Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Thursday, March 22 1984, the couple Prabowo Subianto and Titiek Hediprasetyo were happy. After one year of marriage, their first child, a boy, was born at Harapan Kita Hospital. However, when releasing this happy news to the media, the child had not been given a name.
“Wow, there isn't one yet. I want to give you a name, Mas Bowo also has a name. So, I just want to ask you to mediate,” said Titiek to Tempo (March 31, 1984).
The father in question is of course President Suharto. However, it took Suharto a long time to decide on a name for his 8th grandson. After five days had passed, the name was created, namely Ragowo Hediprasetyo. And, Suharto would call him Mas Didit.
Didit is quite a lucky child because he comes from two well-known Indonesian families, namely the Djojohadikusumo family, where his great-grandfather was the founder of BNI and his grandfather was a minister, and the Soeharto family.
As a youth, Didit spent a lot of time in the United States (US) and France. It is not known about his further activities in these two countries. However, one thing is certain that he was registered as a student at Parsons School of Design in New York and Paris circa 2003.
Quoting the university's official website, Parsons School of Design is a prestigious fashion school in the world that was founded in 1921. At this point, Didit took a different path in life to his brothers.
Instead of joining politics or being involved in the business world, he decided to become a designer. Both parents did not question his decision.
While studying, Didit, via his official personal website, explained that he had won an award Silver Thimble before graduating and earning a bachelor's degree in fine arts specializing in fashion design in 2007. Only after graduating, Didit returned to his hometown to Jakarta.
In an interview with Couture by Designaré (April 2012), Suharto's grandson said that his purpose in going to Jakarta was to compile a portfolio.
“I moved back to Jakarta with the plan to stay for three months specifically to work on my portfolio so I could get my first job,” he said.
Luckily, his first portfolio was popular and was immediately bought by his friends. As a result, he finally decided to stay in Indonesia longer than planned. It was at this point that he felt confident to build his own fashion house, instead of working for another design house.
Until finally, an event arrived that changed his life. At one time, there was a friend of Didit who worked as a publicist for a fashion house in Paris. He wants to introduce Prabowo's son to the fashion company, Elie Saab.
However, this was not done because Didit apparently had a lot of good portfolios. His friend said it would be better for Didit to appear at Paris Couture Week 2010, rather than joining a fashion house.
Initially, Didit was not confident because he didn't have a well-known name to appear at the world's most prestigious fashion exhibition. However, thanks to the encouragement of many people, he dared to show off his 45 fashion designs.
Unexpectedly, the results were positive. Many visitors like the design. Since then, he has always been enthusiastic about participating in various fashion design exhibitions, as well as settling down in Paris.
“I think Asian designers must be present internationally to prove that Asian designers can create fashion not only for Asians, but also for global customers. If I only exhibited my work in Indonesia, it would be difficult,” he said when asked about the reason for staying. in Paris to Couture by Designaré.
As a result, every time there is a similar event in each season, there will definitely be Didit. Until finally it all paid off when he successfully appeared at the biggest fashion event in the world: Paris Fashion Week.
His presence at the event added to the long list of names of Indonesian designers who appeared there. Thanks to that, many people started coming to him as clients, including various public figures such as Anggun C. Sasmi, Dian Sastrowardoyo, and so on.
“When I go to concerts in Europe, it's really difficult to meet Indonesian designers. Most of all I meet Didit Hediprasetyo because he lives in Paris. I usually wear clothes designed by him,” said Anggun, quoted from Musical Journeys and Dreams Graceful (2020)
Since then, Didit's name has become famous as a world-renowned clothing designer from Indonesia for more than 10 years of career until now. However, Didit's activities have now increased after his father, Prabowo Subianto, became a state official and presidential candidate.
Didit is often in the spotlight when accompanying Prabowo on visits to various regions.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
(mfa/sef)