Cultured by Todak makes KLFW debut, taking its Esports roots into fashion

That idea first took shape in 2020, when she co-founded Indonesian esports team Morph Team. Its tagline, ‘Beyond Esports’, reflected her belief that gaming could naturally intersect with fashion, music, entertainment and lifestyle. The team eventually ventured into fashion too, including an appearance at Jakarta Fashion Week.

So while Cultured by Todak may be new to the fashion crowd, the thinking behind it has been years in the making. “It’s an evolution of something I’ve believed in for years.”

Don't miss: From elevated grunge to pop culture nostalgia: why Inde Navarrette’s effortless style is everyone’s new obsession 

This was perhaps the biggest question for Cultured by Todak. The easy route would have been to put gaming graphics and team logos on clothes and call it fashion. Instead, the brand wanted to take a more considered approach. “You don’t need giant gaming graphics or team logos for something to carry gaming DNA,” Shinta explains.

For Cultured by Todak, that DNA comes through in technical silhouettes, performance-inspired details, functionality and a certain sense of resilience. The idea is that you should be able to wear the clothes without knowing anything about esports—and still want them.

“We are not designing a gamer uniform. We are building a fashion language that comes from gaming culture.” That distinction sits at the heart of BattleScars, the collection that made its debut at KLFW.

The name BattleScars feels fitting for a brand with almost a decade of esports behind it. There have been wins, losses, pressure, criticism and plenty of moments that required the team to start over and keep going. But rather than making the collection a literal retelling of Todak’s esports journey, Shinta wanted its message to feel more universal.

“Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, everyone carries their own scars,” she says. The idea is to treat those scars not as something to hide, but as proof of where you have been and what you have made it through. That thinking comes through in the collection’s technical, resilient pieces, with its message summed up in the line: ‘The Future Belongs to the Battle-Tested.’ There is also a playful meeting of fashion and technology. One of the collection’s standout pieces is a hydrochromic jacket that changes colour in response to temperature.

For Shinta, it is exactly the kind of thing she wants Cultured by Todak to explore. “I don’t just want us to make clothes. I want us to create things that make people curious.”

See more: 2026 guide to Southeast Asian fashion brands: 35 must-know labels 

Of course, having an idea is one thing. Making it work on a runway is another. For the collection’s styling and visual direction, Shinta worked with stylist Minluna, whom she was introduced to by KLFW founder Andrew Tan. The connection was immediate.

Shinta already knew she wanted Cultured by Todak to feel edgy and elevated, with its gaming roots intact without looking like traditional esports merchandise. Minluna, she says, understood that instinctively. “She didn’t try to turn Todak into something it wasn’t. She helped us express what was already there in a much more fun and fashion-forward way.” And KLFW gave the brand its first real chance to see how that vision would land outside the gaming world.

“What excited me most was seeing people respond to the collection without necessarily knowing Todak’s esports history,” Shinta says.

For Shinta, that is the real test. If someone who has never watched an esports tournament sees a BattleScars piece and simply wants to wear it, then the clothes have done their job. “Our esports heritage gives us authenticity, but it shouldn’t limit our audience.”

As Todak approaches its 10th anniversary, Cultured by Todak is less a reinvention than an evolution of what the brand has already built. The same community, resilience, technology and creativity that shaped its esports journey are now finding a place in fashion and the wider creative world.

And while Shinta has her sights set on cities such as Tokyo, Seoul, London and Los Angeles, she is just as focused on where the brand comes from. “I don’t want to build Southeast Asia’s version of an existing global gaming lifestyle brand,” she says. “I want Cultured by Todak to become a global brand that could only have come from Southeast Asia.”

From gaming tournaments to the KLFW runway, Todak may be on a different stage now, but its roots remain the same. The question is no longer where esports ends, but just how far its culture can go.

NOW READ

Bollywood stars who are luxury brand ambassadors, from Priyanka Chopra Jonas to Alia Bhatt 

11 of the best designer East-West bags to invest in 

Dua Lipa’s style: 14 standout looks and fashion moments