Why Bandung's Trademark Market is the biggest yet

The rain has started to pour frequently and heavily in Bandung these days. On Thursday, despite such weather, Trademark Market VI opened for the first day of its four-day event at Miniapolis, Paris Van Java Mall at Jl. Sukajadi, attracting crowds not only from Jakarta but also from neighboring countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

The sixth event of the Trademark Market, one of Bandung's most-awaited fashion markets, promised to bring out the biggest event it has done so far to live up to this year's theme: "The biggest yet to come." This translated into 120 of Bandung's tightly selected fashion brands and 10 food and beverage brands, all set to lure shoppers and visitors.

"This year, we set up the Trademark Market in a much larger space to anticipate the crowd," said Saira Nisar, the Trademark Market's founder and director, who added that the event occupied an estimated 2,000 square meters and successfully attracted 70,590 visitors in the four days it was open.

Despite its highly selective tenants, according to Saira, most of the products sold at the Trademark Market were less pricey compared to those offered at similar events in town.

This fact was also observed by Carline Darjanto, who came all the way from Jakarta and had marked it down in her calendar to purposely attend the event, bringing along some of her team to feel and observe the event's ambiance: what interested the crowd and such things. Carline is a founder and creative director of her own established and popular fashion brand, Cotton Ink.

"I also noticed that the Trademark Market offers quite large collections and brands of men's wear and apparel compare to similar events in Jakarta," said Carline, adding that most of the brands also offered street-casual wear at affordable prices suitable for teenagers and youngsters.

One of the tenants' staffers, Rina, commented that the young crowd could come to at least two out of four days if not all.

"On the first day, they would probably just do window shopping, eat and hang out while enjoying the music, but I found that they always come back the next day to shop," Rina said.

At the Trademark Market, besides hunting for fashionable items that suits their styles, visitors could also savor delicious culinary treats at the food and beverage booths and enjoy musical performances by DJs and bands such as Marco & Marce, Barsena and Dira Bongs, among others.

The Trademark Market, in the end, showed the talents and creativity of Bandung's young fashion and culinary entrepreneurs and their role in making the city's creative economy trendy and thriving.