By Ling Hui and Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Nov 4: Sarawakian fashion designer Ben Nazry’s extravagant, state-of-the-art collection of 48 ready-to-wear batik pieces were featured at the Borneo Textile Craft Festival 2022 gala dinner here tonight.
Even with traditional Flying Hornbill ‘batik canting’, Borneo batik block and ‘batik linut’ designs, Ben’s avant-garde collection showcased a chic and contemporary take on traditionally modest batik designs.
Caretaker Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) Dato Sri Nancy Shukri, whose speech was read by the ministry’s secretary-general Datuk Saraya Arbi, said she was confident that Ben’s exclusive and contemporary designs can satisfy the buyers’ demands and fashion tastes.
Touching on statistics, Nancy said Sarawak recorded craft sales value of RM14.9 million while Sabah garnered RM15.8 million in sales as of Sept 30, 2022.
“The sales value of craft generated by Sarawak and Sabah shows an achievement of RM30.7 million which is an increase of 19 per cent from RM25.7 million for the same period of the previous year.
“The total sales value from Sarawak and Sabah contributed to the overall sales performance of RM211 million for the year 2022.
“This performance has also exceeded the initial target of RM200 million,” she said in his speech during the gala dinner at a local hotel here.
Amongst those present were Sarawak Premier’s wife Puan Sri Datuk Amar Jumaani Tun Tuanku Bujang, Nancy and husband Kamil Misuari, Sarawak Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah and wife Datin Sri Zuraini Abdul Jabbar, and Kraftangan Malaysia board of directors’ chairman Datuk Rubiah Wang. — DayakDaily
