At a Glance :

• 6 students designed the entire collection
• 9 ready-to-wear looks shown on the runway
• 2 months from research to production
• Debuted Saturday, August 1, 2026, at Indonesia Fashion Week (IFW) 2026
  
  

A model walks out in a cropped batik jacket layered over an ivory tunic, wide black trousers pooling at her ankles. She's not wearing the work of an established designer. She's wearing a jacket made by a high school student.

That's the headline most people miss about SMK NU Banat Kudus. This vocational school in Central Java doesn't just teach fashion theory in a classroom  it sends student collections down real runways, at real fashion weeks, judged by real industry standards.

On Saturday, August 1, 2026, six students from the school showed nine ready-to-wear looks under their in-house label, Zelmira, at Indonesia Fashion Week (IFW) 2026. The collection, called "Akar Langit," pulled from the textile traditions of Nias Island  using traditional weaving techniques (teknik anyam) reworked into modern silhouettes: structured vests, wrap coats, wide trousers, and woven panel skirts. No retail pricing was announced; this was a runway showcase tied to the school's training program, not a commercial drop.

The palette leaned earthy  olive, camel, oatmeal, black  with woven textures showing up as panel inserts on skirts and coat hems. One look paired a khaki cap with a belted trench coat that had a hand-woven Nias pattern running down one side, the kind of detail you'd expect from a design house with a decade of experience, not a student portfolio.

Who's Behind This?

The collection sits under Bakti Pendidikan Djarum Foundation, the education arm of Djarum Foundation, which mentors the students through the entire process  not just sketching, but sourcing materials, building mood boards, and managing production timelines like an actual studio would.

Galuh Paskamagma, Program Manager at Djarum Foundation, said the creative process for "Akar Langit" took about two months: theme research, mood boarding, material exploration, design development, then production.

"We bridge classroom learning with real industry practice, making sure students master the techniques the industry actually needs."
  Galuh Paskamagma, Program Manager, Bakti Pendidikan Djarum Foundation

That's the surprising part. This isn't an extracurricular fashion club. It's positioned as vocational training with an actual industry filter attached  Paskamagma noted that getting selected to show at IFW involves a strict curation process, meaning the collection had to meet professional standards before it ever reached the runway

Credit : Instagram Kumparan Woman

Why This Matters Beyond Fashion Week
For SMK NU Banat Kudus, showing at IFW isn't a one-off flex. It's proof of concept for a vocational education model that treats 17-year-olds like working designers  giving them a real deadline, a real audience, and real critique, instead of just a grade.

For Nias Island's textile heritage, it's a different kind of exposure: instead of appearing only in cultural exhibitions, the weaving techniques are showing up on a commercial runway, styled next to trench coats and structured trousers, in front of buyers and press who don't usually think about vocational school output.