Obin

Obin, real name Josephine Komara, is a textile designer from Indonesia. She is sometimes called a "national treasure" due to her passion for and promotion of traditional Indonesian batik techniques. Her work has achieved worldwide recognition, with fellow Indonesian designers such as Edward Hutabarat (himself credited with the batik revival) and Ghea Panggabean describing her as the real authority and leader of the mid-2000s movement to update and modernise batik. Despite this, Obin describes herself as simply a tukang kain, or vendor of cloth, stating that the genuine artists and designers are the craftsmen who make the textiles retailed through Bin House, her business.

Personal life and education Born in Indonesia in 1955, Josephine Werratie Komara went to school in Hong Kong until she finished elementary school and then returned home, aged 14. Until his death in 2013, Obin was married to an archaeologist and anthropologist named Roni Siswandi; they have one son, Erlangga (called 'Erlang'). She also questioned why, despite her love for traditional textiles and cloths, there were no new patterns and designs.

By 2012, Obin employed over 1,000 artisan workers to completely hand-create her fabrics, many of whom had passed their skills down through the generations.

By 2012, Obin's batiks were compared to designer handbags, with her shawls being worn by fashionable women to cocktail parties. This designation was controversial with some Malaysians taking offence and claiming that batik was as much part of their heritage as Indonesia's, although Indonesian designers such as Hutabarat, Obin and Sanchia Hamidjaja were cited as major players in the batik revival of a few years earlier, which combined contemporary updates with heritage technique.

Museum Kain In a BBC interview in 2012, Obin stated her intention of opening a textile museum in Bali in 2013. The museum, which is the first of its kind on the island, is also the first museum in Indonesia to use the latest digital technology such as touchscreens as a way of presenting an authentic collection.