She is one of the most enduring icons of Singapore; the symbol of the warm hospitality that the Singapore Airlines (SIA) is known for, and an ambassador of the nation to the world. But there is a much bigger icon than the Singapore Girl—and it is the sarong kebaya that she wears. First worn by the flight attendants of the Malayan Airways (where SIA’s origins can be traced back to) in 1968, the kebaya was reimagined by Parisian couturier Pierre Balmain in 1974, rendering the uniform in traditional Asian batik—this is the version that remains a hallmark of SIA till today.
For Sufiyanto Amat Sopingi, one-half of the duo behind Kebaya Societé, an online resource chronicling Nusantara fashion in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia from the turn of the 20th century to the 1980s, it was an early version of
