INTRICATE EMBROIDERY SEWN on diaphanous Swiss voile and draped over the silhouette, the kebaya—traditionally worn by Nyonyas and Southeast Asian women—is the epitome of femininity and cultural pride. Worn daily as well as during traditional ceremonies and rites of passages such as weddings, celebrations, religious events and festivals, it also came in the early 20th century to symbolise women empowerment and nationhood.

The kebaya is a long-sleeved blouse with a front opening. The lapel of the Nyonya kebaya runs to the waist, and the blouse tapers to a dipped front. This traditional blouse in Swiss voile, silk, lace or cotton organdie comes in varying lengths and forms, and is worn with a batik or songket sarong.

The kebaya holds deep cultural significance for women and communities across Southeast Asia, symbolising refinement, femininity, tradition, cultural heritage, women’s empowerment and identity. Local customs, aesthetics and cultural practices influence regional styles. In this article, Penang Baba Nyonya terms are used for the different styles of kebaya—although other communities may use different names.

In Malaysia, the garment evolved as various communities were influenced and impacted by interactions with the West, the movement of people, commerce, history as well as social and spiritual values, ceremonies and traditions.

Since the 15th century, women in the Javanese court had been wearing the kebaya. Today, the kebaya is still worn on Kartini Day to honour Raden Adjeng Kartini, an early national activist championing women’s emancipation. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, President Sukarno endorsed the kebaya as the official national attire for Indonesia, and First Ladies Fatimawati and Dewi Sukarno wore it during official and national events. The country’s first female president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, also frequently wore the kebaya while holding the highest office of government.

The Evolution and Forms of the Kebaya

The earliest Nyonya kebaya form is the t’ng snah or baju panjang. From the 18th century till the early 20th century, when Penang was an important port city and emporium, the influx of different cultures and practices led to a mindset receptive of diverse perspectives, ideas and experiences. The globalised Baba Nyonyas, exposed to trade and with familial connections to the Peranakans in Phuket and Medan, quickly embraced the kebaya during this time.

The Nyonya kebaya’s design and aesthetics were influenced by maritime trade, which introduced and supplied the materials needed to make the ensemble. In hot tropical climate, Dutch women and Eurasians chose to wear kebayas derived from the Javanese court kebaya, and introduced hand-woven fabric or white cotton trimmed with white European lace as a decorative element. This style, known as the kebaya renda, became widespread around the 1920s among Nyonyas in Medan and the Straits Settlements. The kebaya renda also has a shorter hem, and this new form slowly displaced the baju panjang.

Later, the invention of the sewing machine superseded European lace and hand embroidery, leading to the popularity of the kebaya biku, which has simple machine-embroidered edging on robia and broderie anglaise. The Chinese diaspora also introduced silk embroidery techniques that evolved into the kebaya encim, worn by Betawi and Peranakan women in Indonesia, and known as pua t’ng tay or kebaya sulam to the Penang Baba Nyonyas. Kebaya sulam—worn over a cotton camisole—has kerawang embroidery along its edges, and spread on its dipped tapered front and middle back. The front opening of the blouse is fastened by a kerosang, which is made up of three brooches linked by chains.

Meanwhile, the kebaya tuaha is worn over the three-year mourning period, which is customarily observed by children (especially the first-born son) upon a parent’s death. This is paired with black, blue or green sarongs.

Vintage Nyonya kebayas reflect the fashion, craftsmanship and cultural values of their time. The choice fabric for a Nyonya kebaya is robia voile, often in muted colours, though some are made of other fine fabrics and in bright colours. A hallmark of most vintage kebayas is the characteristic sulam embroidery—stitches often enhanced with kerawang open-work—potong kot (coat) or side-back seams cut, and seams worked over in tebuk lubang. As vintage kebayas are personalised and made to measure, it allows for a continuous embroidery work running through the side seams and hem without break where the side seams meet.

Aside from trade and migration, the onset of the golden age of Malaysian cinema in the 1950s and 1960s also inspired new kebaya styles. It had Nyonyas decked out in kebaya Bandung or kebaya Saloma and kebaya moden of the likes of movie stars and songstresses such as Maria Menado, Siput Sarawak, Latifah Omar, Saloma and Anneke Gronloh.

The kebaya Bandung from Central Java has a distinctive bef triangle—usually ruché or enhanced with manipulated tucks—at the front, and traditionally worn with a cumberband. Known as kebaya kutubaru to the Jawi Peranakans and kebaya kotabahru to other groups, Javanese and Balinese women still wear the kebaya Bandung at festivals and ceremonial and religious parades.

The kebaya moden is a modernised form of the kebaya, often featuring wide, rounded necklines best represented by the attire designed by Pierre Balmain and worn by Singapore Airlines’ flight attendants. Perky peplum sleeves were also favoured by Malay artistes of the time.

The Road to UNESCO Recognition

In 2022, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture (MOTAC) and its agencies’ officers—the National Heritage Board (Jabatan Warisan Negara), Krafttangan Malaysia and Jabatan Kebudayaan & Kesenian Negara— approached me for initial discussions to submit the kebaya pendek as a UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It was to be a multi-national submission by Malaysia, Indonesia Singapore, Thailand and Brunei.

I found the term “kebaya pendek” to be limiting, and suggested the term “kebaya” instead, as being more inclusive and encompassing the many types of kebaya worn by different communities in Southeast Asia.

During the Covid-19 Movement Control Order (MCO), these governmental agencies obtained permission for an initial “Kebaya To Go” filming with Sayang Nyonyas and Ronggeng Rhapsody dancers at Pinang Peranakan Mansion. The National Heritage Board and the National Textile Museum came along, and I became more involved in the project, conducting interviews, research, recordings and webinars, as well as writing manuscripts and filming documentaries.

MOTAC requested that I present as many activities, photos, exhibitions and webinars featuring kebayas in Penang as possible to raise awareness and visibility for Malaysia’s bid. Since I love learning, researching and discovering new information about this topic, I immediately dove in with enlightening interviews with kebaya doyennes, artisans and resource persons.

Yusri Gulam, the Director of Kraftangan Malaysia for Penang, invited me to a kebaya webinar presentation as resource person in the panel discussion for Festival Kraf Utara 2024. I also managed to cajole Penang’s Heritage Commissioner to partner for the “Kebaya: The Nyonya Kebaya and the Malay Kebaya” webinar, and presented it at JKKN Penang’s “Menyemarakkan Seni Budaya” programme in September 2023.

Further afield, live streaming broadcast collaboration with international partners gave the kebaya a wider and more global audience. I presented on the chronological evolution of the kebaya at the Virtually Peranakan Festival 2023 Singapore, and again at the invitation of the Phuket Museum in 2023, on top of writing the storyline for a Japanese television programme.

Meanwhile, Penang Global Tourism, the state tourism agency, featured Sayang Sayang Nyonya Dancers in kebaya in a documentary to promote The Little Nyonya, a Singaporean period drama, to Chinese audience. These were shown on China’s CCTV, Weixin and Douyin channels and media. The 2022 George Town Festival’s Cahaya XR’s community stories brought the kebaya into the metaverse.

I held a two-day showing of “The Making of Kebaya Sulam” for members of the State Chinese Penang Association and the general public, and curated a Baba Nyonya wedding featuring Baba Nyonya fashion and kebaya for Tourism Malaysia in Sept 2023. In 2024, Eyo Yeng Lan, Director of the Division of Intangible Cultural Heritage at the National Heritage Board, and I were among the panellists for the “Kebaya to UNESCO” forum in KL. Corporate entities and state agencies supported the national e!ort, and I was a judge for several kebaya beauty pageants. Moreover, I presented a documentary on the Nyonya kebaya for television, RTM Berita Wilayah Utara and Mutiara FM, hoping this would raise national awareness of the “Kebaya to UNESCO” journey.

Concurrently, Pinang Peranakan Mansion and Persatuan Peranakan Baba Nyonya Pulau Pinang actively advocated for “Kebaya to UNESCO”. Vice-President of Persatuan Peranakan Baba Nyonya Pulau Pinang, Jewel Tan, curated a kebaya exhibition for the MOTAC’s “Kebaya on the Go” roadshow, partnering with Christina Yeo of MOTAC’s International Relations Division (Culture) and her team to dress up visitors to Pinang Peranakan Mansion in kebaya. The National Heritage Board also brought various styles of kebaya for loan, and their photographers took over 100 portraits of locals and tourists arrayed in kebaya to be duly included in the submission to UNESCO.

The Kebaya's Resurgence

The Nyonya kebaya has been a staple garment in Southeast Asia for over a century. In the late 1900s, interest in the Baba Nyonya culture gained a boost; Khoo Keat Siew’s founding of the Peranakan Federation, Endon Mahmood’s publication The Nyonya Kebaya: A Century of Straits Chinese Costume and the release of The Little Nyonya drama by Singapore’s MediaCorp all contributed to this renaissance.

By then, Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and Batik Air already had their flight attendants clad in kebaya. Penang Global Tourism too dresses its officers in sarong kebaya at international tourism and trade fairs. Artists painted kebaya-themed paintings and produced kebaya designs on porcelain. Kebaya-themed wedding parties and kebaya-clad wedding cakes became fashionable too!

I observed the kebaya’s integration with contemporary fashion and its evolution at the annual Peranakan festivals in Singapore and Jakarta at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. Jojo Gouw of Indonesia and Raymond Wong of Singapore raised the bar for kebaya sulam by introducing new kebaya styles, such as short-sleeved kebaya and extensive sulam embroidery. Heath Yeo embellished his local Singaporean parish priest’s garments and paraphernalia with sulam. Peranakan men too had sulam embroidery on their shirts. Meanwhile, wardrobe designers for Nyonya-themed movies and dramas introduced new elements such as flowers and beading on the kebaya, and sulam on baju panjang.

The listing of the kebaya as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage was announced on 4 December 2024 at the 19th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Paraguay. At the Peranakan Festival 2024 in Phuket, Ael Sirima of Thailand and Raymond Wong came to me and suggested holding a concurrent celebration for the award in our respective countries. Raymond Wong shared the dates for Singapore Heritage Board’s “Appreciation of the Kebaya” event at the Peranakan Museum in Singapore. At the same time, the Thai delegation to UNESCO Paraguay received a hero’s welcome upon their arrival at the airport, and there was much celebration among communities in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Brunei over this momentous event.

In Penang, Jewel Tan and I organised a “Kebaya, Makan & Joget” event to jointly celebrate UNESCO’s recognition of the kebaya, and of Malaysia’s breakfast culture on 27 December 2024. We breakfasted on nasi lemak and teh tarik, and guests had the privilege of viewing Ang Eng Nyonya Kebaya’s collection and exhibition showcased in Paraguay for the UNESCO committee, as well as a preview of her book on kebaya. Needless to say, we celebrated with a Ronggeng dance party afterwards.

But, my happiest and proudest moment came when MOTAC and the National Heritage Board held a national appreciation ceremony to acknowledge artisans, resource persons, academics, curators and those involved in and who aided Malaysia’s submission of the kebaya to UNESCO. It was a rewarding moment, and I felt fulfilled by the fruition of our combined individual and multi-national effort.

This recognition of the kebaya and the art of sulam honours and celebrates centuries of artisans’ creativity, skills and ingenuity. Beyond its UNESCO recognition, this attests to the kebaya as a symbol of Southeast Asia’s interconnection, shared history and culture. As the kebaya continues to weave its story across generations, it stands not just as a garment, but as a living testament to the artistry, resilience and shared heritage of Southeast Asia—a legacy stitched with pride and worn with reverence.