The once popular ‘Songkok Lipat’ (foldable headgear) has been making a comeback in 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’.
“Our specially-made Songkok Lipat are easy to carry and store…They are getting more and more popular nowadays. 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.
Nurdalila, who continued the legacy of her late grandfather, Masood Hussin, said the idea to sell foldable songkok came about after she and her husband Zahedy Zakariah, 45, received complaints from customers over the difficulty to store the headgear.
“At first, it was just a trial and error thing. We even used the same material as the 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 youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who is Muar MP.
Nurdalila said she was serious about maintaining the quality of her songkok and used only the best of materials, including imported velvet fabric.
She said orders have been increasing including from neighbouring countries; 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 that a woman can make a songkok.” she said.
