Obin (designer)

Born in Indonesia in 1955, Josephine Werratie Komara went to school in Hong Kong until she finished elementary school and then returned home, aged 14. Until his death in 2013, Obin was married to an archaeologist and anthropologist named Roni Siswandi; they have one son, Erlangga (called 'Erlang'). She is a self-taught textile designer who has never formally studied the subject, but taught herself through collecting, handling and examining fabrics, and seeing them made. == Business history ==

Obin started out in the 1970s, whilst Indonesia was a developing country, as a vendor of furnishing fabrics, selling raw silks for lampshades and upholstery. She also questioned why, despite her love for traditional textiles and cloths, there were no new patterns and designs. By 2012, Obin employed over 1,000 artisan workers to completely hand-create her fabrics, many of whom had passed their skills down through the generations. By 2012, Obin's batiks were compared to designer handbags, with her shawls being worn by fashionable women to cocktail parties. Previously, batik had been considered a dark, heavy and old-fashioned fabric that was only worn by politicians and their wives to formal functions, but due to the work of Obin and Edward Hutabarat, it had become a desirable and fashionable fabric. == Textile heritage ==

Preserving the traditional skills and techniques of Indonesian textile production is extremely important to Obin, who describes the textiles produced under her name as "works of life", rather than works of art. This designation was controversial with some Malaysians taking offence and claiming that batik was as much part of their heritage as Indonesia's, although Indonesian designers such as Hutabarat, Obin and Sanchia Hamidjaja were cited as major players in the batik revival of a few years earlier, which combined contemporary updates with heritage technique. == Museums ==

Obin's textiles are held by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, Museum Kain In a BBC interview in 2012, Obin stated her intention of opening a textile museum in Bali in 2013. The museum, which is the first of its kind on the island, is also the first museum in Indonesia to use the latest digital technology such as touchscreens as a way of presenting an authentic collection. == References ==