In recent decades, however, kemben has fallen out of favor among Javanese Muslim women as they abandoned their traditional fashion and wear Islamic clothing such as the hijab, which was previously uncommon in Indonesia.

Today, the tradition of wearing kemben were preserved and kept alive in the Javanese royal court of Yogyakarta and Surakarta keratons, especially among nobles and abdi dalem (palace servants).

However, in recent years, this also had stirred debate about the efforts to preserve classic Javanese court culture being contended by the growing conservative Islamism among the Indonesian Muslims community.

[4] Traditional kemben is worn by wrapping a piece of cloth around the torso, folding and securing the edge, tying it with additional rope, and covering it with an angkin, a smaller sash around the abdomen.

In Europe, it is akin to European décolletage, however, it is more indigenous by using local fabrics such as batik, ikat, songket, or tenun, and simply secured by folding and slipping the cloth edges and tying the knot.