At the Tuksedo Auto & Fashion Gala in Gianyar, eight designers took to the runway, a choir filled the room, and a luxury car designed in Bali emerged beneath theatrical light.
Beneath the spectacle lay a quieter proposition: that craftsmanship, whether stitched into a garment or shaped into steel, speaks a common language. At half past four on Friday, 18 September, the afternoon light over Gianyar was beginning to turn gold. Guests arrived at Tuksedo Studio, where registration gave way to ushers guiding them into a space that was neither ballroom nor conventional fashion venue, but a working atelier dedicated to the art of the automobile.
Handcrafted objects and finished cars occupied the exhibition floor, while canapés circulated among guests. Before the evening’s performances began, the studio invited its visitors to look closely at the things it had made.
Backstage, preparations had started nine hours earlier. Crew members arrived at nine in the morning, followed by runway rehearsals under choreographer Hary Wijaya. Hair and makeup continued through the afternoon as models, dressers, and production teams worked towards the evening’s tightly coordinated programme.
By the time the doors opened, the spectacle was already taking shape behind the scenes, through the accumulated work of many hands.
What connects a fashion atelier with a coachbuilding studio? Both begin with an idea of form and the challenge of giving it physical expression.
A garment depends on its cut, its construction, and the way its material falls against the body. An automobile relies on proportion, precision, and the considered relationship between its surfaces. In both disciplines, the smallest decisions contribute to the integrity of the finished object.
At Tuksedo Studio, bringing fashion onto the automotive floor made that relationship tangible. A runway and a hand-built automobile might appear to belong to separate creative worlds, yet both are shaped by an understanding of line, material, and detail.
The pairing also carried particular significance in Bali, an island whose artistic identity has long been expressed through carving, weaving, textiles, and other traditions of craftsmanship. Tuksedo Studio’s work explores how that sensibility might find expression in automotive design.
The presence of Ibu Putri Suastini Koster, chair of Dekranasda Bali, placed the gathering within a broader conversation about the development and recognition of local craftsmanship.
At six, guests took their seats for dinner beside the stage, accompanied by live music.
At half past seven, the room darkened. A choir and small orchestra emerged beneath the stage lights, opening the programme with a ten-minute performance that established the evening’s sense of ceremony.
Laksmana Gusti, owner of Tuksedo Studio, welcomed the guests, followed by remarks from Ibu Putri Suastini Koster.
A contemporary dance performance followed, transforming the stage through movement and light. The sequence served as a transition from the formalities of the evening to its central presentation: fashion, expressed through silhouette, movement, and the fleeting encounter between garment and audience.
The fashion presentation ran for just over an hour, with each designer’s segment introduced by a short video and a carefully coordinated lighting sequence. Behind the scenes, models and dressers moved through rapid changes as the production team maintained the rhythm of the show.
Eight labels appeared in succession: FLIRT, TAKSU, ADREAN, DONAHUE, DEJONG, SAMARA, NUSENZE, and CHAMOMILE BY OCYN, which closed the evening’s fashion presentation with the longest segment.
The runway unfolded against the backdrop of Tuksedo’s automobiles, creating an unexpected dialogue between two forms of design. Garments moved through the space while sculpted bodywork remained still, each revealing a different interpretation of proportion, material, and finish.
When the final collection concluded, Laksmana Gusti returned to the stage to recognise the participating designers and present special acknowledgements to selected guests.
The runway had set the stage. The evening’s most anticipated reveal was still to come.
At half past nine, attention turned to the covered automobile waiting beside the stage.
Firstlady, a luxury car designed in Bali by Tuksedo Studio, was about to be introduced to the public. Laksmana Gusti returned alongside Raffi Ahmad as the ushers prepared for the unveiling. The cover came away. Lights swept across the bodywork as the music swelled, revealing the car at the centre of the evening’s carefully orchestrated finale.
The moment brought the gala’s two central themes together. Fashion had explored the possibilities of form through movement and changing silhouettes. Firstlady presented those possibilities through a singular, tangible object, designed to be examined long after the lights had faded.
Its significance extended beyond the ceremony of its introduction. A luxury automobile carries expectations of design integrity, material quality, and technical execution. For a vehicle conceived in Bali, it also raises questions about creative authorship and the place of Indonesian makers within an industry shaped by established international traditions.
Firstlady represented an ambition that would ultimately be measured beyond the runway: in the quality of its execution, the experience of the vehicle itself, and its ability to establish a lasting identity.
By ten, the formal programme had concluded. It would be easy to remember the Tuksedo Auto & Fashion Gala as a product unveiling wrapped in the theatre of a fashion show. Yet the evening offered a more enduring idea about the nature of making.
Craftsmanship is a discipline of attention. It asks the maker to understand a material, refine a technique, and recognise when an object has reached its intended form. Whether the result is a garment or an automobile, the finished work carries the decisions, skills, and patience that brought it into being.
For Bali, this opens a compelling conversation about the future of its creative identity. The island’s craft traditions have long been recognised across disciplines. Their continued evolution depends, in part, on the opportunities available to makers to explore new materials, industries, and forms of expression.
The Tuksedo Auto & Fashion Gala brought that possibility into view, placing eight designers alongside the work of a Balinese automotive studio and introducing Firstlady as the evening’s defining statement.
Whether the car will establish its place in the luxury automotive landscape remains to be seen. What the evening demonstrated was the ambition to create something that could be understood on its own terms, through its design, its execution, and the story of where it was made.
For one night in Gianyar, a garage became a runway, an automobile became the centrepiece of a cultural gathering, and craftsmanship connected two worlds that had always shared more than first appeared. The lights went out. The work remained.
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