Art Direction · Fashion

Bateeq

A long-term project on reframing Indonesian batik brand through fashion collections, imagery and cultural narrative.

Year: 2016–2018
Role: Head of Design · Acting Art Director
Scope: Creative Direction, Fashion Design Direction, Textile Design Direction, Fashion Design, Campaign Art Direction, Runway & Event Direction, Team Leadership, Team Mentorship

Project Overview

Developing a more fashion-forward direction for a product-led batik label.

Context

Bateeq was a contemporary batik brand within Dan Liris Group, operating on multiple product lines and retail collections, through out different seasonal launches, runway shows, licensings and collaborations. On this case study, we are focusing on its runway collections. This product line evolution has given clearest visibility on the brand's shift towards the contemporary fashion direction.

My Role

I joined as Head of Design and gradually took on an expanded creative role across collection development, textile direction, campaign imagery, runway presentation and the coordination of teams working between Jakarta branch office and Surakarta headquarter. I was entrusted with much of the seasonal creative groundwork, from initial concept development to the final execution.

The Shift

Throughout successive seasons, the work moved beyond simply applying batik to garments. Collections became vessels for stories, cultural references, material experiments and increasingly distinct visual worlds.

01 · Before the Shift

The brand already had reach.
The question was what kind of fashion language it wanted to express.

Bateeq was already an established contemporary batik label, with a broad retail presence, runway shows and an active commercial audience.

The visual language was still largely product-led. Campaigns relied on polished studio imagery and straightforward layouts, while batik was often treated as a printed surface patterns and applied them across garments.

My role at this stage was to understand where the fashion language could become more specific. I started with silhouette and textile development, then gradually pushed the styling and image direction further.

Archival Bateeq imagery shown for context. I was not involved in the creation of these images.

Changing the product

The shift began with the clothes.

Moving beyond treating batik as printed decoration applied to conventional silhouettes, the collections began to explore garment construction more actively using proportions and modular principle. Batik motifs were also deconstructed and given edge through richer colour selection, more experimental styling and culturally informed storytelling.

Product Direction

These pieces are examples I designed directly while establishing a more fashion-led product direction for Bateeq.

I also used this approach to guide and edit the work of the wider design team across silhouette, construction, textile placement and styling.

familiar

experimental

Bateeq Catena collection garment — CatenaSS17

Bateeq Heroïne collection garment — HeroïneFW17

Bateeq Padusan collection garment — PadusanSS18

Bateeq Kelir collection garment — KelirFW18

World building: Collections

From collection logic to image-making.

This chapter traces the thinking behind five collections; from design logic and garment development to campaign art direction and production. Enter a collection to explore the process in depth, or continue scrolling for the wider brand story.

SS17

Catena

Original lineup

Original palette

Inherited direction

I joined Catena after the collection had already begun to take form. Its early direction was driven largely by silhouette shape and colour contrast combined with bold geometric cuts.

Selected design development

My intervention was first done by giving the half-developed collection a theme and a title. Then later, it involved editing and continue developing the existing collection, tightening the lineup and removing pieces that no longer supported the direction. I then pushed the remaining designs further through garment construction, textile placement and detailing.

Selected Catena SS17 design development — Selected looks I designed directly or substantially edited and developed.

Catena SS17 shorts technical specification — Construction development

Catena SS17 patch and embroidery placement specification — Textile and patch placement

Refined palette

The working palette became quieter and more concentrated, moving toward blue, grey, black and softened neutrals, with red retained as a stronger accent.

Detail as design

Coming from menswear, I was accustomed to working within relatively familiar garment archetypes, where proportion, construction and detail carry much of the identity. I began bringing that way of thinking into Catena.

Textile development

Textile development became another level of construction: motifs were tested through scale, placement, repetition and various applications (embroidery, laser cut, different print technique) to study the relationship between surface and garment structure.

Behind the scenes

Once the textile and garment development reached its final form, the collection moved into image-making stage. I took these 35mm photographs during the campaign and catalogue shoot as a record of that transition.

FW17

Heroïne

The proposition

Heroïne was built through tension: softness and strength, feminine and masculine, decoration and utility. The collection was conceived around the idea that these seemingly conflicting qualities could coexist within the same visual direction.

Feminine / armour

both
at once

Masculine / softness

Heroïne masculine tailoring with floral detail

Tension was the first word to describe the collection. A blazer could function as a kind of modern armour, then be softened by pink florals and white thunder motifs. A chest piece inspired by protective gear became a red-pink bib layered over a shirt, while a heavy-duty pocket with a metal zipper was embroidered with flowers. Even the cut-out top, which has print with masculine undertone and rebellious feels, was balanced by a close-body feminine silhouette.

The lineup

The collection developed these contradictions across a complete lineup, using garment shape, textile treatment, motif placement, layering and styling to keep softness and strength in conversation. Womenswear and menswear were edited together so the same Heroïne language carried across both.

Redeveloped pieces

The inherited womenswear designs included a bell-sleeve jacket later expanded into four SKUs, an asymmetrical blazer and a red mermaid skirt. They are combined with new pieces that I designed to achieve the desired result in the collection.

Menswear direction

Menswear was designed by the menswear designer. I directed and edited the work, refining the styling and overall balance of the looks to make them coherence with the womenswear ones.

Pisang Bali

Textile became another way of carrying the collection’s tension between softness and structure into surface, placement and detail.

Heroïne Pisang Bali textile interpretation — Textile interpretation

Pisang Bali embroidery patch photographed on 35mm — Embroidery development · image by Dea A.

Collaborative textile development

The Pisang Bali direction was proposed by our textile designer after archival research in Bateeq's HQ in Surakarta. I selected it for Heroïne and brought it into the wider collection direction, working with the team on placement, embroidery and how the motif would live on the garments.

Protection & return

Collection research connected the motif with a gift for a loved one leaving on a long journey, while versions of the motif are also recorded in Javanese temple carving from around the 9th century. That history of departure, protection and hoped-for return resonated strongly with Heroïne's warrior narrative.

Sample development

The drawings moved into the sample room, where proportion and construction were worked out on the garment itself. Details were still open to change here, whether that meant correcting, simplifying or pushing them further.

Heroïne garment sample in the sample room

Heroïne garment and textile development notes

Working samples, textile tests and garment corrections during development.

Building the image world

The image direction took inspirations from vintage formal portraiture; paired figures and restrained composition. I translated those references into framing studies, then carried the direction into the shoot itself.

Heroïne campaign image direction moodboard — Image direction moodboard

Heroïne campaign shoot behind the scenes

Heroïne campaign framing sketch — Framing and body-position study

Collaborative direction

I worked with the stylist, photographer and jewelry designer to align accessories, overall looks, body language and framing with the collection world.

SS18

Padusan

The premise

Padusan was developed into a broader visual world around bathing rituals, rivers, flowing water and underwater ecosystems. Those ideas then shaped the garments, textile treatments and atmosphere direction across the collection, from campaign imagery and runway sound to smaller physical details made around the launch.

Working note mapping the early Padusan concept — Early working note · Dea A.

Padusan was one of the theme names proposed by the menswear designer; concept developed further from that starting point through research and collection direction.

Archival reference of Javanese women wearing kemben — Archival reference · source unknown

Archival portrait reference of a Javanese woman wearing kemben

Water reference used during Padusan development — Water ritual reference · Rinko K.

Underwater reference used during Padusan development — Underwater reference · Hiroshi S.

Product logic

The garment construction takes its starting point from the act of undressing. Pieces are designed to look as if they are caught mid-reveal, opening, slipping or releasing from the body. It turns bathing into a product design logic and adds a deeper layer to the collection storytelling.

Padusan product development moodboard — Product direction moodboard

Padusan womenswear design using shifting layered construction

Transformation

This experiment had a longer afterlife. The idea of garments that could shift, open or be worn in different ways helped define Bateeq’s later multi-occasional design principle and carried into other the collections that followed.

Textile development

The textile direction began with traditional batik pesisir (coastal style batik). I developed the first fish print by simplifying the marine creatures traditional print. Then passed it to the textile designer with a sketch to explain the envisioned print layout, along with references for underwater flora, layered environments and coral-like forms. She expanded it into the more detailed Mega Mendung Fish pattern.

First fish silhouette print developed for Padusan — First fish-silhouette print · Dea A.

Concept sketch for Padusan textile development — Early sketch · Dea A.
Image references:
Marimekko, Hokusai, African batik

Mega Mendung Fish print developed with the textile designer — Mega Mendung Fish · developed with textile designer

Reference

First iteration

Direction packet

Developed version

Campaign planning

The campaign direction was shaped through several steps including image research, model selection and location scouting. I built the main moodboard, reviewed shortlist options for cast and settings, then used a Lake Batur planning collage to align the shoot before production.

Padusan campaign direction moodboard — Campaign direction moodboard

Reference image of a stepped water setting used to think through Padusan's ritual and spatial atmosphere — Ceremonial pond reference · The Fall scene · Tarsem S.

Padusan model shortlist folders — Model shortlist

Reference image of a Balinese melukat bathing site used to think through ritual bathing and water atmosphere — Melukat / bathing reference

Padusan location option folders — Location scouting folders

Padusan Lake Batur shoot planning collage — Lake Batur shoot planning

From fitting to shoot

Hair, makeup and grooming were developed alongside fittings before the collection moved onto shooting location. The campaign then brought those decisions into the landscape with a body of water and physical movement of the shoot.

Padusan female model hair and makeup direction — Female beauty direction

Padusan male model grooming direction — Male grooming direction

Padusan fitting session — Fitting session

Campaign shoot · Bali

Padusan campaign behind the scenes in water

Padusan campaign behind the scenes at Lake Batur

On location

The final shoot moved between water, volcanic landscape and open lake, carrying the collection's bathing premise into the image world.

FW18

Kelir

Selected modular studies

Detachable panels and layered components allowed silhouettes to shift while retaining the same underlying garment system. Different pieces used concealed button tabs and soffix-based attachment methods.

Kelir screen and shadow reference — Kelir · screen / shadow

Kelir modular dress with detachable upper and lower components

Kelir modular dress with upper component removed

Kelir modular dress in reduced configuration

Kelir concealed detachable construction detail — Concealed button tabs

Kelir black modular dress with attached upper layer

Kelir black modular dress in reduced configuration

Concealed attachment

Double button tabs kept the fastening hidden while allowing the lower layer to be removed.

Shared attachment logic

The black dress used the same soffix-based system later explored further in the Tara jacket.

Pattern development

I directed the print toward a graphic language that could connect wayang-derived forms with bolder yet more familiar references, such as camouflage. A pattern designer translated that direction into the final repeat, which was then developed in two colourways across the collection.

Visual references

Graphic reference for Kelir print development

Peacock batik reference for Kelir print development

Fashion reference for Kelir print development

Japanese stencil reference for Kelir print development

Kelir print developed by the pattern designer from the art direction — Pattern developed by the textile designer from the visual direction.

Kelir print in two colourways on garments backstage — Final print colourways seen backstage.

View Kelir art direction case study

SS19

Kampong

Theme and print origin

Kampong began with a recurring sentiment voiced during the early brainstorming sessions, which was a shared longing for the slower, simpler atmosphere of provincial life.

Although the team had grown up in different parts of Indonesia, one image kept returning across those memories: the familiar children's drawing of two mountains, a sun rising between them, rice fields below, clouds above, and birds drawn as wide “M” shapes.

Kampong thematic moodboard — Reference board

Initial sketch for the Kampong mountain print — Initial mountain-print sketch

Developed Kampong mountain print in square cape format — Developed print · square cape format

Kampong mountain print applied to a polo shirt — Garment application

A shared childhood image

I used that collective visual memory as the starting point for the mountain print, moving from a hand sketch into a print direction for this square format and different garment applications within this collection.

Proportion and familiar textiles

The collection's nostalgia also entered the clothes themselves. Oversized proportions, patchworked surfaces and familiar checks gave the silhouettes a slightly childlike quality. I selected white, black and blue, particularly to be the gingham colors that we developped with Dan Liris, bringing it into Kampong's cooler colour spectrum while retaining its association with familiar school-uniform checks.

White black and blue gingham developed for Kampong — Revised gingham palette

Kampong womenswear fitting with gingham and denim — Fitting · gingham and denim

Oversized Kampong fitting with patchworked construction — Oversized proportion · fitting

Kampong textile and patchwork sampling — Material and patchwork development

Kampong menswear fitting — Menswear fitting

Custom denim jacquard with parang motif — Custom parang denim jacquard

Familiarity through material

A custom denim jacquard carrying a parang motif added another woven layer to the collection, alongside gingham, classical denim and patchworked fabric combinations.

Campaign Direction

The campaign extended Kampong’s nostalgic landscape into a more open, cinematic image world. I shortlisted locations around Yogyakarta and developed the visual direction through references to distance, repetition, stillness and figures dispersed across the landscape. Gumuk Pasir was ultimately selected, giving the collection a dry, almost abstract terrain in which the clothes could feel slightly displaced from everyday life.

Gumuk Pasir location shortlist — Selected location · Gumuk Pasir, Yogyakarta

Kali Adem location shortlist — Location shortlist · Kali Adem

Campaign image reference by Ueda Yokonami — Image reference · Shoji U. & Osamu Y.

Kodak Gold 200 film roll reference — Film stock reference · Kodak Gold 200

Kodak Gold 200 color tone reference — Colour tone reference · Personal archive ·
Kodak Gold 200

Campaign image reference of seated figure in dunes — Image reference · Willy V.

Campaign production · Gumuk Pasir

Campaign BTS

Composing with natural landscape and negative space

The figures were placed with more distance, letting the quiet landscape become a dominant part of the image composition and giving the garments a more accentuated presence.

04From collection to image

SS17

Catena

Catena marked an early shift away from product-led campaign image territory. The more editorial styling and framing began to signal a contemporary fashion brand positioning. It is allowing the collection to read as more than a presentation of individual products.

FW17

Heroïne

Heroïne collection moved the campaign language further from product presentation and closer to narrative. It helped Bateeq build a more distinct fashion point of view, with the imagery creating a recognizable world around the collection.

SS18

Padusan

Padusan, with its dense blue skies and bodies of water, brought Bateeq’s early association with travel and leisure back into focus, this time in a more elevated way. The campaign showed the clothes in a setting where they could feel natural, desirable and easy to imagine wearing on holiday, opening a clearer path toward a resortwear audience.

FW18

Kelir

Kelir carried the collection concept into the campaign environment. Shadow, interior architecture, staged stillness and slightly rigid pose gave the imagery a theatrical quality rooted in the world of wayang. The collection also showed a growing confidence in bringing Indonesian cultural references into Bateeq’s contemporary fashion language.

SS19

Kampong

Kampong made the brand feel younger and more relaxed. By this point, Bateeq was comfortably expressing itself in a narative-led contemporary fashion language, which gave the campaign more freedom to experiment and play. That sense of ease became part of the image itself, presenting the brand as something expressive and liberated. It is turning the campaign into an invitation for the audience to imagine life inside the Bateeq world.

Staging the collection

FW17

Heroïne

The campaign was not the final form of the collection. Each season continued onto the runway, where the clothes had to work again as a live experience that is shaped by tighter outfit curation, sequencing, fittings, restyling and backstage coordination.

2018–2019

Throughout Seasons

SS18 · Padusan

Padusan backstage look with double-layer fish shirt

FW18 · Kelir

SS19 · Kampong

SS18 · Padusan

In circulation

The collection cycle continued into digital touchpoints.

After the campaign and runway, the collection moved further across Bateeq’s digital chanels. Campaign imagery was adapted for e-commerce, social media and other day-to-day brand communication.

Audience growth during tenure

2017~13K

2018~40K

Instagram extended each collection beyond the main campaign, moving from teasers and runway imagery to behind-the-scenes content, styling ideas, UGC and collaborations with public figures.

Padusan Spring Summer 2018 collection displayed on Bateeq's mobile website

Padusan collection imagery displayed on Bateeq's mobile website

Padusan product grid on Bateeq's mobile storefront

Padusan mobile catalog showing campaign imagery and products

Heroïne products displayed across Bateeq's mobile storefront

Collection imagery in the online shopping interface

Seasonal collection image assets continued into Bateeq’s mobile storefront, where it supported product discovery and the presentation of each collection. The interface itself was not part of my art direction, but the imagery helped each season keep a consistent presence online.

Wider circulation

The work began appearing in contexts we could no longer fully control.

As the collections moved into public circulation, the work began appearing in fashion media, public-figure wear, tagged posts and cultural coverage. These different contexts showed how the clothes and visual direction continued to live beyond Bateeq’s own platforms.

Drag to explore

Bateeq social post featuring Indonesia's First Lady wearing a Heroïne archive piece — Archive resurfacing · Heroïne

Bateeq coverage on Vogue Runway — Vogue Runway

Bateeq appearing in Business of Fashion coverage — The Business of Fashion

Bateeq appearing in Japanese fashion media — ID-Japan

Bateeq featured in cultural media — Cultural press

Public figure wearing Bateeq — In public

Bateeq appearing in public circulation — In public

Bateeq appearing in user-generated social content — UGC

Bateeq appearing in a tagged social post — Tagged

Bateeq appearing beyond its original campaign context — In circulation

Apparently still in circulation 9 years later.

What stays in motion

The brand entered new cultural networks.

Alongside its existing customer base, Bateeq began gaining visibility among musicians, stylists and fashion communities. Many of these connections grew organically as the clothes appeared in new social settings and were picked up by people with strong influence on style and culture.

That wider circulation created a ripple effect. The more often Bateeq appeared in these circles, the more naturally the brand was read as part of contemporary fashion culture.

What changed

The product became bigger than the clothes.

Over time, Bateeq developed a more distinct visual and emotional world around the collections. The campaigns became slightly dreamlike. While they can be a bit strange and often deliberately unresolved, they offer a distinct point of view.

Familiar Indonesian references appeared inside situations that felt cinematic or just a little unreal.

The clothes were still the literal product, but they were no longer being presented on their own. Wearing Bateeq also meant stepping into the atmosphere the brand had built around them.

My role in the transformation

Building a recognisable visual language through the collections

On multiple collections, campaigns, runway and retail, I helped translate each season into a connected visual expression, so the brand developed a more recognisable language over time.

Expanding from collection design into broader brand stewardship

My role grew beyond individual collections into continuous editing, coordination and visual decision-making across design, campaign, styling and show production, while final creative approval remained with the Creative Director.

Instant photographs from the Bateeq design process

Credits

Creative Direction
Michelle T.

Concept Development & Design Direction
Dea A.

Campaign Direction
Dea A.

Fashion Design - Womenswear
Prashasta A., Marsha C., Kelly V., Fanny & Dea A.

Fashion Design - Menswear
Galuh N.

Textile Design
Yunita D.P., Sapto L. & Dea A.

Embroidery Design
Sapto L. & Afiq A.K.

Project Management
Anna M.

Marketing Direction
Bernadetta A.P.

Photography
Vicky T. & Hilarius J.P.

Photography Assistant
Welly D. & Kezia A.

Styling
Lilian N., Melodya L. & Makoto W.

Make Up & Hair Do
Eva, Leeah, Revo

Film
Heru A.

Female Model
Yuke A. - Jim Models, Orsi - Fmodels, Michelle T., Clarita - Balitar, Prashasta A. & Galuh N.

Male Model
Stevan M. - Twentyonemm, Julio - Fmodels, Dan B. & Daniel - 2icons

Jewelry Design & Development
Amanda S. - Ambstamb & Sasha - Tam illi

Soft Accessories Design
Galuh N. & Yunita D.P.

Female Shoes Development
Fauzan Shoes & Sepatukubaru

Male Shoes Design & Development
Kozuki & Hijack

Collaterals
Mokki Design

Music
Double Deer, Gerhan F. & Asa K.

Social Media
Anna M.

Press Relation
Bernadetta A.P, Yoshio Y. & Justine T.O.

Bateeq

Developing a more fashion-forward direction for a product-led batik label.

The brand already had reach. The question was what kind of fashion language it wanted to express.

The shift began with the clothes.

From collection logic to image-making.

Catena

Heroïne

Heroïne

Throughout Seasons

The collection cycle continued into digital touchpoints.

Collection imagery in the online shopping interface

The work began appearing in contexts we could no longer fully control.

The brand entered new cultural networks.

The product became bigger than the clothes.

Building a recognisable visual language through the collections

Expanding from collection design into broader brand stewardship

The brand already had reach.
The question was what kind of fashion language it wanted to express.