In Southeast Asia, there is one garment that embodies fashion, heritage, and national pride. The kebaya has now been nominated for inclusion on Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List for 2023.
Stacy Stube, an Indonesian-born designer, smoothed out the chocolate-brown lace on her cutting table under the studio lights. She pinned the pattern to the fabric carefully, being careful not to tear it, and then dutifully traced its outline in chalk. The weight of the task was heavy on her shoulders, knowing that she was not just making a dress, but a garment that was once a symbol of rebellion and is now endowed with history.
The kebaya is a garment made in the Indonesian islands by women like Stube’s seamstress great-grandmother, and it is also found in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, and southern Thailand. Each region has adopted the kebaya, and each stitch tells a story about its own history. These five countries love it so much that they have joined forces to nominate the kebaya for the Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage List in March 2023.
“The kebaya cuts across countries and ethnicities,” said Cedric Tan, former president of the Persatuan Peranakan Baba Nyonya Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, a Peranankan society in Malaysia that was involved in the nomination.
The kebaya is thought to have originated in the Middle East. According to American fashion history professors Linda Welters and Abby Lillethun in the book Fashion History: A Global View, the qaba, a jacket of Turkic origin, took its name from the Persian word for a “robe of honour,” and Javanese royals and society women were found to be wearing a similar open-fronted garment when the Portuguese arrived in Java in 1512. The garment was eventually given the name “caba” or “cabaya,” which means “tunic” in Portuguese.
Another reason, according to Jackie Yoong, senior curator for fashion and textiles at the Asian Civilisations Museum and Peranakan Museum in Singapore, is that the kebaya has its roots. “When you lift up the arm of the kebaya, there is a triangular patch under the arm, similar to Middle Eastern robes; other jackets, such as the Ming style [from China], are flat cut.”
The kebaya became a term for both men’s and women’s robes or blouses, but from the 19th century onwards, it became synonymous with a women’s blouse paired with a batik sarong in Southeast Asia. This style was popular among Dutch women during the Dutch East Indies period (in what is now Indonesia), and it was also adopted by Muslim women in Southeast Asia who wanted to dress more modestly.
The kebaya was both attractive and functional, making it ideal for tropical climates. It has taken many forms over the years. Early garments included the kebaya panjang, an open-fronted, knee-length blouse with long sleeves and brooches. The most well-known versions today are the kebaya kartini, which was popular among Java’s nobles; the kebaya kutabaru, which has a piece of material underneath to look like a faux kemben (breastcloth); and the kebaya nyonya, which is made of colourful silk or voile and decorated with embroidery.
As other Southeast Asian countries adopted the kebaya, with common people imitating Javanese royals and cosmopolitan port cities eager to embrace new fashion, the artisans of each island or community put their own stamp on it. Visitors to Indonesia will notice Balinese women closing their kebaya with a colourful contrasting sash; in Java, many women wear a white kebaya edged in European lace, a style popularised by the Dutch during colonial times. Meanwhile, in Indonesia’s Riau Islands, women have made the kebaya hem fall to the knee. Women in Brunei wear kebayas made of golden-threaded songket fabric, whereas on the Malaysian islands of Malacca and Penang, some Peranakan women (descendants of 14th-century Chinese traders who married local women in Southeast Asia) may embroider their blouse with phoenix and peonies as a nod to their Chinese heritage.
The kebaya also came to represent pride and defiance. During WWII, Javanese women interned in Japanese camps refused to wear anything but the kebaya as a symbol of rebellion and national solidarity. It also became Indonesia’s national dress in 1945 and was famously adopted as the female crew uniform by Indonesia’s Garuda Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, and Singapore Airlines. In 1974, Singapore Airlines went so far as to commission French couturier Pierre Balmain to design its bespoke sarong kebaya.
The story of the sarong kebaya changes all the time to meet different kinds of social and cultural and political situations
Today, some people in Southeast Asia reserve kebayas for special occasions, while others wear them on a daily basis. A kebaya made of rich fabrics can be seen at a Peranakan wedding in Penang, while cooler cotton versions can be seen on women riding scooters through the winding streets of Bali on their way to work.
“The sarong kebaya’s story changes all the time to meet different kinds of social, cultural, and political situations,” Yoong explained.
Indeed, Oniatta Effendi, a Singaporean fashion designer, is reinventing the kebaya for the next generation, experimenting with silhouettes to create wearable, multipurpose pieces. “I believe the kebaya is something that evolves,” Effendi said. Her designs are not only loose and long, but However, she has taken inspiration from traditional elements such as the breastcloth and reversed it so that it partially sits outside the kebaya, much like a corset on display.
“I feel empowered when I wear the kebaya,” Effendi said. “You transform into someone else.”
Effendi embraces her Indonesian heritage, even including a white Javanese-style kebaya in her “Nostalgia” collection. “The kebaya holds memories for me,” Effendi said. “It’s seeing photographs of my grandmother feeding my sister under a tree or standing in front of her kampong house giving me money for Hari Raya [the Malaysian Eid festival].”
The heritage garment was also recently transformed into an NFT by the Malaysian metaverse company 8sian. And on Kartini Day (21 April), which celebrates women’s empowerment in Indonesia, many women will be seen wearing a kebaya, even at a surfing competition.