How Lulu Lutfi Labibi brought Java's traditional lurik fabric into the high fashion scene

Yogyakarta, the art and cultural capital of Java, is starting to make a name as an emerging Indonesian fashion hub – thanks in large part to Lulu Lutfi Labibi. 

The designer, who hailed from small town Purwokerto and moved to Yogyakarta to study textile craft, has brought the traditional lurik fabric into the high fashion scene. Normally worn by rural Javanese people, the fabric, which features five black-and-white straight lines in symmetrical repetitions, has become a staple among the country’s urbanites, including actors and models.

In his endeavour, Labibi made his reputation as an iconoclast. While many of his colleagues concentrate on batik or tenun ikat, which are generally considered as national treasures, Lulu chose a risky task by exploring the less exotic, less cultured fabric. It was a challenging move, but well paid off. His designs have been shown regularly in Indonesia and abroad, from Jakarta Fashion Week to Vienna Fashion Week.

I met Labibi in Kotagede, a historical neighbourhood in the southwest tip of Yogyakarta, where quaint alleyways are harmoniously occupied by traditional Joglo houses alongside Dutch colonial houses with Javanese influence. On a quiet afternoon, I walked through a typically low Javanese entrance (a reminder to pay homage to the house owners by slightly bowing while walking in) and made my way to Labibi’s boutique. The designer’s eponymous label was established in 2011.

“Throughout my career, I can say that almost all of my customers live in Jakarta,” Labibi said in his compound, which consists of a boutique, a workshop, a house, and an event space, frequented by Jakarta’s who’s who. “Naturally, I have had requests to move my studio to Jakarta. But my heart says otherwise, and slowly, with time, I think I have managed to show that you can be a fashion designer and be in the industry while living away from Jakarta.”

Labibi's first breakthrough as a designer came when he won Lomba Perancang Mode Femina (Femina Fashion Designers’ League), an annual award for emerging designers, in 2011. Labibi entered the competition with a spirit that – as he admitted – was “naively heroic”. He wanted to elevate Indonesian traditional fabric.

In the same year, he started his fashion house, and soon realised the bitter truth of the fashion industry: There’s no fast pass to commercial success. “When I launched my debut collection,” Labibi reminisced, “I did not get much love from my target audience. I still remember the first item that I launched, a lurik drape top in black and white. Many thought of it as complicated and not very wearable.”

But he kept his faith in lurik. Labibi enriched his approach and technique by learning the Japanese value of "wabi sabi" – a belief that there is beauty in imperfections. He channelled his energy to master the artistry, navigating the best ways to work with local artisans who produced the textile material without machinery in Klaten, a city in Central Java. “When dealing with a traditional craft, there is a process and time that you have to honour.” 

Indeed, the designer’s love for asymmetry and drapery, influenced by Japanese fashion legend Yohji Yamamoto, took time to be accepted, and eventually loved.

One of the turning points for Labibi’s designs in the market was when celebrated actress Dian Sastrowardoyo started wearing his clothes and photos circulated on social media. “I was quite cynical to discover that my audience needed a celebrity role model to influence them into liking something. But it is what it is. The only thing I could do is to share my stories and vision with the new audience, hoping that they will develop a personal affinity towards my designs.”

“His strength lies in the lines and construction,” said Ria Lirungan, the editor-in-chief at Harper’s Bazaar Indonesia, who first noticed Labibi when she became a guest judge at Esmod, a design school in Jakarta where Labibi studied after graduating from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta. “Lulu does not treat lurik as an accessory, but rather a prominent element in a design. I don’t see many Indonesian designers who manage to use Nusantara fabric so seamlessly, in a way that lets the fabric really be a part of the design, rather than a superficial accessory.”

After 15 years in business, Labibi now puts his focus on taking good care of what he has built. And it seems that to him, work and life is deeply intertwined. Labibi's day starts early. He brews coffee and makes breakfast, usually a hearty set of bread, egg, and greens. Work starts after: Managing his workshop team of six, checking in with the artisans, maintaining the brand’s social media, and hosting in-person appointments at the studio.

Hami Effendi, his sister, is a partner that builds the brand alongside Labibi. “She is my voice of reason,” said Labibi. “The brand Lulu Lutfi Labibi is what it is today because of a compromise between my vision and her rationale. We are two small town kids who moved to Yogyakarta to go to school. In our early days, we shared a motorbike between us to commute between our place, her high school and my university.” 

Labibi’s day draws to a close at four in the afternoon. It seems that being physically away from Jakarta, a city that literally never sleeps, has also given him space to set his priorities. There is a time to rise, to work, to create, to connect with people, and there is a time to rest.

With this in mind, he designed Kala, his 2025 collection. The collection has a lot of monochromes, a classic that highlights the motifs (florals, baroque, and graphics), as well as the fabric textures (jacquard, chiffon, cotton). The use of jacquard with baroque graphics reflects Labibi’s ode to his longtime idol, Belgian designer Dries van Noten.

As usual, there is no women’s or men’s collection in Lulu Lutfi Labibi, every series is designed for all genders. It is interesting to see that the glamorous jacquard bolero is worn on both male and female models. The fluidity is matched with Yogyakarta’s laid-back spirit, with Labibi describing his wearers as people who are “comfortable in their own skin, relaxed, know themselves well, and usually prefer sandals or to be barefoot than to wear dress shoes.”

Asmara Abigail, one of Labibi’s renowned and loyal customers, first met him in 2017. “The first Lulu Lutfi Labibi piece I wore was a kimono-style floral outer,” shared Abigail, a famous model, actress, and a three-time Best Supporting Actress nominee at the Indonesian Film Festival. “When I wear a Lulu Lutfi Labibi, I feel a liberty to express myself. I have the freedom to be wild, to be elegant, to be vulnerable, to be a laughing stock, to be proud of my achievements, to be brokenhearted, to stand back up, to choose my destiny, and not to fear being on my own.” 

Labibi's fashion exploration also translates to the multidisciplinary collaborations he has launched over the years, perhaps most notably with the contemporary artist duo Indieguerillas. The two have collaborated over a few collections which feature creative interpretations of Indonesian wayang (puppet theatre) characters on Labibi's lurik top. In October 2024, their joint collection was presented in Gwangju’s Asia Culture Week. Their first was exhibited at Tokyo’s Mizuma Art Gallery in 2017, and later that year brought to the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore as a performance art work.

Labibi stands by the belief that what we like can evolve, along with the season of life we are in. Although his daily clothes have always been black-on-black, his personal evolution is reflected in the work-in-progress that is his compound.

“When we first moved in here, I only rented a small part of the land, and it functioned as both a home and a showroom. But we have expanded into the compound where we are today. The showroom is newly renovated, and I had the bare brick walls painted white, because that reflects where I am today. Currently, we are renovating the workshop. I am almost always renovating, and I like it because to me, it feels that I am always growing," he said. 

Additional reporting by Nina Hidayat