Quick trip to KL

Malaysia National Textile Museum

I've been meaning to blog about my trip to Bali but haven't quite found the time, there is so much to share.  Meanwhile we made a quick trip to Kuala Lumpur yesterday.  Titan the company my husband, Peter works for had a closing ceremony this morning.  In July an agreement was signed for Honam (Korean conglomerate) to acquire Titan.  It's taken 4 months to get all the details worked out but today was the big day.  Peter asked me to accompany him so we flew up yesterday afternoon.  Now you know there has to be a textile link or I wouldn't be mentioning this trip here. Well.... as we are driving to the hotel yesterday afternoon Peter points out a sign - National Textile Museum.  No kidding he just looks out the window and sees a small sign.  He won lots and lots of bonus points when he asked if I wanted to go.  This trip was supposed to be all about him and business I truly was not looking for a chance to see textiles.

So, we headed to the hotel, checked in and then rushed over to the museum not knowing when it closed for the day.  The building itself was an interesting old building, used for the railway intially.  There were 4 rooms, 3 of textiles one of mostly jewlery.

Malaysia is an interesting country with a wide diversity of people.  Malaysia has a large population of Chinese Malaysians and Indians, these two groups have influenced their textiles. The Malaysia National Textile Museum had done a good job of showing not just traditional Malaysian textiles but also those textiles influenced by both the Chinese and the Indians. 

Traditional Malay costume, notice the interesting
fabric wrapped headpiece the man is wearing.

Malaysia is predominantly muslim, you see many women wearing headscarfs.  The difference between Malaysian and  Middle Eastern muslims (I'm only talking textiles here) is that the Malays are all about color, pattern and lovely fabrics.  I enjoy people watching, to see the beautiful outfits the ladies wear.  Many of the fabrics are very large prints and very colorful.  Many wear a loose tunic over a long skirt or loose pants.  I have also seen some stunning suits that are very fitted but the skirt is full length.  Many of the outfits are made of fabrics I would consider only for evening wear. 
 

Example of display, mannequins looked Malaysian.  This was batik using a block or chop.

The first room downstairs showed the different types of textiles found in Malaysia - batik, warp ikat, weft ikat, songket (supplementary weft patterned with metallic thread), printed and gilded (Indian influence), embrodiered and beaded (Chinese Influence) and bark fabric.  There were some nice examples of textiles, mannequins wearing the traditional costumes and large historical photos showing the same style of textile worn by real people.  The second room downstairs went through each process with displays showing mannequins doing the process, step by step diagrams and touch screen multi media displays of the actual process.  Something unique I've never seen, at each display there was a case that showed everything used in the process; the dyes in each dyeing process, everything to make the beaded shoes etc....

 

Kebaya, traditional blouse worn in SE Asia with traditional embroidery.



close up of embroidery

  

Upstairs there was a room with more lovely examples with lengthy text about how the textile was made, where it was made, who wore the textile, interesting historical information etc... The last room was where we spent the least time - cases of jewelry and more mannequins wearing full costumes, including jewelry.

costume of bark cloth (top)

All in all it was a lovely musuem, very educational.  We were the only people there!  Our only complaint was the lighting could be better, Peter found some of the signs were hard to read because of the lighting (he of course filled out a suggestion card).  When we met Peter's boss and wife (Warren and Liz) for drinks we told them where we had been.  Liz became very animated and explained the Malaysia National Textile Museum has not offcially opened.  It is brand new and has been having it's "soft opening" for the last 4 months.  Liz has already been 3 times and was thrilled to hear we'd found it. I just looked it up on the web and found out that once it opens there will be an admission fee of 1 ringgit (about 32 cents)!  Weren't we lucky to happen upon this new gem in KL!

More pictures:

Warp beam of songket floor loom.  Notice the warp beam is suspended
from the top of the loom's frame.  That piece is then tied to a rod that is tied to the back of the loom's frame.  An interesting set up.

Floor loom used for weaving songket.  Notice the board style warp beam, when you advance your warp it is by this full amount, about 8". The  fabric hanging in the back of the photo is songket. Songket was primarily worn by royalty and dignataries, I'm guessing due to cost.  Until the 1950's it was worn as a rectangle, sarong style usually.  In the 50's they began to cut and sew it into fitted garments.  Our hotel staff wore a variety of garments made from allover songket and some with bands. 

 

Peranakan beaded shoes.  Embroidery hoop shows how the beaded portion is made.  These handmade shoes are still custom made for about $1,000 ringgit, about $300 USD. Peranken refer to the descendants of Chinese immigrants to Malaysia, Indonesia and Singpore.

 

The warp ikat display.  This woven on a backstrap loom.  At
the far right in the photo you can see that the loom is attached
to a wooden frame.