Costumes: King Maniaka

The menacing image of the evil and corrupt King Maniaka. His outfit was designed to give him more stature and a powerful presence. His is the epitome of power and majesty, manifested in the form of a man. Typically in SE Asian custom, yellow is a colour reserved for royalty. Maniaka's outfit is a flowing blaze of yellow and gold, a vibrant display of his wealth. A unique feature of his costume is the presence of shoulder armour and a helmet, two items which represent his insecurity, yet enhances his image of grandeur and instills fear in his subjects.

The helmet has a conical design reminiscent of the kecubung, a traditional headgear for use in makyong plays of the east coast of Malaysia and southern Thailand. A neck guard and cheek pieces were added to give Maniaka extra protection while enhancing his appearence. The shoulder pieces (pauldron) consisted of 2 plates rivetted together and an overlapping series of scales protected the upper arm. The entire ensamble is held together by a pectoral. Other than these, Maniaka has a large pending which also acted as a partial armour on his abdomen. His bracers (arm guards) complete his garniture.

His sabuk is adapted from the Javanese design, and so are his double-layered skirts. I was aiming for an overall silhouette of a wayang kulit Laksamana puppet, and I feel that I was almost on target! Maniaka's costume conveyed the illusion of grandeur, might and fear: all the elements essential for a maniacal king!

Maniaka's keris also deserves mention, as it is of a hybrid design. One might observe that the keris is a keris pekaka fitted with a Javanese ladrang sheath. However, in reality, the hilt was fashioned from the Thai hong, a mythical beast resembling the goose. In accordance with tradition, the keris is wrapped in "gold" and the sampir is made from "ivory". It was indeed, made for a King. Mr Jay suggested another weapon - perhaps a sword - to be tucked into his sabuk on his back. However, we had to drop the idea because it seemed impractical and it was also cumbersome for the actor.

Unlike Anike, I had a clear picture of what Maniaka was supposed to look like in my head. His costume was among the earliest to be finalised, but his armour and helmet took a lot of research and contemplation. I had to spend hours online, looking for the most probable look of a "generic" SE Asian armour. I decided on the scale armour because similar armour had been used in China and the Malay Bugis armour had scales made from bamboo and buffalo horn laced together with chainmail. In the end, the scale aventail (neck guard) and shoulder pieces gave Maniaka the appearence of a large and fearsome predatory bird, which seemed to fit his image.