National costume of Indonesia

Formal family portrait of former Indonesian's President B.J. Habibie. Women wear kain batik and kebaya with selendang (sash), while men wear jas and dasi (western suit with tie) with peci cap.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspects guard of honor wearing traditional clothing of Indonesia at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta

The national costume of Indonesia (Indonesian: Pakaian Nasional Indonesia) is the national attire that represents the Republic of Indonesia. It is derived from Indonesian culture and Indonesian traditional textile traditions. Today the most widely recognized Indonesian national attires include batik[1] and kebaya, although originally those attires mainly belong within the island of Java and Bali, most prominently within Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese culture.[2] Since Java has been the political and population center of Indonesia, folk attire from the island has become elevated into national status.

Indonesia Museum depicting traditional dresses of Indonesia. The picture shows the traditional wedding dress of Bali (left) and East Java (right) with other dresses from other provinces depicted in the background

As a multi-diverse country, Indonesia having more than 30 provinces, each has its own representation of traditional attire and dress from each province with its own unique and distinguished designs.

National attires are worn during official occasions as well as traditional ceremonies. The most obvious display of Indonesian national attires can be seen by the type of attires worn by the President of Indonesia and the Indonesian first lady in many and different types of occasions and settings, and also worn by Indonesian diplomatic officials during gala dinners. Traditional weddings and formal ceremonies in Indonesia are important occasions in the country where the wear of Indonesia national attires are absolutely visible ranging from traditional to modern attires different from each region they are representing.

  1. ^ Xia Ziyi (2011-11-16). "Cultural feast at ASEAN Fair". Xinhua. Archived from the original on 19 December 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  2. ^ Jill Forshee, Culture and customs of Indonesia, Greenwood Publishing Group: 2006: ISBN 0313333394. 237 pages