The Polemics of Citayam Fashion Week

Berita Baru, Jakarta – Baim Wong finally revoked the registration of Citayam Fashion Week (CFW) Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on Monday (25/7) night through his YouTube channel.

Baim said that initially he wanted to announce the withdrawal of CFW IPR to the media on Tuesday (26/7), but because he felt it was urgent, he decided to do it via Youtube first.

In the video, Baim apologized to various parties for causing unrest, including public and political figures.

Baim said that he had absolutely no intention of taking advantage of this organic movement.

On the contrary, Baim wants to support and facilitate whatever the CFW community needs.

“There was no intention at all from me. For the sake of God, my intention is for Citayam, for all of them,” he said

In his apology, Baim seemed to show footages of his chats with CFW leaders, such as Bonge, Jeje, and others.

Further, he also admitted that he had first obtained information from them regarding copyright, before finally choosing to register it with the Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DJKI).

The start of the controversy

A few days after the application of Baim and Paul’s company PT Tiger Wong Entertainment was received by the Intellectual Property Database (PDKI) of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) on July 20, 2022, many parties criticized Baim.

One of them came from the Governor of West Java, Ridwan Kamil. Kamil expressly hopes that Baim will withdraw his proposal and let CFW grow as it is as a form of grassroots youth movement.

“My advice, not all affairs in this world should always be viewed from the commercial side. The CFW phenomenon is an organic grassroots movement whose growth and development must be natural and organic too,” said Kamil.

“My advice is to just revoke IPR registration with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. Thank you if you can understand it,” he added.

A moment before Kamil expressed his views, Baim said that he has a big vision for CFW, which is to make it a legal arena where fashion trends are born and not temporary.

“CFW is not mine. It belongs to all of them. It belongs to Indonesia. I’m just a person who has a vision of making CFW a place to make this trend a legal and non-seasonal platform. And most importantly, it can advance Indonesian fashion in the eyes of the world,” said Baim.

In addition, Baim also offers a more appropriate space for the community at CFW: Sarinah.

Baim saw that Sarinah was safer and less crowded than Dukuh Atas for youth movements like CFW.

History of CFW

CFW is attached to the term SCBD. SCBD here of course does not refer to Sudirman Central Business District, but Sudirman-Citayam-Bojonggede-Depok.

SCBD, which is dominated by children from the outskirts of Jakarta, often hangs out in elite office areas in the heart of Jakarta.

Around the hangout, the strict activities of office workers whose very fancy and expensive clothes are their daily sights.

Whether as a form of resistance or something else, they then made a kind of “similar fashion” against the office worker. As a result, they showed off their signature fashion—with the opposite model—by using the zebra cross as a catwalk.

This unique action was then popularly known as CFW which intersects with terms such as Jakarta Fashion Week (JFW) or Paris Fashion Week (PFW).

As for the mention of Citayam, according to El CFW initiator, it is due to the number of Citayam teenagers, Bogor Regency, who dominate in the community.

“In the beginning, it was possible that the people here were predominantly from the Citayam area. So, most people outside Sudirman call it ‘Citayam Fashion Week’ because they wear such cool outfits,” said El, quoted from Kompas.com (20/7).

Pros and cons

When CFW succeeds in attracting public attention, and even inspiring other regions to replicate the same thing, pros and cons cannot be avoided.

Some believe that CFW has a positive impact. The fact that CFW has succeeded in becoming a forum for the creativity of young people and increasing the income of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) is the reason why this is so.

Others said that CFW has the potential to disrupt the smooth running of highway activities in the Dukuh Atas area.