The term 'kebaya' is derived from the Arab word ‘kaba’ which means clothing. This white cotton kebaya trimmed with handmade lace could have been worn by Eurasian women in the Dutch East Indies during the day. This piece is decorated with rectangular borders filled with wavy cutwork designs running down the frontal hems and outward to the sides. This kebaya could be worn together with a ‘kain’, an unstitched length of cloth wrapped around the lower half of the body, sometimes referred to as a ‘sarong’. The kebaya soon became the costume of all classes of women in the Indonesian Archipelago.
