Singapore is a meeting of cultures, and nowhere is that blend more beautiful than in the crafts of its Peranakans, where Chinese, Malay and European threads were woven into something wholly new.
✨ Fun fact: A single pair of Peranakan beaded slippers, called kasut manek, could take weeks to make, stitched from thousands of tiny faceted glass beads, each smaller than a grain of rice.
As a house in love with handwork, and proud to dress Singapore in our own sarees, we find the island’s craft heritage endlessly inspiring.
The Peranakan world
The Peranakans, also called the Straits Chinese, or Baba-Nyonya, are the descendants of early Chinese settlers who married into the Malay world of the region centuries ago. The name means “locally born,” and their culture is a glorious blend of Chinese, Malay and European tastes, folded together into a style all their own. Much of their art is, happily for us, the art of cloth.
The Nyonya kebaya
The crowning textile is the Nyonya kebaya, a fine, fitted blouse of sheer voile, embroidered with flowers, butterflies and birds in luminous colour and worn with a batik sarong. Delicate, feminine and exquisitely worked, it is one of South-East Asia’s most elegant garments, and a close cousin in spirit to the embroidered finery we love. It fastens not with buttons but with a set of linked brooches, the kerosang, often of gold set with stones.
Beadwork, the kasut manek
Peranakan women were famous for their beadwork, above all the kasut manek: slippers whose toes are embroidered with thousands of minuscule glass beads into roses, peonies and phoenixes. The beads themselves, the faceted “cut beads” once imported from Bohemia, are treasured today because they are no longer made. A bride’s beadwork was a measure of her skill and patience, an entire art held in the span of a shoe. The same fine beading covered purses, belts and wedding hangings, as on the ceremonial purse above.
Batik and the sarong
With the kebaya goes the batik sarong, its patterns drawn in wax and dyed by hand. The Peranakans had a particular love for the fine, floral batiks of Java’s north coast, and certain colours and motifs became signatures of Nyonya dress: cloth as a language of taste and occasion. It is the same Javanese wax-resist craft that, once imitated in Europe, travelled on to become the “African” wax print we describe in the crafts of West Africa.
Porcelain and tiles
Beyond cloth, the Peranakan eye for colour shines in Nyonyaware, the brilliant pink, turquoise and yellow porcelain commissioned from China and painted with phoenixes and peonies, and in the famous majolica tiles that still brighten the facades of Singapore’s old shophouses.
A crossroads of crafts
The Peranakan story is part of a wider one. Singapore has long been a crossroads, and its craft life carries the traditions of all its communities: the gold-threaded songket and batik of the Malay world, the calligraphy and lanterns of its Chinese festivals, and the garlands, kolam and textiles of its Indian quarter. Few cities hold so many craft cultures in so small a space.
A thread of our own in Singapore
We feel a special closeness to Singapore, not only for its love of beautiful cloth, but because so many of you wear our weaves here. Explore our sarees in Singapore, handwoven in Banaras, and very much at home among the island’s textile traditions.
Frequently asked questions
What is Peranakan culture?
Peranakan (or Straits Chinese, Baba-Nyonya) culture is the heritage of descendants of early Chinese settlers who intermarried with local Malay communities in the Straits Settlements, blending Chinese, Malay and European influences into a distinctive style of dress, craft and cuisine.
What is a Nyonya kebaya?
A finely embroidered, fitted blouse of sheer fabric, worn by Peranakan women with a batik sarong. It is decorated with colourful floral and bird motifs, fastened with linked kerosang brooches, and considered one of the most elegant garments of South-East Asia.
What are kasut manek?
Traditional Peranakan beaded slippers, their toes embroidered with thousands of tiny glass beads into intricate floral and bird designs. They were a celebrated test of a Nyonya woman’s needle skill.
Sources & further reading
On the Nyonya kebaya, kasut manek beadwork, batik and Nyonyaware, see the collections of the Peranakan Museum (Singapore) and the Asian Civilisations Museum, and studies of Straits Chinese dress and material culture.
More from Khinkhwab Diaries: the crafts of China · the Silk Road · the crafts of West Africa.
