Kebaya

Javanese wedding in the Surakarta style, 1950s Published by Indonesia's Ministry of Information in the 1950s, this portrait shows a Javanese couple in matching batik wraps that fall to the floor. The bride's dark kebaya jacket is edged with bold embroidered trailing flowers, and a small crown sits above her pinned-back hair; the groom pairs his batik with a dark jacket and a wrapped head cloth. It makes a useful contrast with the Balinese photo: neighboring islands, but here the grandeur sits in the batik and the embroidery rather than in a wall of gold.