These Sabah an seamstresses are putting contemporary touches to ethnic outfits as a way of preserving cultural identity and heritage.
“It can be a problem when they keep seeing only the modernised versions depicted on social media, and come to assume those are the actual traditional costumes,” she added. “I have been sewing for 23 years, when my daughter was only six months old,” she said. Her years of experience meant she not only is knowledgeable but also highly skilled.
Don’t be mistaken in thinking that her customer base is made up of only Sabahans residing in the Klang Valley, or Sabah-based customers who request for delivery. She also has non-Sabahan customers, some of whom had never worn any Bornean traditional costume before but were eager to don one for special events or even family photos.
“We Kadazandusun have so many different variations of our traditional costume, we should cherish them all. I do wish I could make the outfits worn by each subgroup,” she said, but she had to forgo the idea as it would be too costly time-wise and money-wise.“I used to have people coming up to me and lamenting the fact that it can cost them hundreds just to rent a single Kadazandusun outfit. For students and low-income earners, even the deposit alone would be too much to bear,” she shared.
According to the Sabah Government official website, there are officially 33 ethnic groups in the northern Borneo state, which can be further divided into more than 200 ethnic subgroups that communicate in over 50 languages and 80 ethnic dialects. The Kadazan Penampang attire stands out because other Kadazandusun traditional clothes typically consist of blouses with short or long sleeves paired with knee-length skirts called gonob.
It may be noted that so far only the female attires have been discussed. That’s because the male attires have fewer variations across the different subgroups. Typically, Kadazandusun males will wear a long-sleeved top and trousers made from black velvet. Much to the dismay of Ranau’s Dusun Bundu and Dusun Liwan communities, who have traditionally worn the all-black kubaya tungkat or abaya for a long time, the debate continued for some time and the costume risked losing its “traditional” status. Finally, the issue was settled when it was announced in July 2023 that it is indeed a traditional costume.
Starheritage Starextra Kadazandusun DJS Tagaroh Tailor Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association (KDCA) Kadazan Penampang Costume Traditional Attire Sabah
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: DailyExpress_MY - 🏆 3. / 83 Read more »
Source: JuiceMy - 🏆 11. / 63 Read more »
Source: UMonline - 🏆 27. / 51 Read more »
Source: therakyatpost - 🏆 14. / 59 Read more »
Source: saysdotcom - 🏆 9. / 63 Read more »
Source: malaymail - 🏆 1. / 86 Read more »