Unhealthy competition and herd mentality kill fashion industry in Bandung

Fashion industry in Bandung - Part 1

6 local brands, Mantra by Sense, Pix and Stacy, Collage Kit, Doshoes, Legam and Opsy, share their insight on consumers and industry players in Bandung.

Before art galleries and museums become the crème de la crème spots in Jakarta, Bandung has been embracing art galleries, exhibitions and art education years ago. Some might even say that art and fashion scene in Bandung is more progressive than the capital city’s.

“Trend started in Bandung then spread to other cities,” all the featured brands stated. Back in the days when global brands haven’t entered Indonesian market, the fourth most populous city in Indonesia is the shopping heaven with affordable factory outlets and distribution stores or commonly known as distro spread around the city.

The pricing is possible because Bandung is also the centre of manufacturing from fabric, clothing to leather goods. Global fashion brands that build or subcontract factories in Indonesia usually set the factories around Bandung and nearby areas.

Post distro era, it is independent fashion brands turn to shine. The desire to create a brand has been there since distro era and it is inspired by wave of independent brands from Japan, US and Europe that became trending in the city. With manufacturing side tackled, millennial brand founders focus on building brand image and value.

“A lot of us came from manufacturing background because of our parents,” said Mantra co-founder Firdhan Suryadi who handles production side of the brand. “My parents run a home-based manufacturing that produces uniform. I grew up seeing first hand how clothes are made. When I started Mantra with Adit (Sin Aditya), I delegate a worker to produce Mantra’s collection.”

That background comes in handy for independent brands because the founders have complete control of what is going on behind the production. It reduces production error and miscommunication.

What’s challenging for these brands is navigating the market. According to Mantra co-founder Sin Aditya, consumers in Bandung are extremely reactive to trends. “One person wears it and it spreads to his or her friends. All of sudden, everyone is wearing the same thing. It spread like wildfire but it also died down very fast.”

That statement is backed up by Pix and Stacy co-founder Patricia Citra, who also co-founded consignment store Local Cuteness. “Bandung consumers look up to their role models. Whatever their role models wear, it will blow up here,” said Patricia.

In short, brand loyalty is rare. There is an appetite to be the coolest and the first in the gang but once the trend has gone en masse, the consumers will move on to next trend.

“You have to be the first mover in Bandung. If you are not the first mover then you have to create similar products with lower price,” said Collage Kit co-founder Firdaus Santana. “The people here are very selective. If your brand survives Bandung, it’ll survive elsewhere in Indonesia.”

“People in Bandung absorb and adopt trend faster than Jakarta. We lean towards Japanese brand like Visvim and Undercover while hypebeast is trending in Jakarta. We actually started adopting streetwear like Supreme in 2013,” Firdhan continued. “But you don’t see a lot of Bandung hypebeast wearing Supreme or Off-White because a lot of them cannot afford it. Jakarta has bigger spending power.”

Adding to the challenge, the consumers hardly voice their compliment or complaints towards a brand. “They will not express it in front of you. If it’s bad, they will say it to their friends. This affects other elements from food, music and fashion,” explained Firdaus.

Unfortunately, that only hinders industry growth as it sparks unhealthy competition among industry players and consumers. “We often heard this, ‘oh this is easy I can make this too,’ which is why you see a lot of brands, clothing line and coffee shops with same concept. Because we are the centre of manufacturing, everyone thinks they can do it too,” said Legam co-founder Fadli Julistia.

Being the centre of manufacturing has its downside too. Most consumers already have a rough idea of production cost. They will not accept local brands with premium price or as Adit put it, “the men here are more idealistic. They would rather pay Rp300,000 for global brands than local brands.”

Analysing the brands’ statement, the issues in Bandung fashion industry run deeper than trend hopping consumers. The consumers are hungry for brands with high value and cool products that are in affordable price range, but at the same time, they don’t want the products become mainstream. It is contradicting to the fact that they are influenced by a role model or influencer – per Patricia’s statement above.

Isn’t the purpose of a role model or influencer to influence the masses or followers to purchase a product?

While brands could limit their inventory and increase the price in effort to be more exclusive, that also poses a challenge. If local brands increase the price, Bandung consumers will be sceptical towards the brand since they are familiar with manufacturing cost and process. Either they end up not buying the products or they create similar products at lower price point.

There’s also lack of appreciation from both ends according to Lambang and Fadli. Citing Doshoes founder Lambang Pranata, established brands rarely support new brands. Consumers expect local brands to be affordable and industry players see every brand as their competition.

“This has got to stop. It is the reason why fashion and music scene in Jakarta has progressed further than us. Collaboration is the key, not competition,” said Firdhan.