Nana: Fashion has infinite possibilities, and new power is born from it. As a carrier of culture and times, fashion encompasses everything. From trendy to traditional culture, from celebrities, idols to everyone’s daily life, and from West to East, it is our discourse, our power, our time. Through Asian Voice, we hope to spread the local Asian fashion culture to the world by moving cross languages and borders.
In this issue of ASIAN VOICE, we welcome the founder of HOTEL, Kent Hadi. It’s the motivation of contributing to the Indonesia brand makes him start the brand HOTEL. At its core, HOTEL draws inspiration from the very essence of what makes a hotel exceptional – the best service. While hotels cater to a variety of needs, from vacations and meetings to weddings and special events, it’s their exceptional service that sets them apart. HOTEL strives to emulate this same level of service excellence in their brand, putting their customers’ needs at the forefront of everything they do.
Nana: Can you tell us about your background and how you came to start your own brand?
Kent: Hey everyone, my name is Kent Hadi, i’m a fashion content creator in Indonesia. I went to college for graphic design and worked as a graphic designer and a photographer as well. In around 2018, I always feel like that I don’t like Indonesian local brands. They always tend to have brands that sells sex, scary graphics and unrealistic words as their identity. At late 2018, I finally try to make my own brand which only consist of tshirts & longsleeve with carefully picked graphic designs that I made. I don’t really care about the sales as long as I’m proud of wearing them!Nana: How would you describe the aesthetic and philosophy behind HOTEL?
Kent: Hotel is an experimental brand created in the late 2018. Inspired by the punk & rock music with a taste of sweet, dark & mysterious. You can say its Hopeless Romantic. The word HOTEL itself is a meaning by itself, if you think about it, Hotel is a place for vacation, relax, for meetings, for weddings, for an affair as well maybe? But the only thing that the Hotel provide is the best Service possible. And that’s what we’re trying to achieve. We don’t care who wants to wear our product, as long as we gave you the best service! Besides, I love when people are confused by our name. “HOTEL?”
Nana: How do you come up with each collections?
Kent: It really depends on our mood to be honest, some collections we dropped like 10-15 articles, some drops we just do like 4-5 articles. And the concept do really matters for our concept.Nana: Is it possible to share a little bit about your next collection?
Kent: For our next collection we’re thinking of doing some big graphics, and maybe collaborations with some Indonesian artist too!
Nana: Your brand has seen significant growth and recognition in recent years. Can you discuss any key moments or turning points in the brand’s journey?
Kent: Yes for sure! We have a hit on one of our graphic which is called “METAL”. Its actually inspired from Heavy Metal Bands typography. We can really say its really popular that other local indonesian brands started copying our work.Nana: Can you discuss any challenges or obstacles you have faced in building and growing your brand, and how you have overcome them?
Kent: The challenges would be the copycat trends here in Indonesia, maybe not just here, maybe everywhere in the world. But I always feel like they can never copy our taste, from how we take pictures, our graphics, and even our cuts.
Nana: Can you speak to the role of collaboration and partnerships in the fashion industry, and any notable collaborations your brand has undertaken?
Kent: Last December, Hotel dropped a collection called “Teenage Fantasy Dream” and we worked with one of Indonesian’s greatest artist right now, Dwi Roby Antono. I can say that this is a very succesfull “collab”. We played around with his graphic and make a beautiful art that you can wear daily.Nana: Looking to the future, what are your plans and goals for the brand, and where do you see it going in the next few years?
Kent: I love where Hotel is right now, its like a side hobby. I hope its not going anywhere as I feel when this becomes too big and become like a “JOB”, it gets boring and tiring.
Hopefully we can do some pop-ups outside the country, maybe Japan or Los Angeles!
Wish us luck!
We don’t care who wants to wear our product, as long as we gave you the best service!
