Jakarta, IO – “Giving to and developing my country”, the motto of Amanda Sotya Rusli, who continues to love Indonesia wholeheartedly despite her long stay in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. She has worked in fashion for over 15 years, including in major European fashion brands. “I have also taught actively in fashion schools. I want to benefit others with my knowledge,” she declared in an exclusive interview with the Independent Observer.
However, the voice of the Motherland called her back to serve. In 2022, Amanda cooperated with Fia Prasetyahadi to establish Casa Creativa Pro, a fashion productive house and Creative House for micro, small, and medium-sized fashion business. In 2023, she established AMATYA, her personal fashion brand. This Sanskrit name signifies a woman who loves herself and who maintains her integrity towards her values when making decisions in her daily life.
Amanda has a special reason for establishing the brand: “I created AMATYA because I want to provide modest yet elegant wear that everyone can accept,” she declared. “The strength in AMATYA’s design is its mixture of Indonesian and Persian heritages. I want to bring back the glories of these two amazing cultures to Indonesia.”
With her extensive knowledge of traditional Indonesian textiles and history, Amanda ensures that she incorporates these rich designs into AMATYA’s debut collection. “For our first collection, I decided to incorporate the legend behind the construction of Candi Prambanan,” she declared.
To keep AMATYA products from becoming common, she only created 10 individual designs for each of her collections. “One unique piece…only a few people can have any one design, and they can customize it as they wish,” she declared. “I just want each woman who wear AMATYA’s product to be proud of the fact that they are Indonesians with integrity and elegance.”
Read: Nukila Evanty: encouraging advocacy for the rights of female inmates
Finally, what does Amanda hope for AMATYA? “I hope that it will be a cause for our younger generations to become proud of our local products,” she says. (des)