The Selendang: Performance and Uses

Step number ten. The final step creates a border for the illustration itself: a full length, unfolded selendang (‘slendang’). The detail of the gentle folds shows how the colours and patterns drape together in harmony.

Driessen watched as native women transformed long pieces of plain fabric into vibrant patterned selendangs for dancing:

“The natural gracefulness, with which they move about their arms and limbs and veil themselves with their slendangs, throwing one end into the air and catching it back again, whilst the other end hangs down upon the floor, is simply wonderful.”

It would have also been used amongst the Indonesian community for more everyday things, as a shawl or for carrying babies. In these contexts, each colour, pattern and material signify deeply personal things to the wearer.