By Honorary Reporter Yulia Asqia Putri from Indonesia

Photos = Yulia Asqia Putri 

Happy Eid Al-Fitr to Muslims around the world. On May 1, adherents of Islam celebrated this Islamic holiday as a day of victory after a month of fasting. 

Indonesia has the most Muslims in the world with up to 231 million, thus it features its own unique traditions when Eid Al-Fitr rolls around. For example, buying clothes for the occasion seems mandatory for every celebration. Some design their own clothes to be sewn by a tailor, something I love to do.

My sister and I pose wearing batik-style Hanbok outfits.

To celebrate this joyful day, I decided to make a Hanbok with traditional Indonesian fabric batik, which is recognized by UNESCO for its delicate manufacturing and dyeing process. Batik is a material for garments intended for official events and casual wear. 

BLACKPINK in its music video for "How You Like That" wore modern renditions of Hanbok.

Hanbok is traditional Korean clothing that was worn daily in the past in Korea, but today is usually worn at ceremonies, official events, anniversaries and special occasions. The K-pop girl group BLACKPINK in its music video for "How You Like That" wears a modern Hanbok that looks beautiful and elegant.

An underclassman at my school wears a Hanbok I made for my school project.

My intention was to combine Korean and Indonesian culture through clothes, an idea I had since high school. For my final semester assignment in an arts and culture course, I had to design and make my own dress. At the time, I was into historical K-dramas such as "Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo" and the props and dresses in it deeply inspired me. In my first attempt to fuse both cultures, I added Indonesian floral patterns to a Hanbok-like dress.

After deciding to use a simpler pattern, I had to plan a lot ahead to choose the right batik that retains the value of Hanbok, which comprises a blouse with a large ribbon and a fluffy skirt. For this part, I used batik from the Pekalongan region of Indonesia and mix and matched with a wide skirt.

My process of making batik-style Hanbok involved multiple steps.

kalhong617@korea.kr 

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.