MUAR: The once popular ‘songkok lipat’ (foldable headgear) has been making a comeback the past few years.
The traditional men’s headgear was popular between the 1960s and 1970s to match the ‘baju Melayu’ (Malay attire), said Nurdalila Abd Ghani, the owner of ‘songkok Masood Hussin’ or better known as ‘songkok Muar’.
“The songkok lipat specially made by us are easy to carry and store and are getting more and more popular. To date, we have received orders of over 2,000 pieces,” she told Bernama recently.
However, she said it cannot be worn for official occasions because it is considered inappropriate.
According to Nurdalila, who continues the legacy of her late grandfather, Masood Hussin, she got the idea and innovation to produce songkok lipat with her husband Zahedy Zakariah, 45, after receiving complaints from customers about the difficulty of storing the headgear.
“At first, it was just a trial and error. We were using the same material as normal songkok, namely songkok mahkota, songkok rata and songkok daeng, but did not expect it to receive so much attention,” she said.
Among the earliest customers who bought songkok from them were former Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also Pagoh MP and former Minister of Youth and Sports Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who is Muar MP.
Nurdalila added that she also takes care of the quality of the songkok she produces by choosing the best materials, including imported velvet fabric so that it could last for a long time.
She said that orders have been increasing so much nowadays including from Singapore and Brunei.
“Besides wanting to continue the legacy, my passion in the art of making songkok made me stay in this industry, even though at first many people didn’t believe a woman can make songkok,” she said. — BERNAMA
