Indonesia once triumphed as one of the best textile producing countries in the early 1980s. At that time, Indonesian-made fabrics were always a bone of contention among people in several countries because of their top-notch quality.

However, getting here, the reputation is slowly fading. Textile businessman Andre Kokois has his own theory about this. He feels, most Indonesian businessmen do not want to bother so that they lose to other countries.

“Because business actors from our own country are always pessimistic. There is a tendency for them to prefer imported fabrics and fashion products from abroad. Considering the price, which tends to be cheaper, said Andre.

In fact, according to Andre, when compared to local fabrics, the quality of domestic garments is actually much better.

As a person who comes from a cloth entrepreneur family background and has been a textile salesman, Andre always has a dream to see and even strives to always bring back the glory of Indonesian textiles.

“Domestic fabrics actually have neat stitching quality, as well as materials that don't need to be doubted. I dare that our apple to apple products are better and cheaper than foreign products,” said Andre who is currently the CEO and Founder of My Fashion Wholesale.

Andre is already familiar with the fashion business because his parents own a cloth shop at Tanah Abang Market. Andre has also learned the business by going around selling cloth from his parents' shop, offered and sold to convection owners in their area.

From this habit, Andre began to raise capital to be able to start his own business in the fashion sector.

At only 30 years old, his My Fashion Wholesale already has 500 employees and has 30 teams located in Central Java, West Java, Jakarta and Tangerang. This shop also spreads its wings in the digital world through the @myfashiongrosir Instagram account.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, Andre remains optimistic that clothes are still sought after by customers, considering that clothing is a basic human need. To keep his business alive, Andre even had a chance to make scuba masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) which many people are looking for in these difficult times.

“My Fashion Wholesale itself has had resellers of up to 5000 people. It is not impossible, with this amount, to be able to make My Fashion Wholesale products, which incidentally use original Indonesian fabrics, to be known to other countries. I hope so," he concluded.