Ali embarked on his fashion design career when he opened his first Charisma shop in Seminyak, bali, more than eight years ago. It was a crash course in the garment retail business. Display, product mix, inventory, customer service-all had to be mastered in short order. As if all that weren’t enough, at the same time wholesale buyers came to the store to buy. Familiarity with quotas, cargo relations, and other export details were part of the learning curve. What really led to his success in the fashion world, however, was Ali’s realization that creativity was just as important as a head for business. Fashion needed to be fashionable.

Creativity for Ali meant developing fashions expressing his personal sense of elegance and glamour, combined with his signature handwork detail. Sometimes his designs were subtle and shy. But just as often they were bold and vocal. Nevertheless, Ali had a consistent vision; extreme oppositions of color and texture did not lead to discord but rather to harmony. Ali’s clothes could be worn with style and grace.

Having achieved a balance of business and creativity, Ali began to show his latest collections at Fashion Week venues in Bali, Jakarta, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. His position as president of the Bali branch of the Indonesian Fashion Designers Association involve actively developing Indonesia as an important Asian base for the international fashion business, and he has represented the Association at international exhibitions in Dubai and Madrid.

New clients and expanding markets in Europe, the United States, and Australia can be directly attributed to these activities, while event coverage by the international fashion press continues to generate interests in Ali and his designs.