Baju kurung

Title
Baju kurung
Year/Period
Early 20th century
Region
Palembang, southern Sumatra
Dimension
Object size: L90.0 x W140.0 cm
Accession No.
2001-04255

This garment features flower and star motifs woven with gold threads. This is an example of a 'songket', a hand-woven piece of brocaded or textured fabric where gold or silver supplementary weft threads, the horizontal threads in the weave, are woven in between the regular wefts to create its elaborate designs on either cotton, polyester or silk base material.Songket, sometimes dubbed ‘the cloth of gold’ was traditionally strictly reserved for aristocrats in most Malay communities. It has distinctive regional styles and is worn as a symbol of their regional identity.