your handmade piece you bought. Chitra has always loved receiving gifts and admired how her older sister always packaged gifts for others. She explains, “I like the experience of receiving gifts and opening them, I try to create that similar feeling with my products. I believe in good energy. If we do something wholeheartedly the receiver will receive the energy and vibe too”. Chitra uses environmentally friendly materials for her packaging, they are recyclable and can be reused for other things, hence her efforts in making Sejauh Mata Memandang a circular fashion brand.
In the fashion industry, most designs are made in a linear fashion. Circular fashion is about not wasting anything from the start to the finishing of the product. Chitra believes that it is important now more than ever as humans that we take this into consideration. When “we make something we have to think about how we design it, where we source our materials that our entire production is not harming the earth and the afterlife of our product. Does your product contain plastic, polyester, chemicals and so on”. Circular fashion to Chitra means creating products that can be used for a long time and that it can regenerate again when thrown out. Natural materials when disposed back in nature can break down unlike plastic and polyester. With this consciousness in mind in 2019 Chitra created a series of fashion exhibitions, she believes that an exhibition can reach a wider audience, educate and bring an awareness to consumers more so than holding a fashion show.
In 2019, Chitra created an exhibition on single use plastic held at the center of Plaza Indonesia in Jakarta. She wanted people who came to the exhibition to become more aware of what is happening to our planet. The exhibition showcased trash from all over Indonesia and from other countries who dump their trash in the country to process. It was held from April - August to educate the public, for instance did you know that there are 93 million straws that go into the ocean from Indonesia on a daily basis. After the success of this first exhibition, Chitra created another one held months later focusing on educating kids on “Our Ocean”. Kids are a great catalyst to bring changes to society and shifting mindsets of our older generation since they attend the exhibition and go home with new knowledge educating their elders about the usage of plastic and the pollution it creates.
With the success of her exhibitions last year and the impact of Covid, Chitra says that the effect of both have actually helped promote her brand since viewers are becoming more aware of the earth and climate change. Many who have seen the exhibition and understand the vision behind Sejauh Mata Memandang love the brand because it cares about the planet and is uniquely Indonesian and with social media Chitra has gained more traction within the last year. Thus with covid her business has been stable and people are becoming smarter consumers and want to be more conscious with their purchases to do good for the planet. She hopes that she can continue to inspire more people to become more aware and conscious about this movement in circular fashion and environmental impact and causes through her brand, it's a vehicle for her to bring about change.
As with any entrepreneur starting her brand was not a smooth ride. Chitra encountered many challenges, one which she highlights is figuring out her brand's production. Everything at Sejauh Mata Memambang is handmade. Finding the right plain cloth or textile that is breathable is challenging. Indonesia exports a lot of its good quality cotton, linen and silk overseas, so local designers have a hard time procuring them. The more Chitra educates herself about sustainability and fair trade it gets more and more confusing! For instance, cotton is a good natural material because it won’t become trash later it biodegrades. But then experts tell you growing cotton is bad for the environment because of the amount of water it wastes. There is a silver lining in this field, to be sustainable you need to think about transportation, power, energy that is used and the industry is trying to find best practices for it.
Within the Indonesian fashion ecosystem Chitra names Adrian Gan and Biyan as two of her favorite designers. Their approach is more modern, high fashion and they have their client base. A lot of their designs are inspired from the west mixed with Indonesian roots. Due to the pandemic though not many people are buying evening gowns and party dresses, so, “I do think there will be a shift in the way designers are thinking about their future as well”. When asked how Chitra would share her experiences and mentor young Indonesian designers she says, “I think they have to really think about the quality of their designs, what is important in the past and the future is different. They have to think about the impact that they are making. They really have to plan it out from A to Z, how they source and where the lifespan of their product”.
Chitra is inspired by a lot of books she has read over the years and all the pioneers and individuals who work in fighting for fair trade fashion, environmental causes and grassroots organizations. Tiza Mafira from Indonesian Diet Plastic Bag, Swietenia from Divers Clean Action, and Farwiiza from Haka Foundation are inspirational women in their fields that keep Chitra empowered to continue to do what she does. These Indonesian women are young amazing individuals who are fighting for a cause in which she believes others should be doing too. Chitra shares her 3 favorite books that she recommends to those who want to learn more about sustainability and climate change. The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne and The Future We Choose Surviving the Climate Crisis by Tom Rivett-Carnac and Christiana Figueres.
Keep an eye for what Chitra is working on with her label and her efforts in environmental causes in this coming decade. She spends her time learning more about sustainability and how humans can do more about protecting our rainforest, oceans. It is important that everyone cares more about climate change and the environmental impact it has on our planet. She hopes to continue to connect Sejauh Mata Membang domestically and globally, to share with the world Indonesian culture and the importance of creating a sustainable future for the planet we live on. To follow Chitra’s next exhibition and Sejauh Mata Membang’s offerings, shop on her website, and follow them on IG, and FB!
First published on August 17, 2020
Below, watch a short video dedicated to educating the public about plastic waste in Indonesia during the exhibition in 2019 mentioned in the article.
