Eid Aidilfitri Day 1: Electric Blue Caftan + Songket Sarong

When I was younger, my mom would always take us sisters to those textile shops and retailers where she would help us pick out the prettiest fabrics, which we would send to our tailor and get them made into our favourite traditional wear for us to don on the first day of Eid—usually the baju kurung. 

But those were the good old days; I still occasionally buy fabrics (the lace section is always so dreamy) but I just never seem to find the time to scout for the right ones and send them to the tailor in time for Eid nowadays, preferring to just buy off the rack.

Even so, I find that it's hard for me to make up my mind about which Eid outfit to buy without Shah's input so it's always been about us shopping around his work schedule. This year we couldn't fit a full-blown shopping session into a proper slot so we found ourselves perusing the racks at Subang Parade the night before we left for Kedah (Shah's hometown's turn this year!) in the space of one hour before the mall closed.

I honestly didn't really find anything that I fell head over heels in love with. Well, at first, anyway. I had settled on a sea-blue-green asymmetrical caftan to wear on Eid day, which I did buy, but then I made my way to Bhaju to get two caftans that were on sale (which I could just wear at home). 

Shah and I were already at the cashier when one of the sales persons in Bhaju sneakily whipped out this songket-like wraparound sarong to show it to me, and it was just chemistry. I knew I had to have it.

I don't know what it is about the sarong but I just thought, OK, that HAS to go into my closet.

Honestly, it's the most beautiful sarong I'ver ever owned. I think the fact that the print resembles a traditional songket is what really cinched the deal for me.

It's made of a really thin material but thankfully isn't see through, which makes it perfect! Everyone's always getting hot on Eid day, what with us moving around as much as we talk and eating all those hot Eid food.

The other stores in Subang Parade were already closed by the time I decided to get the sarong to wear on Eid day, but then I had to make a quick decision on which top to match it with. The sales people were pulling out some promising pairings—Shah went for a white flowy chiffon blouse, which is really pretty—but when I turned to scan the shop, my eyes immediately rested on this lone electric blue caftan.

If you've been around Affordorable long enough, you'd know my intense relationship with the electric shade (see here, here and here) so the caftan top was the obvious choice.

The white chiffon was too good too miss out on, though, so I ended up getting both tops, and I'm free to mix and match them with the sarong any time, which is a plus!

I put on my Eid outfit right after Eid prayers, around 10am, and these photos were taken real close to sunset time, so even though I did a short outfit change in the afternoon (I napped for half an hour like a baby) you would have thought I'd be feeling majorly uncomfortable. The top was already a little wrinkled (the sarong is WRINKLE-FREE, rejoice!) but there's just something in the air during Eid that makes you stay joyous and positive. I was in this caftan and sarong right up to 11pm, imagine that, and I was in a cheery mood all day long. It IS a day of celebration, after all!

To see my Eid Aidilfitri outfit from last year, click here!

Under RM 100

Bhaju electric blue caftan top

Bhaju songket printed sarong

Zara electric blue ballet flats

Under RM 10

Hand socks from random stall in Souq Al-Bukhary