The Nyonya's Wardrobe by Shona Wee

When it comes to clothing or fashion, every woman’s eyes would light up like a child that admires the new toy bear that is displayed at the toy shop window. No matter young or old, a woman’s wardrobe plays an important role in a woman’s life as every woman loves pretty cloths. Since we are living in a multicultural country, there are more choices of traditional cloths for us, girls. Now please remember to breathe when you read the following post as you are about to see the most breath taking baba nyonya traditional outfits that would take your breath away.

~Luscious Kebaya~

The first breath taking beauty that attracts not only the girls but also the guys is the Kebaya. The Kebaya is a blouse that the baba nyonya wear as a top which happens to be semi-transparent (now guys, hold back your wolf whistle, as a camisole will be worn inside of the Kebaya).  It is usually made of silk or cotton and is tight and body fitting so that a lady’s curves can be shown and brings out the design of the Kebaya.

Here, in the picture, is the Kebaya blouse, which has a Malay taste.

As you can see here, the Kebaya has embroidery flowers at both sides of the Kebaya. There are 2 types of embroidery, one is handmade, which will cost up to a thousand ringgit, and another is embroidery using the machine, where the price will be much more cheaper and will only cost around RM 80. The blue Kebaya is the Traditional Penang Nyonya Kebaya and it is around 40-45 years old, owned by a true Penang Baba Nyonya.

In this picture, the Kebaya here looks a bit different from the blue Kebaya that you have seen on top as it was owned by my great grandmother, who was an authentic Baba Nyonya from Terengganu. This Kebaya is around 50 years old and was given to my mother after my mother was married to her grandson, my dad. There are no buttons sewn on the Kebaya so a kerongsang (which looks like a broach) have to be pinned and serves as a button.

In those days, if you are rich, your kerongsang would be made of gold, pearls and precious stones. The kerongsang in the picture on the left was my great grandmother’s and the picture on the right is my mother’s.

~The Sarong and Sophisticated Beaded Nyonya Shoes~

The sarong usually consists of  various floral patterns that have a Malay design to it. It is a wraparound cloth that you have to secure it around your waist by putting pins on it. There is a certain technique to tie the sarong, but nowadays there are ready made sarongs where all you need to do is just zip and button up, which is much more easier than wraparound. 

The most amazing accessory in the whole outfit is the beaded shoes.

This pair of shoes is handmade and is sewn on bead by bead. I was told that when my grandmother got married, she had to make a pair of these beaded shoes before her wedding day to show off her ability of sewing skills and on the third day of the wedding, she will wear it for the first time. Besides sewing, cooking is one of the skills that is important as wife material too for the in laws.

The Nyonya culture is gradually going to extinction as most of the young people do not practice the culture anymore, mostly because they find it old fashion or they are being modernized by the current city life. So we should try to get close with our elders and learn more about our own culture before it extincts.