REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, Palembang songket, the interwoven fabric from South Sumatra, is usually worn as saroong in traditional ceremony including marriage ceremony. The wearers are including the bride, dancers, and also the attendees of the ceremony.  

In history, songket existed since the reign of Srivijaya Kingdom. The manufacturing technology used in making songket was not actually originated in the area, but adapted from China, India and Arab.

The gold luster is one of the distinctive characteristics of songket. The structure of yarn was through a symmetrical pattern made its motif smooth and complex. Previously, weaving songket in Palembang only produced clothes. But latey the use of songket developed into wall pictures, table cloth, pictorial tapestries, clothes women, sprey, chair clothes, tapestry cushions, and etc.

Zainal Abidin, an owner of songket boutique said there were many privileges of songket that was created with a traditional loom, namely kedokan. The pattern was very simple and the manufacturing process was very carefully and took about three to six months.

The proces results different patterns and designs according to artisans. "Songket is the queen of fabric because it could not exposed to heat or stored at room temperature So, treatment of songket exactly same with treatment of a queen," Abidin said.

South Sumatra fashion industry targetted markets in Middle East countries. "Palembang fabrics, such as songket, jumputan and blongsong are often displayed in international exhibition and many visitors from Middle East like it," Head of Departement of Foreign Trade Department at South Sumatra, Ahmad Mirza said. 

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