Women identity and Traditional Wear- Kebaya

If clothing is meant to be express feeling, what about our local traditional wears like kebaya, sari and cheongsam? Are they originally made for women to show their beauty or certain identity?  

Firstly, let’s discover the origins of kebaya. The earliest form of Kebaya was originally came from Javanese Majapahit Kingdom (Indonesia) as a means to blend the existing female Kemban, torso wrap of the aristocratic women to be more modest and acceptable to the newly adopted Islam religion. Aceh, Riau and Johor Kingdoms and Northern Sumatra adopted the Javanese style kebaya as a means of social expression of status with the more alus or refined Javanese overlords. Traditional kebaya required the torso of the women to be wrapped with a long piece of cloth called a stagen. Women of higher social status would have help in wrapping their torso with the stagen however women who were not so fortunate to have help could dress themselves by tying the end of the stagen to a post and literally wrapping themselves into it. (LoveToKnow, 2006)

By first, kebaya was represented as status of wealthy women, but after then, kebaya was slowly developed as a political significance for women. The only woman present during Indonesia's Proclamation of Independence, Dutch-educated activist SK Trimurti- wore kebaya cementing it as the female dress of Nationalism. By that time, Indonesian women was no rights to participate in politics, Kartini was the first person who encouraged school girls to wear kebaya to school, to promote education for women. Every year of 21th April Indonesian wear Kartini Kebaya as their national dress to celebrate “Kartini’s day” (Freya, C., 2013).  

In urban Indonesia, women are wearing kain kebaya as their identity of femininity. According to the Darma Wanita, a woman’s role in national development was to be exercised in the context of the family. The ideal Indonesian woman’s role was identified first after Suharto improved the under conditions of women by promoting vision of domesticity to Indonesian women- as a loyal supporter of her husband; as caretaker of the household; as producer of future generations; as a family socialiser and last of all, as an Indonesian citizen. Indonesian women wear kain kebaya everyday to learn to be a true “Indonesian” woman and adopt a national identity that minimized differences (Carla, J., 2003, pp 191-193).

From this point of view, kebaya for women especially Indonesian women, has changed from time to time. The idea behind creation of kebaya was based on formative of identity to women, which is ‘Ibuism’ ideal of Indonesian women.     

Bibliography

Expat Web Site Association Jakarta (1997) ‘The Kebaya- An Indonesian Traditional Dress for Women’. Gene Sugandy. [online] http://www.expat.or.id/info/kebayatraditionaldress.html [Accessed 13 June 2015]  

Freya, C. (2013) ‘Kebaya, Indonesian National Blouse for Woman’. Hubpages. [online] http://freyacesare.hubpages.com/hub/KEBAYA-INDONESIAN-NATIONAL-APPAREL [Accessed 13 June 2015] 

LoveToKnow (2006) ‘Kain-Kebaya’. Heidi Boehlke. [online] http://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/clothing-types-styles/kain-kebaya [Accessed 13 June 2015]

Sandra, N., Ann, M. L. and Carla, J. (2003) Re-Orienting Fashion: The Globalization of Asian Dress. pp. 191-193. New York: Berg Publisher.