State to bring back Kebaya Perlis to keep heritage alive

KANGAR, Oct 29  – The Perlis government will bring back the popular Kebaya Perlis worn by court ladies and Malay royalty in the old days.

Perlis Tourism exco, Asmaiza Ahmad said the kebaya Perlis was a Malay heritage that must be preserved because it was not only comfortable to wear but also symbolised the identity and modesty of Malay women.

“The attire does not show the shape of the body and is suitable to be worn to work and official functions,” she told Bernama here today.

She said to encourage the people, the Perlis Community Development Department (Kemas) would organise a sewing workshop to teach folks how to make the kebaya Perlis.

“For a start, we will focus on sewing workshops before encouraging people to wear them,” she said.

Asmaiza said the state government also asked Kemas to provide a one-stop centre in Kangar to display kebaya Perlis to tourists where they could purchase it too.

She said the state government also planned to encourage civil servants to don the kebaya Perlis on every Friday in the near future.

Meanwhile, kebaya Perlis entrepreneur, Azniyah Abu Bakar, 56 said what distinguished kebaya Perlis from other kebaya was its lengthy and loose design suitable for people who were on the plus size and looked more modest.

“The special feature of the kebaya Perlis is that it was sewn from a whole piece of cloth without any stitches at the shoulders, besides having a gusset (pesak) on the front suitable to be worn with batik folding long skirt or ‘kain pario’ according to the comfort of the wearer,” she said.

She said, in the past, the kebaya Perlis was made using kasa rubia fabric, but since the fabric was not easily available nowadays it was made using chiffon and songket fabric.

She has received many orders from dignitaries including ministers and heads of departments around Perlis since its introduction in 2006.

-- BERNAMA