Songket can be used as various accessories, avoid waste
ALOR SETAR: Creative, that’s the best expression for an initiative inspired by young entrepreneurs Nazkids Enterprise that produces various accessories using excess songket cloth in an effort to avoid waste.
Operating since 2015, Nazkids Enterprise based in Bandar Darulaman, Jitra is a company that produces traditional exclusive clothes for babies and children such as Malay clothes, kain samping and tengkolok from songket.
Co-founder of Nazkids Enterprise Khairunnisa Ahmad Zamri, 36, said to avoid wasting this valuable textile, her company also produces three accessory products, namely face masks, key chain straps and lanyards using surplus fabric from the textile.
“The production of baby and children’s clothes does not require a lot of songket fabric because of the small size, so there will indeed be a lot of excess fabric and before, we just threw it away.
“…So from there came the idea to produce the three accessories and we managed to reduce the rate of waste up to 90 percent,” he said when met in conjunction with the Malaysian Family Aspiration Tour (AKM) of Kedah State at the Darul Aman Stadium here today.
He said the company started producing songket face mask accessories at the end of 2020 because at that time there were many requests from brides-to-be who wanted a beautiful face mask to be styled with their wedding dress.
“Instead of producing face masks, we thought that if after this their use is no longer mandatory, then the question arises as to what other products can be produced with the excess songket cloth? So we have produced key chains and songket lanyards,” he said, adding that the price of the product is sold between RM6 to RM19.
Speaking further, Khairunnisa said that within an hour her company was able to produce 10 pieces of face mask, 10 to 15 units of lanyards and 20 key chains with the help of 10 workers in a two-storey shop located in Jitra town.
Interestingly, Khairunnisa said the accessories produced are also exclusive because the songket pattern is different and maybe only five buyers will get the same pattern.
“It is true that some produce accessories like this but they use songket print patterns instead of actual songket fabric. So, customers are surprised to admit that it is difficult to get a product like this, and it is also easy to wash by rinsing with soapy water,” he said.
According to him, the company also intends to produce batu seremban products, a type of traditional game made from songket cloth to be used as souvenirs.
The Kedah State AKM tour that lasted for three days from Friday ended today and it is the ninth edition after Johor, Perlis, Sabah, Terengganu, Perak, Kelantan, Sarawak and Selangor.
source – BERNAMA
