Ceremonial skirt with medallion design

Title
Raffles Place
Year/Period
c. 1970
Region
Singapore
Dimension
Object size: 8.9 x 14 cm
Accession No.
2008-04075
Collection of

This skirt has large vertical bands with supplementary weft motifs in bright silk colours. The motifs take the form of geometric medallions, with horizontal bands of fine saw tooth and interlocking zig zag patterns along the lower hem.This type of design is found in the Tai Daeng tradition where the skirt is known as 'sin kor dok'. The smaller medallion motifs are also found in the Tai Muang or Tai Thanh tradition in Nghe An province in Vietnam. The Tai began to move out of southern China into northern areas of mainland Southeast Asia during the 12th century. The rich textile-weaving legacy remains today, although designs and markets for such textiles are changing with globalisation.