#AtoZChallenge K is for Kebaya

A to Z Challenge 2020

Things to be Grateful for

is for Kebaya

When I lived in Singapore in my teens my mother and I loved to shop for Batik Sarongs and separate embroidered Kebayas. A kebaya is a long, jacket style blouse made of thin fabric. It comes from traditional wear in Malaysia and Indonesia and was originally worn by European women living in the East in the 15th century. They are very beautiful garments. Here are some examples.

Peranakan culture and style #Singapore #Malaysia

Colour and pattern are the things which come to mind when I remember living in Singapore in the 1960s and although it is now a very modern city state those two aspects are still vibrantly present in the style and culture of the Peranakan community.

Peranakans are people of mixed Chinese and Malay heritage. Many Peranakans trace their origins to 15th-century Malacca where their ancestors, Chinese traders, married local women. Peranakan men are known as babas while the ladies are known as nonyas (or nyonyas) from the old Portuguese word for lady, donha . The word Peranakan is derived from anak "child" and means descendant, locally born of ancestors from afar. The Peranakans were also known as Straits Chinese as they were usually born in the British-controlled Straits Settlements of Singapore, Penang and Malacca. 

Peranakan fashion is stunning, in sizzling colours, with beautiful embroidery on gorgeous fabrics; always worn with grace.

 Beautiful embroidered kebayas worn above  batik sarongs.

In the past, Peranakan girls were expected to be skilful in embroidery and beadwork, the two distinctive features of Peranakan fashion. The traditional costume for Peranakan women is the kebaya.  Originally from Indonesia, the kebaya was adopted by both Malay and Peranakan women but with important differences. The Malay kebaya is a loose-fitting long blouse made of opaque cotton or silk with little or no lace embroidery, but the nonya kebaya is a shorter, tighter-fitting sheer fabric blouse that is often decorated with embroidered motifs (known as sulam) such as roses, peonies, orchids, daisies, butterflies, bees, fish and chickens. Being semi-transparent, the kebaya is usually worn over a camisole and secured with a kerosang, which is a set of three interlinked brooches.Beneath the sarong kebaya intricately hand-beaded slippers known as kasut manek are worn.. 

In porcelain, favourite colours are fuchsia pink, turquoise green, yellow, cobalt blue and purple.

The phoenix is a favourite symbol in fabric and ceramics.

A typical floral batik sarong

The Baba Nyonya House in Malacca

And even the architecture in places such as Emerald Hill displays the same vibrant colours.

My Pinterest boards on Peranakan Design and Batik.

Jean Aylwin, the Lady Harry Lauder #Edwardian Actress

Like many of her contemporaries on the Edwardian stage, Jean Aylwin progressed from provincial theatre to fame as a “Gaiety Girl.”  Born in Hawick in 1885 and educated in Edinburgh, she later became a fashion icon and was entertained by men of means.  She was an excellent singer earning the title of, “The Lady Harry Lauder.”

It was touring in the play “The Red Coat” in 1904 which brought her to England and she made her debut as principal in “The Spring Chicken,” two years later.  By 1907 she had joined George Edwards’ Gaiety Theatre and in 1909 she was the only British actress in the play “Our Miss Gibbs” when it opened in New York.

In 1913 Jean married Colonel Alfie Rawlinson of the Intelligence Corps, but this did not stop her touring Scotland and the north-east of England with productions of “A Careless Lassie.”  She was highly praised in the local papers, the Dundee Evening Telegraph saying, “Miss Aylwin is a clever actress and her gaiety is quite infectious.”  Fashion designers loved to dress her and she inspired a lace dress copied by many.  She starred in two films, "Winning a Widow" in 1910 and "The Greatest Wish in the World" in 1918, in which she played Mother Superior.

In 1923 she rented a flat opposite the Chelsea Theatre where she was playing “Polly.”  When her husband Col. Rawlinson discovered her there with the composer Hubert Bath, he began divorce proceedings.  Miss Aylwin announced her intention to leave the stage and travel to India to work with the Wesleyan Missionary Society, but this did not prevent the high-profile scandal of the divorce evidence.  On her return to Britain she became a radio broadcaster with a programme of "Scotch Tales and Songs" for the BBC.  She died in Kent in 1964.

You can read more about The Gaiety Girls here

Dressing for Glamour in 1953

Last week I looked at some elegant outfits for the 1950s girl about town but today I am taking a step back and preparing with the right foundation garment.

The finest nylon stockings come next.

Don't forget the lippy!

But do you prefer pink?

And then the perfect manicure.

Ready to go?  Here is the car.

Have a wonderful day!

Elegance for the Coronation in 1953

As an excited nation waited for the Coronation of their young Queen in 1953, fashion houses advertised the perfect outfit for the day.  Sadly they were unaware that it would be a day of almost non-stop rain!

Who were the Gibson Girls? #wwwblogs

The Gibson Girl was created by Charles Dana Gibson in his satirical illustrations from 1890 to 1910.  She represented an idealised, upper middle class, American girl.  She was feminine and athletic, independent and confident.  Her femininity was shown in her hair piled high on her head in soft pompadour style.  She was a “new woman” who worked outside the home, dressed in an elegant skirt and business-like blouse.  At leisure, she might wear a beach dress or a tennis dress but when socialising the new soft corset under her formal dress, showed off her generous bust and hips, hour-glassing from a tiny waist.

Love in a Garden

Charles Gibson originally took inspiration from his own sister Josephine Gibson and then from his wife Irene Langhorne and her sisters, who included Nancy Astor.  Subsequently, his model was Evelyn Nesbit, a young actress, whose life was later blighted when her mother allowed her to be used and abused by wealthy followers, resulting in a notorious murder trial involving her husband.

Camille Clifford

In the new century, a magazine contest was sponsored by Gibson to find a living version of his Gibson Girl drawings.  It was won by stage actress Camille Clifford.  Her figure and deportment demonstrated the perfect S shaped curve.  Born in Belgium, she appeared on stage in the United States and in England.  Having previously been a silent member of the chorus she now had a song written for her by Leslie Styles when she first appeared at the Lyceum Theatre in London in 1905.  Entitled, “Why do they call me a Gibson Girl,” it included this line,

“Wear a blank expression and a monumental curl

And walk with a bend in your back

Then they will call you a Gibson Girl.”

 Inevitably the life changes caused by the outbreak of the First World War, sent the Gibson Girls into oblivion.

For more about Camille Clifford

Dressing Cardboard Dolls #Nostalgia

One of my childhood memories are of what I did on days when I was off sick from school.  A cardboard doll would appear, complete with tabbed dresses to put on it.  Often I could colour them in first.  Here are a selection of historic costumes which I found in Volume 2 of The Romance of the Nation by Charles Ray.

I particularly like the vivid descriptive names of the suggested colours to use.

• For 1900 you should choose cerulean blue with a hat in Prussian blue.  Prussian blue which is a dark shade was the first modern synthetic pigment.
• The dress of 1903 can be violet with trimmings of dark mauve
• In 1907 cream is most suitable trimmed in vandyke brown.
• By 1912 burnt umber is more suitable, with a “vest” of Naples yellow and trimming in raw sienna.  The accompanying hat would be best with yellow and orange flowers.
• For the 1914 costume the dress should be sap green and the cape a dark Hooker’s green. Hooker’s green was the colour used by 19^th century botanist, William Hooker for dark shades of leaf.

Payne's grey

• In 1917 a toque hat appears but colours are left to you.
• Yellow ochre is the suggestion for the pale areas on the 1919 costume.
• The 1923 dress is Payne’s grey with carmine trimming.  Payne’s grey, which has a bluish tinge was named after watercolourist William Payne (1760-1830).
• The fashionable 1930 dress should be coloured in burnt sienna trimmed with carmine and worn with raw umber stockings.
• Finally the 1935 dress is Jubilee blue to celebrate the silver Jubilee of King George V.

To see and learn more of these colours I recommend the website Colors of Art  
And you must view these beautiful paper dolls on Maria Pareira's Pinterest page.