The Reagans Go Native in True Balinese Style : The Presidential Entourage Dresses Up in Batik Clothes

It isn’t often that the President can upstage his wife in the fashion department.

But Thursday evening, as the Reagans wrapped up their two-day visit here at a dinner hosted by President Suharto, all eyes were riveted on Reagan’s batik evening shirt.

This shirt wasn’t exactly loud.

It roared.

A gift from Suharto made especially for Reagan, the long-sleeved, hip-length shirt was emblazoned with huge presidential seals in brown, mustard and white.

“Look at the President!” a photographer covering the arrival gasped.

The Preferred Style

Because it is so warm year-round on this tropical island just south of the Equator, the light-weight batik clothes are preferred to Western-style formal evening wear.

All of the 140 guests, including Secretary of State George Shultz, wore batik, the hand-traced textile design for which Indonesia is famous.

Shultz’s shirt bore yellow and black patterns, while White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan’s was in shades of blue.

“They didn’t try to match our eyes,” Regan pointed out.

Making batik is a long, painstaking process. Using a small bamboo liquid wax pen the artist traces a design, covering all parts of the fabric that are not to be dyed with the first color. The process is repeated with each color until all the colors are finished.

None of the outfits was quite the stunner that Reagan’s was, although Nancy Reagan’s was an eye-catching bright red silk batik with big smoke-blue butterflies and lilies on it. To complete the look, she wore a fuchsia orchid over her left ear.

The fabrics for both the Reagans’ dinner outfits were created by Yale Law School graduate Iwan Tirta, widely considered the country’s premier batik designer.

Personal Demonstration

Earlier in the day Tirta had demonstrated his artwork for Mrs. Reagan. Tirta decided to make batik his profession after teaching international law at Cornell and UC Berkeley.

“I said goodby to everything,” Tirta said.

The Reagans said goodby to Indonesia with a lavish dinner in a bright setting at the Putri Bali Hotel, near where Reagan had stayed while attending the conference of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations.

Tables were swathed in gold and red fabric that had the heroic garuda bird depicted on it. Each guest found miniature wyan kulit shadow puppets made of hand-tooled leather at their place settings.

Dinner consisted of seafood cocktail, Nusa Penida beef, vegetables and vanilla ice cream with fresh coconut.

For entertainment, the gathering watched traditional Balinese dancers garbed in gold and white silk batiks.

The President lauded Suharto in his before-dinner toast, saying, “Americans see Indonesia as an impressive success story. In just over 40 years this vast and beautiful nation has made enormous strides.

“We Americans appreciate that the path to national union is not easy for a country that spans over 3,000 miles and is scattered across more than 13,600 islands.

“Despite regional diversity, Indonesia, under your leadership, Mr. President, is a united country, a country that is assuming an increasingly significant role in the region and in the world.”

Today, President Reagan heads to Tokyo for the economic summit while Mrs. Reagan goes to Malaysia and Thailand to discuss drug abuse with first ladies and to observe the countries’ cultures.