Songket is a kind of woven cloth that uses traditional equipment with motifs of geometry and nature. Songket’s words mean, carry out and pull threads out of cloth or weave on gold and silver threads. Historically, songket is also used by nobles. The smoothness and complexity of the pattern motif depict the rank and position of a magnified person. In addition to lifting dignity, motifs and woven colors also symbolize the position of the wearer. According to songket users, Shahrul Ambri Samsuddin, 32, said songket is only used when attending certain occasions because of the exclusive value of yarns and motifs. He adds the side cloth can be obtained for free after buying a Malay shirt with a price as low as RM100. And the side is an imported one from India and Pakistan. Significant price differences cause consumers to tend to buy counterfeit songket versus the original

Artificial songket fabric is rougher than the original but still usable. Artificial songket colors and patterns do not differ much compared to the original ones. Slow down the artificial songket gives a blow to the local songket industry. Zainab Mamat, 79, a traditional songket businessman said the response to local songket declined over the last 5 years. This is due to the dumping of artificial songket sold at very cheap prices and so far no efforts have been made to address this problem. If it is not contained, it will cause more songket sellers who have to close their business. According to him again, although the songket is sold at an expensive price the quality is guaranteed. Original Songket uses high-quality silk yarn and woven with hand skill compared to imported songket which only uses ordinary thread and woven with the machine.

Meanwhile, the Faculty of Textile Design, Lecturer, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Prof Madya Sulaiman Abd. Ghani said the price factor was too expensive to be the cause of the country’s songket setback and said there were about 600 skilled songket in the country. He further commented, one of the steps the entrepreneur can do is the shift from using traditional equipment to machines. With the use of machines, songket products can be produced in large quantities and can reduce songket prices in local markets.

Source: Kosmo Online, Tuesday, 24 July 2018