Karawo Motif In Urban Culture

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to develop a concept in designing urban-wisdom-oriented contemporary Karawo clothing for teenagers. This qualitative research employed methods, such as observation, interview, and literature review in collecting the data. Furthermore, the data were analysed in some steps, e.g., data reduction, data display, and summing up the conclusion. This study emphasises on: 1) The Karawo motif, 2) Symbol or icon of the urban culture, 3) Teenagers clothing. The results of identification and analysis reveal that: 1) the present Karawo motif is from the shape of flower, geometric, fish, ship, symbols or logos; 2) the symbols or the icon of urban culture represents value, such as i) craving for glamorous lifestyle, and

People in Gorontalo rarely used the word since they usually address the Karawo products with “Karawo embroidery”. However, the word Karawo became widely used again in 2011 in which the first Karawo Festival was held. Karawo refers to a technique in creating ornaments on a fabric by cutting, removing, and embroidering it; this requires a skilful hand skill (Sudana, 2014, p.89).

Sudana and Hasdiana, (2009, p.51) argue that the uniqueness of Karawo lies on the techniques, which are quite different than other embroideries, instead of the motif of the ornaments of a Karawo. In other words, it is possible to develop the motif of Karawo ornaments. Through this research, it is possible to create the modern urban-culture-oriented motifs by applying Karawo embroidery techniques on fabrics. Moreover, this is also to invent various Karawo fashion.

By that, the Karawo product of this study refers to the motifs of the ornament which holds a potential to further develop it since the current ones look old-school and formal; also, such designs are not teen’s favourite.

Studies on Urban Culture and Contemporary

This study was conducted in some Karawo entrepreneurship, boutiques, and teen clothing stores within Gorontalo. The data were collected through 1) observation, which aims at collecting the data regarding the information of the present motifs of Karawo and the characteristics of teenage fashion.2) interview, this is to clarify the motifs of Karawo. The interview was conducted with the reliable informant, e.g., Karawo designers, artisans, and entrepreneurs. 3) Reviewing literature was to obtain secondary data, specifically the data regarding contemporary fashion and urban culture. This was obtained from scientific journals, books, magazines, and other relevant literature. The data were further analysed qualitatively by employing interactive analysis technique based on the Huberman and Milles analysis (Sugiyono, 2010, p.246-253). This consists of steps, such as 1) data reduction, compiling relevant data and discarding irrelevant ones; 2) data categorisation, grouping the data according to the focus of each problem; 3) data display, arranging and displaying the data in chronological order to construct an understandable structure of the data; 4) summing up the