INTRODUCTION TO KEBAYA

Kebaya is a habitual blouse-dress combination for Indonesian women. The kebaya is also known in some Asian countries such as Malaysia, Burma, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand and Cambodia. It can be made from sheer fabric and worn with a sarong or batik kain panjang, or other traditional woven garment such as ikat, songket with a colorful motif. 

Considering the enormous historical - political and social - shifts that have occurred in Indonesia during the last century, the form of this traditional clothes, has remained relatively unchanged. Its function and meaning however, in contrast to its shape, has experienced major improvements in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia, in use to meet different groups’ political agendas, public needs and aspirations. The kebaya has come to represent the liberation of women in Indonesia through a symbol linking the kebaya to the 19th century “proto-feminist” figure of Raden A. Kartini. 

In the nineteenth century, and prior to the Nationalist movement of the early 20th century, the model of kebaya had enjoyed a period of being worn by Indonesian, Eurasian, and European women alike, with minor mode variations. In this time distinguishing class and status was important and formed variants of the main dress. Now we can get the modern kebaya ( or in Indonesia known as baju kebaya modern) that may be made of silk, velvet and brocade. 

There are two main varieties of the Indonesian conventional clothing. The top, known as baju kebaya can be of two highest form: the semi-transparent straighter cut blouse of the Java, Bali and the more tightly tailored Sunda kebaya and the extra Islamic compatible, plainer baju kurung may become a loose-fitting, knee-length long-sleeved blouse worn in the extra adherent Muslim areas- including former Kingdom of Johor-Riau (now Malaysia), Sumatra and parts of coastal Java. 

The blouse is usually semi-transparent and worn over the torso wrap. The skirt or kain is an unstitched cloth wrap around three metres long. The name sarong in English is erroneous, the sarung (Malaysian accent: sarong) must be truly stitched together to form a tube, like a Western gown, the kain is unstitched, requires an aid to dress (literally wrap) the wearer and is held in location with a cord (tali), then folded it at the waist, after that held with a belt which may stick a pretty pocket. 

In Indonesia, especially in Java, Bali and Sunda, the kebaya modern is generally batik which must be from plain stamped cotton to ornately hand - painted batik tulis embroidered silk with gold thread. In several other areas of Indonesia such as Sumatera, Flores, Lemata Timor, and other islands generally use kain ikat or songket. In Sumba, there is a famous decorated kain with lau hada: shells and beads. 

In Bali, a kebaya has a much more topical history. The Dutch are believed to have enforced the wearing of the Indonesia traditional clothing. At the time Balinese women’s breasts were naked, excepting for formal and ritual occasions, throughout which a sabuk might be wound tightly around the upper torso, covering the breasts but leaving the shoulders and arms exposed. The females of Buleleng, the regency of northern Bali, then would have been some of the first to adopt the kebaya as their normal clothes.