Armed with the skills and knowledge she picked up at the Shanghai International College of Fashion and Innovation at Donghua University, Vania Limousinea is now ready to return to Indonesia and take her first step into the fashion industry with the launching of her own brand.

Inspired by what she has learned and seen in China, Limousinea will create a formal wear collection that combines modernism with ikat fabric, a type of textile made using traditional Indonesian weaving techniques.

"All the creations will be made in a sustainable manner. What I hope to achieve with this brand is to change the perspectives that the younger generation, particularly those in Indonesia, have about traditional textiles," says Limousinea, who arrived in China in 2019.

According to Limousinea, whose grandparents are Chinese, the courses she has taken at the college in Shanghai were very helpful as they taught her important skills like software design, fashion illustration, photography and painting.

But the most important skill learned during this journey, she notes, was how to go about starting her own business.

"The Chinese market is much bigger and more diverse than Indonesia, and this opened my eyes to the fashion world and how it operates. It's difficult to find a fashion market that is as large as China," she says.