FROM FIELD TO FASHION

We head to Central Java with Rolex Awards Laureate DENICA RIADINI-FLESCH to discover, up close, how social enterprise SukkhaCitta is creating a clothing revolution from the ground up.

- LYNETTE KOH

But it was only during a recent trip to Indonesia, as part of the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, that I got to explore the very beginnings of clothing.

On a sweltering August afternoon, I found myself—along with a small band of fellow journalists from around Southeast Asia—making our way through a cultivated forest in Central Java. Gingerly stepping on narrow, well-trodden paths in the soil, along the edges of lush vegetation, we were following closely behind Bertram Flesch, COO of Indonesian-based ethical fashion company and social enterprise SukkhaCitta. Its name means “happiness” in Indonesian.

Flesch, a lanky German who is also the husband of Rolex Awards Laureate and SukkhaCitta founder Denica Riadini-Flesch, led us to a patch where cotton plants were growing. There was no sign yet of the wispy white lint that emerges after a cotton flower has bloomed and dried up: According to Flesch, the harvesting season had been delayed because of an uncharacteristically rainy season earlier in the year, and would only take place the following month.

Irrigation would not have been an option—in these “fashion forests”, as Riadini-Flesch describes them, the water-intensive practice of irrigation is not used. Instead, SukkhaCitta works with small-scale farmers to carry out sustainable farming practices, planting crops according to the rhythmns of the climates of specific areas.

The first time I met Riadini-Flesch was last March, when she was in Singapore for a gala honouring the Rolex Awards 2023 Laureates. Aimed at supporting exceptional individuals spearheading initiatives that advance human well-being and knowledge, the Awards are part of the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative.