Balinese Costumes for Day to Day Celebration

You live in Bali for a while now, having some nice Balinese friends, and got an invitation to a family ceremony. Or, imagine this scenario: you work for a company based in Bali and a traditional Balinese ceremony is about to be conducted in your office. You may ask yourself (or your office mates), what to wear, where to buy it, and above all, if you decide to go to that traditional Balinese costume shop alone, what you should buy? The Balinese people may wear different costumes depending on the ceremonies they should attend and the areas the live. However, there is a common and general Balinese costumes that cannot go wrong in all situations to wear as a guest in a Balinese family or community, which are usually worn in day to day celebration. We write some guides for your reference before entering that fashionable Balinese boutique.

Man’s Costumes

Udeng

That piece of headband wrapped around a Balinese man’s head is called udeng (or “destar” in refined Balinese term). The color of udeng that you should wear will be different depending on the ceremonies you’ll attend. White udeng is always worn for religious ceremonies, normally combined with white saput and white shirt, symbolizing pure heart and good intention. For that office opening or anniversary ceremonies you may join in a couple of days, wearing white udeng is the right choice. In other occasions, colored or patterned udeng is prefered (not the black one – black is for mourning).

Baju Safari

There are two types of baju safari to be worn in a Balinese ceremony. The common one, and the fancy one. Common baju safari, mostly made of cotton, normally worn for day to day ceremonies held in an office, home, or temples. If you don’t have one, you can wear that white collared shirt you usually use for working purpose. Fancier baju safari is purposed for party like-festivities such as wedding or tooth filing of your close relatives, or, alternatively, you can wear your non-white collared shirt (ethnical patterns like batik, or endek is preferred).

Kamen

You are free to choose whatever pattern or colors you like to wear for your kamen (sheet of fabric that is often mistaken as sarung – sarong, the one that is similar in Java). If you are confident with your kamen styling skill, go ahead with kamen in sheet (get the tutorials online or ask a friend). However, if you – like most of foreigners in Bali – are an absolute beginner, pick the half-finished kamen. You just need to wrap it up around your waist without being worry of how to style that front end.

Saput

Always combined and matched with udeng, saput is often sold in pair (often-but not alway). The rules of wearing saput is closely similar to wearing udeng. However, there are times that wearing saput is not necessary for the Balinese men. That is when they attend community meetings and when they work together for a ceremony preparation. So if you come during a Balinese ceremony preparation instead of on the “big day”, adjust your costumes to be not too fancy.

Woman’s Costumes

Baju kebaya

Kebaya for Balinese women are offered in a wide variation of style and materials. If you have average body shape and size, there are lots of choice of finished baju kebaya to pick from the kebaya shop. However, since kebaya is meant to fit your body shape, a different size in chest size or waist size often cause problem, so that piece of kebaya that looks pretty on that boutique mannequin, doesn’t suit you. In this case, you should choose the bigger size (and give us the ideal look) or visit a specific tailor for kebaya Bali after you pick the kebaya sheet that you want. Also, remember to put on “long torso kebaya” – google to get the look of the item- inside your kebaya for a goo body shape purpose, especially if you choose to go with brokat (brocade) type fabric. White or yellow kebaya is worn for religious ceremonies.

Kamen

Balinese women are free to wear any color of kamen. But in the south pat of Bali (Kerobokan, Kuta, Canggu), wearing white kamen is aimed only for priests. So, it’s wise to not wear one. 🙂 Meanwhile, if you’ll attend a cremation ceremony, choose to wear dark shade of color.

Selempot

Wearing selempot symbolize that control of desire. In a religious ceremonies held in the temple, Balinese women often choose to wear yellow or orange selempot, or sometimes white. But again, in the south, white is usually worn by the local priests, or if you are joining a purification ceremony for the spirit of the deaths (who are a close family or yours). Black or dark blue (navy) selempot is common for mourning events.

Now that you’ve added up your Balinese costumes vocabulary, you are ready to go. Which Balinese costumes shop are you going to visit? (dian)