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Life is never boring for the creative and the hardworking. Always on the lookout for new projects, Evelyne from Cirebon, West Java, is a successful businesswoman whose vision benefits the local community. From humble beginnings, Evelyne’s innovative Mega Mendung Batik line has gone from strength to strength and now employs 20 women in the city.

Born into the inner circle of Kacirebonan Palace, Evelyne has always been proud of Cirebon’s cultural and historical heritage. In an effort to share the town’s beauty, in 2001 Evelyne began helping bring visitors there.

“One day a tour operator asked whether I could provide some really unique, good quality souvenirs of Cirebon,” Evelyne said during an interview with Jakarta Globe at her Cirebon residence.

“They wanted something that could remind the tourists of the city’s traditional culture, as well as something easy to carry.”

While searching for inspiration at a shopping mall, Evelyne came across intricately designed Chinese jackets celebrate the Lunar New Year. An idea popped into her mind to marry the traditional Chinese attire with Cirebonese batik.

“It’s in our history,” she said. “Cirebon [people] are actually a mix of the Chinese and the natives. It first happened when a Chinese princess, Ong Tien Nio, married Sunan Gunung Jati [Syarif Hidayatullah, ruler of Cirebon] in the 15th century.”

Evelyne experimented with her new idea. She created a pattern for mini jackets with short sleeves and Mandarin collars. She then made the jackets from tricot fabric — a soft but sturdy material — onto which she sewed colorful pieces of batik for decoration.

To make the design unique, she sewed beads onto the batik and added old coins on the tassels on the sleeves.

“At first, I just made five or six pieces. They sold immediately when I showed them to the tourists,” she said, adding that the jackets vary in size from 20 by 25 centimeters to 35 by 70 centimeters.

As Evelyne started receiving more orders for her jackets, she employed three women from the Banjar Wangunan housing complex, her old neighborhood.

“I wanted to help these women,” she said. “During the day, they often sat idly and gossiped, but by the end of the month they were usually busy asking around to borrow some money to buy rice or other household necessities.”

Evelyne taught the women how to sew the jackets and embellish them with beads.

“At first, it was quite difficult for us,” said Yayah, a housewife recruited by Evelyne six years ago. “The jackets are so small and we had to be very careful in sewing the materials, as well as the beads.”

Yayah, a mother to five children, desperately needs the extra income from making the jackets.

“My children also help with my work, especially when I need to put the thread through the needle’s eye,” she said with a laugh.

To expand the market for her products, Evelyne displayed her work at trade shows in Jakarta. In 2006, she met Cicie Suryo Sulisto, co-founder of Rumah Pesona Kain, an association for collectors and lovers of traditional Indonesian textiles.

“[The products] are very unique and attractive,” Cicie said. “They represent our rich traditional culture and are very suitable as gifts and souvenirs.”

Since then, Rumah Pesona Kain has taken Mega Mendung Batik under its wing. The association has given Evelyne advice on how to develop her wares, and has also helped her finance and market them.

“To enhance the display, we advised her to include a stand for her products,” Cicie said. Each mini jacket now comes with it’s own iron display stand.

To make the jacket shinier and more lustrous, Evelyne also combines the ornate floral motifs of Cirebonese batik with colorful Thai silk. Some jackets are also enhanced with thin rattan ropes.

“It’s easy for me to get the material. Cirebon is also a large producer of rattan furniture,” she said, adding that she hunts for old batik and antique coins at Cirebon flea markets to add a more vintage look to some of her products.

Roosniati Salihin, vice president director of PT Panin Bank, has been enchanted by the batik jackets ever since she first saw them at an exhibition at the Jakarta Convention Center in 2006.

“They’re very unique,” she said during a telephone interview. “I always bring some with me when I travel abroad as presents for my friends and clients.”

Beside the batik jackets, Evelyne also produces handbags and table runners from the leftover material.

“It’s a pity to throw [the material] away when I can still use it”.

Since its inception, the business has grown mostly through word of mouth.

Today, Mega Mendung Batik products are sold in a number of high-profile shops and department stores in Jakarta. Evelyne also receives monthly orders for the products from her overseas customers.

“There’s a mutual interconnectedness in this industry,” Evelyne said. “[The women] need me as much as I need them.

“Of course, I’m proud that products from Cirebon can make it on the international market,” she said. “But, I’m happier with the fact that, with this home industry, I can help these women gain a better living for their families.”


Mega Mendung Batik.

Mini batik jackets: Rp 400,000 to Rp 800,000

Batik handbags: Rp 100,000 to Rp 250,000

Mega Mendung Batik, Jl. Tanda Barat no. 27, Cirebon, West Java, Tel. 0815 6463 2871