Paper details:
My essay needs to link between black magic and symbolism in Southeast Asia.
How fashion designers are taking from these elements to create their designs. For example, Toton Januar’s 2019 collection showcased at Jakarta Fashion Week is mainly inspired by the artist, Suzzanna, who was portrait in one of the stories in Indonesian and Asian communities. Januar interpreted the role of women in Indonesian folklore and horror films and came up with a collection that showed a shadow of a world where the entire order is nuanced by women.
need two case studies (one is Toton Januar), explaining how they link to black magic in Southeast Asia in terms of avant garde/gothic.
have attached a draft that I have written as reference as to how I have started the paper and the direction I am working towards.
Symbolism, defined by oxford, is “the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities”. Symbolism in mythological stories is about giving them symbolic meanings to things that are different from their literal sense. People use the word myth to describe traditional and supernatural tales of the past when they could not justify a certain occurrence. The word myth comes from ancient Greek which means ‘speech, narrative, fiction, myth, plot’. The Greeks uses the term myths to tell stories and legends about their gods which gives a cultural and moral learning value to their past. Today, myths and its symbolism has been overlooked in the Southeast Asian countries as compared to the Western countries where they are sought after by historians, passionate citizens who wants to know more about their past.
Black magic has been dismissed as a myth for far too long despite it being mentioned in the Bible (Exodus 22:18) and the Quran (2:102). The practice of witchcraft, necromancy and even incantations symbolizes the idea of control and power. Magic has been used in the past and is still used by people for different purposes. In South-East Asia, black magic is often associated with stories based on events that encompass the spiritual beliefs of the culture and religion in which they originate. Black magic are remnants of old animist beliefs that have been shaped by the Indian faiths of Hinduism and Buddhism back in the 16th century. It was then influenced by the Muslims in the modern states of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and among the Malay diaspora in neighboring Southeast Asian countries. Some ghost concepts such as the female vampires “pontianak” and “penanggal” are shared throughout the region. While traditional belief doesn’t consider all ghosts as necessarily evil, Malaysian popular culture tends to categorize them all as types of evil demon.
In the South-East Asian region, our myths consist of moral values that originate within the country. As Singapore was once part of Malaysia, we share similar myths and our cultures intertwine. Indonesia however, have their long lineage of culture and myths which includes royalty and monsters. Some myths are now untold or even forgotten as science has a better explanation of why things happened in the past. Lately, fashion designers in South East Asia are adopting their heritage and interpreting their version of their heritage, culture and tradition in terms of fabrication, design and even sewing technique.
In the past, traditional costumes in Southeast Asia are always been recreated with the same designs or print without changing much of its silhouette. However, recently, young fashion designers from Indonesia and Malaysia has been recreating these designs by incorporating their culture and tradition. They are relating back to their roots and from The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion, Jennifer Craik explained why fashion under the influence of fashion