"Songket” is a hand-woven traditional Malay fabric with gold and silver threads and worn mainly during official functions and ceremonies. Woven on a Malay frame loom, elaborate patterns are created by introducing extra gold or silver weft threads with the use of a flat needle or cuban.

The term 'songket' comes from the Malay word menyongket, ‘to embroider with gold or silver threads’. Strictly speaking, songket is not ‘embroidered’. It is woven using what is commonly referred to as the supplementary weft technique. In the songket process, extra (supplementary) metallic threads are inserted in special lengths in between the silk weft (latitudinal) threads of the main background cloth.

These special lengths - or weft ‘floats’ - pass over three, five, or seven silk warp (longitudinal) threads and under one on the loom to form designated patterns which contrast in colour and texture with the ground cloth. It is these even-sized metallic floats forming distinctive patterns, which distinguish songket from other types of hand-woven textiles. On antique pieces, the contrast in texture between the background cloth and the songket weaves is more pronounced since the gold threads was usually rounded and made by winding the gold filament round a thick core thread.

The songket goes through eight stages before it becomes a piece of fabric and it is still traditionally woven. As weavers are usually from rural areas, it is not surprising to find that the motifs are patterned after local flora and fauna. These motifs are also named after local Malay delicacies such as seri kaya, wajik, and the tepung talam, believed to be favourites of royalty. Exclusive songket requires between one and three months to complete, while ordinary songket only takes about 3 days.

Men wore the songket fashioned into a destar or head-cloth. It was only later that Malay women started wearing songket sarung or sarung worn in 'rolling waves; style with a baju kurung top. Today songket is a popular choice for the Malay wedding costume and is often presented by the groom to the bride as one of the wedding gifts.

In order to preserve the original lustre and quality of the songket, a large cowry shell known as genus is normally used to polish the cotton fabric or songket cloth before the telepuk process is initiated. Telepuk is another beautiful handicraft creation of the Malay society in the olden days. Composed of golden lace, this fabric is used specially for official functions.

Sample of songket usage in our robes designs.