Women’s fashion for Hari Raya has evolved and the choices are more varied than ever, writes Aznim Ruhana Md Yusup
A COLLECTION of black and white photos made the rounds on social media in the run-up to Hari Raya (today). Uploaded by the aptly-named @GambarKlasik account on Twitter, they showed scenes from the 1950s, 60s and 70s of people preparing and celebrating the festival.
These include pictures of a man trying on a songkok, women shopping for shoes and customers at a goldsmiths. There were photos of families making kuih raya and ketupat. Others showed women sewing their Raya clothes and hanging up new curtains.
Scrolling the account, I found pictures of vintage advertisements such as offers for RM1 children’s wear at Globe’s Silk Store when Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman in Kuala Lumpur was still Batu Road. Other stores announced specials on Clarks and Bata shoes.
But what I took away from these photos are the women in their baju kurung, kebaya and batik sarong. These outfits, worn more than half a century ago, would not look strange or out of place today. I even think some brands copied these looks for their collections in 2019.
DESIGN-DRIVEN
Having said that, our style choices for Raya celebrations are more varied than ever. This comes after decades of women wearing only baju kurung or kebaya, or even the vaguely-named “modern baju kurung”. There are slight variations to the design, but the real difference is the fabric’s print or pattern.
In fact, it’s normal for a person to have dozens of baju kurung in exactly the same cut, but in different prints or colours. It is, however, unusual to have this mindset for so-called Western blouses, jeans or dresses.
Going way, way back, almost everyone sewed their baju kurung or kebaya themselves. These were not complicated clothes, which was partly why they were so appealing. And sewing was a household skill that everyone — or let’s face it, every girl and woman — was supposed to know.
Then it became more common to send your Raya orders to the tailor. It felt quite special to go to the tailor and getting measured for your Raya outfit. You then waited in anticipation for the first day of Hari Raya when you finally got to show it off.
Raya clothes became more design-driven when fashion designers such as Datuk Bernard Chandran introduced Raya-specific collections more than 10 years ago. But these were made-to-measure or bespoke, and accessible only to a select few because of its high pricing.
The trend jumped to the mass market a few years later. There were even collaborations between the likes of Rizalman and Melinda Looi with Tesco, which offered designer names at supermarket prices.
Then online retailers such as FashionValet and Zalora took up the Raya shopping season in a big way, which is where we are now. They made exclusive deals with designers, organised fashion shows and put out stylish promotional campaigns. Hundreds of variations of baju kurung and kebaya are available at the click of a button.
WHAT ARE YOU WEARING
That said, accessible doesn’t necessarily mean affordable. A pink print baju kurung by Woo/Fiziwoo with a ruffled mermaid skirt will set you back RM579. A lace kebaya top from Batika by Hudaa is RM300, sarong sold separately. Rizalman’s lace applique two-piece is a whopping RM899.
Steep prices for sure, but fashion fans will say that these ready-to-wear designs are a fraction compared to the designers’ standard offering. They are also one-off designs, presumably of good quality and you can’t get them anywhere else.
The downside to this is how quickly the garments become dated, hence not justifying their cost-per-wear.
The more fashionable the piece, the faster it becomes out of trend. The more memorable it is, the more people know that it came from the past year or two or three. Since we tend to wear something every Raya, that just wouldn’t fly.
But there’s a reason why design-driven baju kurung or kebaya are more expensive. Unlike the classic iteration, there is no standard pattern to follow. Peplums, ruffles, flaps and overlaps are all design details that must be worked on.
Once patterns are made, samples are produced. And when garments go into production, economies-of-scale comes into play. Like everything else, the bigger the order, the lower the cost.
Brands such as NH by Nurita Harith produce their Raya collections at factories in China, which is a far cry from your neighbourhood tailor working on one garment at a time.
DIVE INTO DETAILS
After decades of personal tailoring, ready-to-wear Raya outfits took a while to be accepted in the Malaysian market because they were so badly made in the beginning.
Even today, you can still hear customers complaining about fit, fabric and finishings.
In fact, some people have come to expect problems with fit that they make their purchases in advance so they’d have time to send it for alteration.
Another issue is that people rarely fall into standard sizes. You might wear the kurung top in “Small” but need the sarong in “Medium”.
Some women who fall outside the brand’s standard size offerings — be it shorter, taller, bigger or smaller — just stay away from ready-to-wear. And some design details like a peplum waist or balloon sleeves simply don’t look good on certain body types.
Last year, I purchased a kebaya from Syomirizwa Gupta online but the sarong was several centimetres too long. But instead of altering it, I took a shortcut and wore the top with a sarong that I already had.
The beauty of a classic made-to-measure baju kurung or kebaya is that they can be sewn to suit each body type without too much trouble.
Additionally, the way a baju kurung is designed with its loose silhouette and generous seam allowance makes it possible for it to be mended or altered in later years. It’s why these designs have lasted for so long.
But what I really miss about the classic baju is the handiwork, where the keyhole neckline is finished with tulang belut (eel’s bone) stitching and the fabric is joined together with the sembat technique.
These are handsewn, high quality and time-consuming stitches, and have become quite rare to find. Even my family’s tailor shop in Nilai, Negri Sembilan doesn’t do them.
Like everyone else, they use sewing machines and finish the neckline with piping. But it’s also become common elsewhere to see this section without any special finishings.
HEM IT IN
However, our seamstresses still hand sew the hem with a herringbone stitch. The beauty of this technique is that the thread becomes almost invisible on the garment. A straight, machine stitch can be very obvious especially on a multi-coloured print fabric. It’s distracting, especially when it’s a great print. I cringe when I see this on Nala’s RM399 baju kurung.
Other brands resolve this aesthetic conundrum by giving the hem a machine finish, or use lace or embroidery, like Whimsigirl. The only issue is that embroidery can get a bit scratchy on bare skin.
Other times, I wonder if a design decision is actually a shortcut. For example, a simple overlap on a sarong as opposed to a fan pleat. Are pleated maxi skirts a shortcut or do they genuinely look better? Some brands offer self-tied sarongs. This is great for personalisation but also for the manufacturer, because they only need to produce one type of skirt.
It’s the same with the hip-length, Kedah-style tops. Obviously they requires less fabric, so that’s a reduction in the the cost of material per garment. It also has no pesak, which is the piece of fabric that joins the front and back of a typical baju kurung top. Ergo, less manpower needed to cut and sew the material.
However, this Kedah-style blouses are popular with consumers because you can easily wear it with jeans or trousers. While baju kurung or kebaya typically come in pairs, selling a Raya collection as separates can make them more appealing, price-wise. And it’s easier to match a Kedah top with other pieces you already own than a long baju kurung or kebaya.
Veering further away from the classics, brands such as AfiqM offer pantsuits as part of their Raya collections. Rizalman and Tom Abang Saufi make kaftans, which are sleepwear for some women. The Arab-style abaya and jubah are also gaining popularity.
But if you disapprove of these changes to our festive outfits, perhaps remember that when something ceases to evolve, it dies. New clothes is a Raya tradition, but it’s not the main purpose. Let’s not have fashion distract us from the true meaning of this celebration.