Textiles- Skirts and Blouse


Men's skirtMen's skirt (The Philippines)

Women's blouseWomen's blouse (The Philippines)

 

The first image shows Indonesian sarong, a skirt that is often worn with matching batik dyed hat. Batik is a traditional Indonesian textile art that uses wax and dye to create intricate designs on fabric. It is a blue and brown tubular cloth with floral design. It is created by sewing the ends of the cloth together. The top and bottom of the sarong have narrow borders with dark blue and brown wavy lines. The main field of the sarong has a traditional batik diagonal design called “parang” in brown, white, and dark blue. The middle part of the main field has a dark blue background with brown designs. The cloth is done the wax-resist dye method – Indonesian batik textile technique.

The second image is a men’s skirt from the Philippines. It is a multicolored ikat woven tube skirt. Ikat is a traditional Philippine textile technique where threads are tied and dyed before weaving to create a pattern on the fabric. The skirt has two main color themes woven into patterns set as stripes, with yellow, green, and red stripes separating them. The predominant color theme is black and varying brown colors. The fabric was hand woven, but the piece was machine sewn to make it into a skirt. The fabric was rubbed to make it shiny.

The third image is a blouse from the Philippines. It is worn as top part of Filipino female national dress. It has high butterfly sleeves in blue with gold-silver floral embroidery.

Sarong (Indonesia)




Resources

Resource 1

Textiles have particular significance in the trade as well. Southeast Asia is strategically situated at an important international crossroad between East Asia and the Middle Eastern – Mediterranean counties, the major global centers of population. 

One example is found in Madagascar, located in East Africa. Some anthropologists trace the ancestry of the Malagasy, people of Madagascar back to ethnic Indonesians who first settled in Madagascar 1500-2000 years ago. Along with the people and language of Malagasy, the Southeast Asian textile traditions are thought to spread to Madagascar. 

In addition, while the Great Silk Roads are often thought to be centered around Northern China and Central Asia to Iran, India, Southern Russia, and the Near East, Southeast Asia is another region included in the Silk Road routes as shown in the third figure. Stretching from the Yunnan region in China to Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, the Southeast Asian Silk Road routes linked trade routes across India and beyond toward the West. The expansion of routes throughout Southeast Asia is thought to contribute to Indo-Roman commerce. There was a rising Western demand for exotic and prestigious items from the Mediterranean basin, India, and China, which typically included spices. The spread of “Indianization of Southeast Asia” coming from the spice trade, contributed to both the spread of Islam and Buddhism as well. 

Textile trade 1

Textile trade 2

Textile trade 3

Resource 2

Empowering women weaving communities in South-East Asia

Weavers’ Stories from Island Southeast Asia 

In Southeast Asia, textile manufacturing has traditionally been women’s work. Women were mostly responsible for spinning, weaving, and dyeing textiles, and sometimes they were even in charge of growing or producing raw fiber such as cotton, silk, and more. 

Traditionally, women learned the textile arts such as weaving and making batik before marriage usually from their female family members and became masters and experts in making cloth complex dye-processes later. Their work was considered the highest measure of women’s achievement. It was a way women earned their income to support their families, educate their children, purchase necessities, and even reclaim their status in the community. 

Today, there have been efforts to empower women weavers from marginalized communities. Many of them face difficulty in surviving as handweavers in modern days because they do not have an avenue to market their textiles. In order to empower them, there have been virtual events that showcase their textile work on a runway or form a network to preserve the traditional weaving heritage of the communities. There also have been training and capacity-building workshops, and microfinance to support women entrepreneurs organized by corporate responsibility projects or NGOs.  

Women and textiles in Southeast Asian

Resource 3

Ruth Barnes on Textiles in Southeast Asia

Ruth Barnes, the Thomas Jaffe Curator of Indo-Pacific Art, addresses textiles in Southeast Asia. Produced by the Public Programs team of the Yale University Art Gallery.