The Working-Class Kebaya: Reverse-Engineering a 1900s Garment from a Colonial Postcard

While browsing the Rijksmuseum's online collection, a single postcard stopped me: a woman in a loose striped kebaya, labelled "Groet uit de Preanger (Java), Onze kokkin" The cut read as something I'd want to make and that prompted a closer look.

What the archive confirmed was that this wasn't a staged costume. A 1938 text praises the straight-cut model for "pulling weeds, harvesting rice, pounding, or carrying heavy loads." A 1920s photograph shows the same loose silhouette in a tea field in Buitenzorg, now Bogor. A 1930s children's book depicts a nanny in the rain, shielding a child wearing the same loose striped kebaya.

It's a garment made for a body that does things.

The full research and process are documented in the video below.

The digital pattern is available in the shop, along with a limited run of finished pieces.