Listen to the episode
Textile Exhibits in Singapore and Bangkok – The Asian Sewist Collective Podcast
Links Mentioned
About The Peranakans – Singapore
Batik Nyonyas: Three Generations of Art and Entrepreneurship
Batik Nyonyas: Three Generations of Art and Entrepreneurship at Peranakan Museum
Peranakan Museum (@peranakanmuseum) • Instagram photos and videos
Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles | The Grand Palace
Transcript
Ada: Welcome to the Asian Sewist Collective Podcast. The Asian Sewist Collective is a group of Asian people from around the world brought together by our shared appreciation for fiber and textile arts and our desire to see more Asian representation in the sewing community.
Nicole: In this podcast we explore the intersection of identities and our shared sewing practice as we create a space for Asian Sewists and our allies.
Ada: I’m your co-host, Ada Chen, and I’m recording from Denver, Colorado. Denver is the traditional territory of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples. I’m a Taiwanese American marketer, turned entrepreneur, and these days you’ll find me running my natural skincare brand, Erleia. That’s E-R-L-E-I-A. Find us on social media at Erleia Skin. Most importantly for this podcast you can find my sewing at i.hope.sew on Instagram.
Nicole: And I’m your co-host, Nicole. I’m recording outside of Chicago, Illinois, the original homelands of the Council of the Three Fires, the Ojibwe, the Potawatomi, and the Odawa people. I’m a Philippine American lawyer who loves to sew and you can find me on Instagram at Nicoleangelinesews.
Ada: Hello friends, it’s Ada and I am back with a solo episode today. It’s been a while, for sure, and in our next episode you will hear from me and Nicole catching up and getting you up to speed on what’s been going on in our lives as we navigate the realities of what is going on in the world right now. I wanted to pop in because I actually, in December, it took a two week trip with my partner to Southeast Asia and I did manage to get some textile related fun sewing things into our itinerary and I thought I would share some of those highlights with you in case you happen to either live in the area and can make your way to some of the exhibits I’m going to talk about or if you’re planning your next trip to Southeast Asia, I would highly recommend making these two stops. So we’re going to keep this short and sweet but I’m going to give you as much detail as I can remember and provide.
And as always, there will be plenty of links and notes in the show notes. So, our trip actually started out in Singapore. We specifically chose Singapore because there was a nice direct flight from San Francisco, and why not hang out in a cool city to get over jet lag for a few days before continuing on to the rest of our trip.
And in Singapore, this was my first visit there, there’s actually this museum called the Peranakan Museum. And it was a smaller museum for sure, but definitely worth a visit. And they specifically, I wanted to see this exhibit they have going on until August 31st of 2025 called Batik Nyonyas.
So this exhibit showcases the intersection of artistry, entrepreneurship, and cultural heritage through the lens of batik and one batik-making family. The exhibit really spans three generations of Peranakan women, including Oeij Soen King, her daughter-in-law Nyonya Oeij Kok Sing, and her granddaughter Jane Hendromartono.
Apologies if I am absolutely butchering those names. Tried the best from my notes, but each of these women actually mastered the craft of batik making and contributed significantly to its evolution. Now, I’m not saying you have homework before you go to this exhibit, but if you listen to our episode about batik, definitely do that before you go. You’ll have a greater appreciation and understanding of some of the techniques that they’re talking about in the exhibit.
So these women in this family were in business from the late 19th to the late 20th century out of one house in Pekalongan, Indonesia. And that’s basically 100 years, right? That’s three generations of women running this business, making this textile. And the batiks on view on the exhibit were actually donated by the daughters of the last women focused on in the exhibit. So the daughters of Jane Hendromartono, who are Ika, Malia, and Inge.
Now, Ika and Malia still live in Indonesia, and Inge actually is the youngest sister who lives in San Francisco, and she’s currently a designer. Her line that she created with her partner is called Inge Christopher. So, in a way, she’s not doing batik, but she is kind of continuing on in the traditional or in the traditions of her family. And she and her sisters actually, if you watch some of the supplementary videos around the exhibit, grew up with their mom making batik in the front of the house. So like the workshop was in the same building as their house. So that’s pretty cool to hear them talk about. So what is in this exhibit? It basically takes you through the history of this family and all of the beautiful textiles that they have produced. So before we get into that, I’ve thrown around some terms that you may or may not be familiar with, one of which is Peranakan.
So the Peranakan Museum in Singapore celebrates Peranakan culture. Southeast Asia has pretty much been a crossroads for trade and culture and all of these different great things flowing back and forth throughout the region for hundreds if not thousands of years. And a lot of merchants and other travelers were connecting through this region from China, India, the Middle East, Europe, like literally all over the world. And a lot of those folks actually settled in Southeast Asia and then intermarried within local communities which created kind of like a hybrid culture. And today the word that is broadly used to describe these hybrid cultures is Peranakan. So Peranakan, as far as I understand it, has taken the status of a cultural identity and it really refers to a range of mixed heritage communities. And so the unifying um kind of idea here is the melding of different cultures. Many different names and subnames and exist within this, so you might know a lot of Chinese Peranakan, Chitti Melakans, or Peranakan Indians, as well as Jawi and Arab Peranakan. I will provide some links to study up and read more about it.
Our tour guide at the museum was very helpful in describing that, and she did actually call out, which I do want to call out here, the Peranakan Museum highlights a lot of Chinese Peranakan culture based on the artifacts and the donations that they’ve received from those families, and they are actually, the curator is actually actively looking for it other Peranakan cultures, so um Indian Peranakan, Chitti Melakans to contribute as well to what they have in the museum and what they have on display. So fun fact for you all to learn that even museums struggle with highlighting a diversity of voices within a cultural heritage.
And so the term Nyonya, which is in the title of the exhibit Batik Nyonyas, is a respectful title for Peranakan women, kind of like Auntie or Mrs. And so we are talking about three Peranakan aunties who made batik. The batik showcased in the exhibit kind of reflects how each of them navigated the wild and changing social and economic environments of their time. So when you look at the oldest batiks in the exhibit, Nyonya Oeij Soen King began her career making these textiles during Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia. So she adapted traditional motifs to create batik patterns that resonated with her community while trying to also appeal to broader audiences.
The next woman in the exhibit, who was her daughter-in-law, Nyonya Oeij Kok Sing, continued this legacy, but then kind of added more of a modern flair to the designs. She added in European inspired florals into the traditional palette, which kind of took the craft and made it relevant to her time. And the story wraps up with her daughter, so Jane Hendromartono, who brought an even more entrepreneurial approach to the craft,
And if you look up Jane Hendromartono, she’s actually known worldwide for really ensuring that the legacy of batik continued even as we’ve seen and we discussed in our batik episode. Things like digital printing kind of came along and really changed the way that we think and work with fabric. I will say that this exhibit spans two floors and it probably is worth at least a good hour of your time. The rest of the museum, you can either go on a guided tour, ours was about an hour and a half long, I think they’re usually about an hour. We had a chatty inquisitive group for sure and a very helpful tour guide, but you can definitely do the rest of the museum in like one to two hours on your own. I would highly recommend doing both if you have the time to.
The rest of the museum is great. They showcase, like I said, a lot of different artifacts from different Peranakan families who have been in Singapore for a really long time and in particular, our tour ended in the kind of garment and fashion-related room, so you can really see how the garments evolved over time and how literally being in the crossroads of all this trade really influenced all of the different fashions um that folks were wearing at the time. So that room itself I probably spent like 20-30 minutes in.
I will say that in the main exhibits of the museum they’ve actually built a separate room that ties into the Batik Nyonya’s exhibit and it’s a replica batik shop and our tour guide was a bit older and she said hey this actually does really look like one of the shops that I saw when I was a kid and in there they’ve got a sewing machine they’ve got a fake bike or real bike made up to look like it’s making deliveries of fabric they’ve got the little batik like fabric bundles tied up. And then you can also play a little quiz to see which of the Nyonya’s styles you most resonate with. And at the end, you can actually get a nice little freebie bookmark with that pattern on it at the ah museum, like info desk. So highly recommend checking out the Peranakan Museum. I will put hours and admission info on all of that in the links in the show notes, I will also note that the museum is wheelchair accessible even though there are stairs and it was built out of or made from a school building. There are elevators to each different level.
If you are not taking the elevator, there are quite a few stairs, so something to also consider. And I will also shout out that it’s a lovely place to escape the rain and or humidity because there’s pretty nice air conditioning inside. And I had not known a lot about Peranakan and culture before visiting, and I learned a lot.
So I hope you do too. If you get to check it out in Singapore or if you live in Singapore, I definitely recommend it making a stop there. The Batik Nyonyas exhibit is on until August 31st and year-round they have amazing exhibits so check it out even if you don’t get to see this particular exhibit.
Okay, after Singapore on our trip, we were in Siem Reap, Cambodia, which is amazing. Definitely highly recommend checking it out. I didn’t do anything textile related here, but maybe on my next trip, I would definitely return. From Siem Reap, we actually flew into Bangkok for a few days before going to other parts of Thailand. And in Bangkok, I had never been before. And we went to the Grand Palace, which is one of the, you know, top two must-see attractions on TripAdvisor, all that. And within the Grand Palace compound, there is actually a fun museum for us sewists. So I’m talking about the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles. And specifically within this museum, they have two exhibits. One exhibit kind of talks about the royal court and all of the textiles that they use and they have used in the past in both in traditional like ceremonies and whatnot, but also to signify different levels.
And then in the other room, they have the Decades of Style exhibition, which is a tribute to Her Majesty, Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother, and her contributions to Thai textiles and culture. And it really just spans all of the outfits that Queen Sirikit has worn from the 50s and 60s all the way through the 2000s. And if you don’t know, Queen Sirikit’s actually really widely known for revitalizing the Thai textile industry. So in the 50s and 60s when she became queen, she initiated a lot of programs to support local artisans, particularly in rural areas, so they could preserve those traditional weaving techniques. And not only did this save a lot of traditional textile arts from kind of fading into history, but it also provided sustainable livelihoods to thousands of craftspeople. Now you will also notice this in the dresses and outfits that are on display.
When we look at queen to your kids outfits that she started out with, a lot of them were made in Paris by Pierre Belman, and they have a very, very 50s and 60s vibe. They were very, very Western, if I’m being honest. They used very traditionally kind of Western used at the time fabrics, and as we see Queen Sirikit’s style evolve, we actually start to see some of the Thai textiles that she worked so hard to preserve work their way into her dress. And so you’ll see there are a few pieces, quite a few actually, by Balmain and other French houses that incorporate a lot of Thai textiles. And it’s actually really cool to see them in use and to see those textiles really highlighted within those garments. Now, you’ll see fabrics like silk, ikat, brocade, and each piece really does highlight that artisanary, and there is some highlighting videos and throughout the exhibit that really also show you the ways that those textiles are made and woven.
Another thing that comes in the exhibit is that they’ve actually paired both the mannequin and dress forms of the outfits with videos and pictures of queens here wearing them to specific functions, so you’ll see lots of videos and photos of state events, royal functions, and it’s kind of a great way to appreciate that for her as the queen of this country, her outfits weren’t just for show, they were specifically a form of cultural diplomacy. And I don’t know, looking at some of those, you’re like, wow, she was doing this like, you know, before I was born, but like in all these points in history and you can really appreciate how long that kind of cultural diplomacy has been woven into, pun intended, all of her work. So there are actually no photos allowed in this museum, so unfortunately I can’t add those to the show notes, but I highly recommend looking up the exhibit and looking up the accompanying materials online if you can.
There is an accompanying exhibit book that I did not purchase, but there’s so much online photos of Queen Sirikit that you can find throughout the years that really do show a lot of kind of for the highlights of her fashion. And I think definitely her efforts helped highlight and establish Thai silk specifically as a luxury fabric used by designers worldwide.
You’ll also see that in the later years, from 90s into 2000s, she started working in more local Thai designers into her wardrobe. And it’s really cool to see not only the evolution of style of one person throughout the time, but also the evolution of style and what was popular when you’re looking at some of the videos and photos of her at state dinners then and now and like what other people are wearing as well. So the Queen’s Sirikit Museum of Textiles is located in the Grand Palace complex in Bangkok and I will say this is my travel note for you. Do the whole palace first. The exhibit or the museum ticket is included in your Grand Palace admission. They will let you go out of the Grand Palace and come back to the museum but that is quite complicated and not a lot of people do it. They try to hit it all at once so don’t make that mistake like I did.
Try to hit the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles on your way out of the Grand Palace. It’s after the main palace section and the main tours, before the exit for sure, and the exhibits are both upstairs and they have a great gift shop downstairs. Not only do they have your traditional museum kind of books and bookmarks and all that kind of stuff, but they do also have two things that will be interesting for you as a sewist. One is ready-made garments in the fabrics that are made by a lot of the nonprofits and organizations that Queen Sirikit has sponsored throughout the years. So if those are really cool. They do make pretty modern, I would say, cuts like I was looking at some tank tops and some pants. I will say sizing on those is a bit limited. I saw extra small to extra large. I didn’t have a tape measure, so I wasn’t able to measure, but my best guess is that the extra large bust was probably somewhere in the 40 something inches. So not the most inclusive sizing.
But do not fret, they also sell fabric. That was the other part that I discovered. My partner very helpfully thought I was off to pay and lo and behold, I found the fabric cutting station. He was not impressed with that. But they do sell lovely, lovely silk and ikat. The prices really do range. There are some 700 baht per meter fabrics all the way up to like 2-3,000 baht per meter and so you know they they kind of span all over. It’s really worth a look I think if you are really into textiles and you really like silk.
I didn’t see any smaller remnants cuts or anything like that but they do have a lot of other items made with those fabrics in case you know buying a meter fabric will not fit into into your bag but I thought that the museum was really well curated I believe they rotate their exhibits and not on a particular set schedule. So definitely check before you go and they are closed at certain times throughout the year. So if you’re making a trip out to Bangkok or you live in Bangkok, make make a trip to this museum. It is definitely well worth your time. um And if you just want to see that museum and not deal with the tourist’s horns, I definitely respect that too because it was quite crowded.
And again, similar to the Peranakan Museum, the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles was a lovely break with air conditioning inside from the very warm and humid weather outside. I definitely left with a lot of inspiration despite not being able to take any pictures or videos inside, and I cannot wait to sew with the two pieces of fabric that I brought back. And yeah, that’s my trip recap. After that, we were in a few other places in Thailand and then hit Singapore again before we came home.
And so it was a lovely trip with a lot of learning, cultural immersion, and honestly more textile fun that I’ve ever had on a vacation where, you know, I think a lot of us default when we travel to just thinking about like, what can I buy in terms of fabric here? Not necessarily what can I learn? So if you are going anywhere this year, I would highly recommend just checking out if there are other either fashion exhibits, textile related exhibits, related maker spaces or creative highlights um wherever you’re going. I had a lot of fun.
That’s definitely going to be a strategy that I use when planning future vacations. How can I learn more about the craft I so love to do in my free time while I am on the road? And I think that both of these exhibits kind of gave me different perspectives and gave us a really good deep dive into the rich textile heritage. And I’ll say that my partner is not into fashion. He’s not even really into the sewing part except for when it’s beneficial for alterations and making him things, but he did also enjoy quite a bit of these exhibits. I think they did a great job of bringing people in who aren’t even necessarily just textile nerds, so if you’re traveling with family or a significant other, keep that in mind. It is definitely fun I would not say that they are the most child-friendly for sure, but on the plus side they are both fairly accessible and had great hours and availability, so check ahead as always before you go somewhere, but highly recommend those two stops in Singapore and Bangkok.
We will be back in your feeds in the next few weeks with another episode of me and Nicole catching you up on where she’s been, where I’ve been, the last we left you hanging on Instagram was that we were gonna hang out together. And so and so did that happen? What ended up happening in the last few months besides my trip? All of that is coming for you very soon in the next episode. Thanks for listening.
Ada: Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of the Asian Sewist Collective podcast If you like our show, please consider supporting us on coffee by becoming a one-time or monthly supporter or by buying our sewing labels. Your financial support helps us with our overhead expenses. The link to our coffee page is KO-FI .com Asian Sewist Collective and you can find the link in our show notes on our website and on our Instagram account. Check us out on Instagram at Asian Sewist Collective. That’s one word Asian Sewist Collective. You can also help us out by spreading the word and telling your friends We would also appreciate it if you could rate review and subscribe to this podcast on Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast
Nicole: All of the links and resources mentioned in today’s episode will be in the show notes on our website That’s Asian Sewist Collective.com and we’d love to hear from you Email us with your questions comments or even voice messages if you want to be featured on future episodes at Asian Sewist Collective@ gmail.com. Thank you so much to the other members of our collective who made this episode a reality. This is the Asian Sewist Collective podcast and we’ll see you next time.