Success Story – Aryani Widagdo, A Great Designer Scorer Figure
BULETIN TEKSTIL.COM/ Jakarta – As we all know, the fashion industry is a subset of the textile business. In Europe, designers provide forecasts on color trends and fabric types that will be popular with the public next year, which drives the fashion business, and then finished fabrics as the upstream sector “follows.” Fashion education is undeniably a “factory” for developing designers. Directly or indirectly became a major factor in customers’ decision to purchase textiles. This time, I’d like to introduce someone who deserves to be known for her effort and suffering in the fashion industry.
Mrs. Aryani Widagdo is the founder and director of the Arva School of Fashion, which was created in 1989 in Surabaya.
Aryani began her fashion business in the second half of her life, after marrying and working with her husband and two boys. She began to channel her artistic expression by studying painting with Doyo Prawito, a well-known Surabaya-graduated painter from Paris. She joined for two years in a local school named “Arel” in 1985. Aryani Widagdo decided that this information was insufficient for her and enrolled in online study at the International Correspondent School in Pennsylvania. Essays and pattern drawing assignments were mailed back and forth; picture how rigorous it must be when thousands of kilometers haven’t stopped the burning desire to study.
Finishing her schooling in Pennsylvania is still insufficient for her; she is seeking for another institution to attend. She paired up with a friend called Wirek to attend a course in Jakarta, which this friend traveled back and forth every Saturday and Sunday since she didn’t want to abandon her family and company in Surabaya. Wirek will return from Jakarta and share what she has learnt. Aryani Widagdo eventually felt secure enough to open her own fashion school, thanks to her high spirits.
She established Arva Studio on Jalan Mayjen Sungkono in 1989. Due to financial constraints, she was obliged to begin the school in her own home. The school evolved and flourished from a single sewing teacher. Only by word of mouth did the advent of this small fashion school attract fashion aficionados. Her pupils adore her because of her friendly and thorough approach to teaching. Arva Fashion School students made an impact in the Concurs competition by Dewi Magazine (Femina Group) in 2000, with 10 students who submitted their sketches entering the final and winning. It was at this point that the presence of Arva Studio became a topic of discussion in the Jakarta fashion scene.
The school trip continued, and after a few years, Arva began displaying its yearly collection each year. Even if it is not as large as the fashion show should be, it is sufficient to demonstrate the school’s brilliance in being the premier fashion school in Surabaya.
Jl. Sambas, in front of Gelora Pancasila, houses the Arva School of Fashion.
Another watershed moment happened in 2005. Specifically, when this fashion school relocated to Jl. Sambas 16, Surabaya. A building that is larger than the preceding building. There are more classrooms, comprehensive pattern making and sewing equipment, slide projectors, and televisions in the theory rooms. And a whole collection of fashion literature, with new titles added on a regular basis. This library was the pride of Aryani Widagdo, the most complete collector of fashion books in Surabaya at that time. Arva Studio was renamed Arva School of Fashion after that.
The Arva School of Fashion then teamed with Singapore’s First Media Fashion School in 2011. This relationship gives several chances for design and sewing teachers to be trained in Singapore, as well as for globally educated teachers to assist students in Surabaya.
This school has produced several well-known Surabayans, including Charles Sie, Yunita Kosasih, Herman Arifin, Alben Ayub Andal, and Soko Wiyanto. When asked where Aryani finds inspiration to keep herself afloat despite all of the struggle, worry, and agony that comes with owning a business, she cheerfully replied that reading fashion books and watching vintage movies is her weapon to wash away all of her anxieties.
Preparing for a fashion show
She intends to devote more time to fashion and education by focusing on teaching and research. While while being quite enthused about what the new Arva will offer. Bigger and better, daring and daring. To be the leader in fashion education in Surabaya, as well as nationally and worldwide. The achievement of this school proved to be a watershed moment for Aryani Widagdo. When Arva reached the pinnacle of its fame and success in November 2014, Aryani recognized that the weight of administering a school with the same name was becoming too much for her, who was 65 at the time, and her health was deteriorating.
As a result, it was decided to hand over control of Arva School of Fashion to new management. It will grow in the belief that this new investor will be able to better care for Arva. Because her initial desire was for the fashion school she founded to develop dependable fashion designers, her school expanded by building branches in various cities around Indonesia.
Aryani believes that after letting go of the Arva School, which she constructed with her sweat and tears, the school, which has been established and grown for 25 years, would be able to grow and have branches all across Indonesia. Can her dreams come true in the hands of “new people”? Everything will be answered by time.
Aryani began to pioneer new activities after leaving Arva, which she pursued fully, allowing her to express her creativity farther into the world of fashion. Aryani Widagdo Creativity Nest is the name of this innovative container.
(Red B-Teks /Ratna Devi)
We will publish her story in the future issue of the Textile Bulletin.
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