This 'baju panjang' or jacket is fashioned from finely hand painted cotton probably intended for the European market. It is decorated with a flowering tree design with pomegranates, cherries and diverse flowers in pink, blue and light brown. This is set against a cream background.The Malay baju panjang is a sort of long, loose coat once popular with both men and women. It relates to the Indo-Arabic banyan worn by Gujarati merchants, which came to be popular with Europeans. Malay popular tradition holds that the baju panjang was introduced with the arrival of Islam in the Malay World which required a more modest form of dress.
