Nonya Beadwork & Embroidery

Nonya Beadwork is a highly time-consuming process of stitching glass beads onto fashion accessories in entirety.   It required the nonya to have a lot of patiences and dexterity with her fingers in order to complete a pair of kasut manek.  The most popular of all beadwork over the decades is the making of beaded shoes, known as “kasut manek”.  Nonyas of yesteryears were taught how to sew, bead and embroider in order to create their own tapestries like bed runners, bridal hangings, shoes etc in order to form part of their wedding trousseau. 

At Kim Choo, you can even see our artist demonstrating the making of the beaded shoes from time to time.  There are courses are conducted to teach people how to make beaded shoes.  For more details of the lesson plan, please call 67412125 and look for Raymond Wong from 10am to 6pm on working days.  If you are interested in own a pair of beaded shoes, you can even come to look at our ready-made shoes and beaded shoe plates available for sale.

Nonya Kebaya

Originally, it was believed that nonya kebayas first came into fashion in Medan, Indonesia.  During the 1900s, the Dutch communities in Indonesia were wearing blouses attached with highly decorative European laces.  The Dutch ladies were wearing their blouses together with batik sarongs. 

Being the first asian community to mingle around the European communities, this fashion soon attracted the Peranakan ladies in Medan and not long after the fashion was spread to Penang.  The ladies in Penang modified the Dutch blouses to have long tapered fronts and shorter back around the hip level.  In Penang, the locals called such gowns – “Puah Theng Teck” (Half Long Half Short Gown).

The kebayas during the 1910s were mostly kebaya renda (laced kebayas similar to the Dutch)  The nonyas were using imported English voiles to attach European laces onto their kebayas with hem stitches.  To create a lacier look, nonyas included hand embroidery techniques like cut-and-drawn stitches and hardanger embroideries onto their laced kebayas.

However, during the 1920s a new variety of nonya kebayas came into fashion.  These kebayas were in fact embroidered with Chinese style embroideries, Chinese knots e.g. bullion knots, and crochet work.  As the process is long and tedious, most kebayas of such quality were rarely fully embroidered like the kebayas we see today. 

During the late 1940s to 1960s, kebayas were further evolved tremendously with the introduction of the old sewing machines e.g. Singer.  With these old machines being modified of certain parts, nonyas were able to do free-motion embroidery onto their dresses.  Till today, all our kebayas in Kim Choo are still made in this manner.  However, over the years, Singapore nonyas have further modified the nonya kebayas further and below are few features as follows:

• Double-sided embroideries
• Kebayas being made first before the embroideries were set in.  It was different as Nonyas in Malaysia were believed to be making the embroideries onto the voiles before they start cutting up the cloth to make into the kebaya.
• The length of the kebaya was shortened.  Lengths behind the hips were recommended to be made slightly higher from their hip level, in order to give a longer slender look to ladies’ legs.
• Giving a more body-hugging look, Singapore nonyas decided to include British Princess breast darts onto the kebaya fronts.  Antique hems which were intended for connecting lace, was used by the nonyas onto the joints of the kebayas to give a decorative look.

In Kim Choo, all our kebayas are beautifully made to fit the requirements as stated above.  As in our eyes a dress made to such perfection also symbolizes this Chinese saying “Tian Yi Wu Feng” – Heavenly robes made without any seams.  To meet the requirements of the modern generation, Kim Choo has endeavored to produce experimenting on various fabrics and embroidery styles to create a modern, yet traditional look on our kebayas.  We also carry kebayas of affordable ranges too.  For more details about our kebaya, kindly contact our staff at 67412125 during working hours from 10am to 6pm on working days.

Together with their kebayas, Nonyas would always wear their batik sarongs, which most of them were custom-made in the Pasisir region of Java.  The sarongs along the Pasisir region, were known to produce batiks of Chinese and Belanda styles.  The sarongs were highly decorated with Chinese and Dutch-style florals and/or animals; and brightly coloured with many beautiful pastel shades.

In Kim Choo, we have a wide selection of high quality nonya sarong cloths and vintage sarongs.  These materials are perfect for making sarong skirts, blouses, bags etc.  Likewise, we have a variety of sarong wraps which are suitable for modern usage.  For those who preferred traditional sarongs, we have a range of sarongs which are made without cutting a single cloth.  As such in the future, if the sarong could not be worn anymore, by removing all the seams, the cloth still remains intact.

Nonya Porcelain

During the early 15th century, Chinese traders came to settle in Southeast Asia taking local non-muslim malay women as their brides.  The descendents from these intermarriages were known as “Peranakan Chinese”.  However, towards the 17th – 18th century, most Chinese men settling in Singapore preferred to take these locally born Chinese girls i.e. Nonyas as their prospective brides over the malay girls.  At that time, most Chinese men came alone to Singapore with no families here.  Thus, most weddings were conducted at the Nonya’s home.  It was great honour for the Nonya’s parents to conduct the wedding and good quality porcelain Chinaware was imported to be used for the weddings.  Back then porcelain with the phoenix-peony designs were specially imported from Jiangxi Jingde City.  The city was famous for using metallic enamels to burn beautiful shades of pastel colours onto the porcelain.  The pastel shades were found to be very feminine to the Nonyas.

The phoenix symbolizes the female principle, or yin.  The peony also known as the “flower of wealth, good fortune, nobility and honour’, is also a symbol of spring, female beauty, love and affection.  In China, the phoenix-peony was hardly or rarely used as it symbolizes matriarchic powers.  However, to the Peranakan families, it is a symbol of the bride’s femininity, faithfulness to her husband, filial piety, chastity, youthfulness and female beauty.  The Buddhism Eight Symbols or the Taoism Eight Symbols were often laced around the edges of the porcelain to represent the food were blessed by the heavens.  Peranakan Chinese were always following Western fashion.  As such, scallops and wavy trimmings, which were often found on famille rose porcelain ware, were added to give an elegant, dainty and lady-like look onto the Nonyaware.

In Kim Choo, we have specially brought in these exquisite pieces from Jiangxi.  They are very wonderful souvenirs to collect or to even give to friends.  These nonya porcelain is also a great item to be used for decorating the walls or to be used to serve food when special guests arrive.