The Singapore fashion label, Baju by Oniatta was founded by Oniatta Effendi in 2016, focusing on batik and batik wearing. Its pieces are inspired by and reinvent traditional Malay and Javanese silhouettes for the contemporary wearers. Baju by Oniatta works with traditional batik makers from Indonesia in creating the designs of each batik fabric; experimenting greatly with traditional batik motifs and colours, employing both traditional batik tulis (hand-drawn batik) and batik cap (stamped batik) techniques.The Utama Pants was the first item crafted by Baju by Oniatta in 2016, and has since become one of the label’s signature and well sought-after silhouettes. The key design element of this line of wide-legged trouser is and flap in the front which cleverly nods to the traditional kain sarung batik. The form of the trousers themselves echoes the traditional Malay celana which would usually be paired with traditional baju. The name Utama Pants marks it as the first design for the brand as ‘utama’ means first. This design has gone through numerous iterations and with different batik motifs since 2016. The most recent exploration may be seen in its Macan collection; a batik cap series named after the Javanese word for tiger. Traditional parang motifs—such as the parang rusak motif—were considered pola larangan or forbidden motifs, reserved for members of the Javanese royalties. Here, the parang motif has been wittily reinterpreted and stylised to mimic tiger stripes. The line was launched on the year of Tiger of the lunar calendar in 2022. This piece consists of an orange and white batik tulis in a parang motif, a black, grey and white ikat textile.The batik tulis and ikat textile were produced in Bantul, Yogyakarta, led by Pak Susilo and Pak Danang.
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