“Fashion for the Merdeka era?” – a short BH feature on Malay traditional dress from 1957

An article from one of the early issues of Berita Harian from its inaugural year, 1957. contact form.

This article is published in conjunction with two upcoming talks on textiles from the Malay World and on styles of dress by well-known specialists Khir Johari and Suhaimi Nasrain. Catch the talks on

A remarkable short feature on Malay ladies’ traditional fashion appeared on Page 6 of Berita Harian on 13 Aug 1957. Titled ‘?’ [Fashion for a Merdeka era?], it features four photographs of ladies in various styles of Malay dress, with rich textiles and accessories that are lovingly described in accompanying Malay poetic forms – a for the first image) and several gurindam (two-line verse form) for the subsequent three images. Published just 18 days before the Federation of Malaya’s declaration of independence or Merdeka (31 Aug 1957) from Britain, an event closely watched in the Crown Colony of Singapore,  the article showcases the poetic nuances behind the design and motifs of fabric and styles of wear. The first image above, however, focuses on the symbolic meaning of one old mode of dress. We see a lady donning a “kelubong” or a shroud, as the accompanying text explains. The delightful pantun that follows can be freely translated as:

This is a lady from times past
Enshrouded (bertudung) well-covered (lingkup) as a sign of modesty (malu)
Walking with her head (hulu) bowed (!)
[I] wish to greet her, [but I] feel shy / bashful (malu)

This pantun points to modesty and bashfulness – two aspects encapsulated by the term malu – as virtues upheld by this mode of dress of “ladies from times past” (wanita dahulu). One may note in jest, though, that the lady in question is not in as demure a disposition as the rest of the description suggests! She appears self-confident and quite pleased to pose for the camera!

It is significant to recall that Berita Harian was at that time a very young paper barely 2 months old – it began as the Malay edition of the Straits Times. Berita Harian was the first fully-Romanised Malay daily in the British-ruled territories of Singapore and Malaya. Older Malay-language newspapers that were already in wide circulation at that time – notably Singapore’s homegrown Utusan Melayu – were written in Jawi, the modified form of the Arabic script that had been used to write Malay since about the 15th century. In its inaugural issue on 1 July 1957, 2 months before Malaya’s independence, Berita Harian was endorsed by the Malaysian Prime Minister-elect Tunku Abdul Rahman on a front-page feature as the vehicle for the learning of Malay as the national language in a script that was accessible to those proficient in English. The display of Malay dress, textiles, and accessories in this short feature can perhaps be seen in the same light. The euphoria of Merdeka is here translated into pride in various regional traditions of dress, incorporating fashion modes from various Straits Malay sub-cultures, that are regarded as national dress – baju kebangsaan. For instance the description for the second image refers to the following:  dress originating from Telok Belanga in Singapore (which became Johor tradition – when the Temenggong family from Telok Belanga, Singapore became the Sultans of Johor); fasteners made in Kelantan; and lateral sanggul (decorative hairpins) composed in the manner of Johor. The description of the third image, meanwhile, lists a silk Riau-style blouse and Terengganu songket (gold-thread embroidered cloth) as the fashion of Riau royalty. In addition a number of styles of folding, tying and styling cloth, colour tones of fabric, jewellery motifs and sanggul hairpin compositions are identified by their precise, poetic terms and names: among others, “tanah hitam bunga bertabor” to describe a songket design and “ombak mengalun” for a cloth fold-style; and hijau lumut, alun berkumpul, and subang gewang melati kembang for the third image. For the fourth and final photograph, where the model dons a kebaya panjang / labuh of grey European satin and a patterned (checkered) Malay woven sarong, the writer ends with a humorous quip – a jibe at the model for not smiling in this instance:

After a description of the dress and its accoutrements, the last two lines quip:

Manis juga di-pandang mata – A sweet sight for the eyes to behold
Sayang sedikit tidak tersenyum – A slight pity it’s without a smile!

We hope you have enjoyed this article. For Pesta Raya 2016, Singapura Stories presents two talks on textiles from the Malay World and on styles of dress by well-known specialists Khir Johari and Suhaimi Nasrain.

in conjunction with Pesta Raya 2016 at Esplanade Library

Catch the talks on  Sat 6 Aug 2016 2-5pm!

Related articles:

• , FOM Feature on Hari Raya and Malay Culture appearing in the July/August 2014 issue of PASSAGE, the magazine of the Friends of the Museum (FOM).
• , FOM Feature on Hari Raya and Malay Culture appearing in the July/August 2014 issue of PASSAGE, the magazine of the Friends of the Museum (FOM).

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