A total of 60 guests, mostly potential buyers from various companies and retailers, were seen enjoying the collections.

Kiba Bam from TFG, the largest retail company in South Africa, congratulated Indonesia for organizing Threads of Indonesia.

“The Indonesian Embassy in Pretoria and TFG have collaborated before and produced successful works. TFG will explore sustainable batik making with batik producers in Indonesia,” Kiba said.

Last year, the Indonesian Embassy in Pretoria and ITPC Johannesburg together with TFG made a fashion film entitled Stories of Hope which featured the collaborative work of young Indonesian and South African designers who creatively combined batik fabrics with South African shweshwe fabrics.

The event was closed with a hybrid business matching. In addition to the two designers who were present in person in Cape Town, buyers also met with 29 other Indonesian producers virtually.

Indonesian producers who could not be present in person in Cape Town had sent samples of their products to be seen by the buyers. A number of potential transactions were generated from the business matching.

The Threads of Indonesia main program will continue on 12 September 2023 in the form of a talk show at the Indonesian Consulate General in Cape Town, and on 13 September 2023 in the form of a market visit.

First Secretary of the Indonesian Embassy in Pretoria Arief Ilham Ramadhan as the Project Officer of the activity explained that the Threads of Indonesia series had actually started on July 6, 2023 in the form of a hybrid business matching held in Durban.

“After this activity in Cape Town, we plan one more hybrid business matching activity in Johannesburg or Pretoria,” Arief said.