Hami Effendi, his sister, is a partner that builds the brand alongside Labibi. “She is my voice of reason,” said Labibi. “The brand Lulu Lutfi Labibi is what it is today because of a compromise between my vision and her rationale. We are two small town kids who moved to Yogyakarta to go to school. In our early days, we shared a motorbike between us to commute between our place, her high school and my university.”
Labibi’s day draws to a close at four in the afternoon. It seems that being physically away from Jakarta, a city that literally never sleeps, has also given him space to set his priorities. There is a time to rise, to work, to create, to connect with people, and there is a time to rest.
With this in mind, he designed Kala, his 2025 collection. The collection has a lot of monochromes, a classic that highlights the motifs (florals, baroque, and graphics), as well as the fabric textures (jacquard, chiffon, cotton). The use of jacquard with baroque graphics reflects Labibi’s ode to his longtime idol, Belgian designer Dries van Noten.
