The tailor’s side of the tale
The love-hate relationship between tailors and their clients is nothing new in Pakistani society. Finding a good tailor who doesn’t mess up your outfit and also delivers perfectly customised dresses on time is like finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Yet what transpires at the other side of this long war? What do the tailors face during peak seasons and why do they inevitably delay their clients’ orders and design issues? Let’s peek into the life of few tailors with Eidul Fitr right around the corner.
Mansoor Ahmed, 38, has been a tailor as long as he can remember. His shop is situated in Korangi market where he has been stitching clothes since he was very young. “I was hardly seven years old when I started helping my father in cutting shirts and placing buckram fabric on clothes,” Ahmed said. That is his oldest memory from the small 6x6 feet shop that his father set up in the corner of their house. Ahmed now owns his tailoring shop. It has been 20 years now that he has been doing business from the narrow streets of Korangi market where there are more than 80 tailoring shops.
Ahmed and his two brothers learned tailoring from their father and later opened separate businesses. However, in the last few years the businesses declined as the trend of buying prêt rose. “The business is not the same as it was six or seven years back. Then there were four workers at my shop, now there’s just two. One can imagine the load of work on them,” he said.
Everything in Ahmed’s routine is the same as ever but the one thing that hasn’t changed over the years despite soaring inflation is the slew of order and rush before Eid. There is a surge in demand for customised apparel during the Eid season. Receiving a spike in orders, tailors work extremely hard to catch up with the orders. Stress, exhaustion, and extended work hours may arise from this.
Tailors find it difficult to meet deadlines. Customers are not as satisfied if there are delays in receiving their clothes. “Delays are due to several reasons, such as when the customer came in to give the fabric, electricity load shedding, design constraints, price flexibility,” Ahmed explained. Most of the time customers come in the last 1 days of Ramazan and then demand that their clothes be ready before Eid.
Eid time demands may make it difficult for tailors to find high-quality fabrics and materials. This can affect the quality of finished product and results in complaints from customers. Ahmed doesn’t compromise on the quality of fabric, lace, trimmings or buttons that he uses in designing a dress but customers don’t realize this. “For example, if I have to put piping in the dress then I always consider a fabric of good quality so that later the colour of the piping doesn’t bleed during washing. But customers fight over 40-50 rupees with me. Also with time constraints, there is shortage of good quality materials in the market and one has to use trimmings and additional fabric that is not up to the mark,” he said
During Eid, customers anticipate deals and competitive pricing, which puts pressure on tailors to reduce their costs. This impacts their profit-making. Tailors also have to deal with the constant pressure to meet the market price. “The problem started when unstitched dress prices increased, getting them stitched by tailors runs the total cost to be close to the prêt wear that some local brands sell. Eventually people started buying ready-made dresses. Yet despite all this there are many customers who opt for tailors, but then they ask us to stitch in half the price which isn’t possible,” he explained. One simple suit on an average takes at least five to six hours including cutting, stitching and finishing. “In Ramazan, the orders somewhat shoot up to 500-600 percent daily. We only take the number of orders that we can deliver. Since I opened my shop, we have worked almost 18 hours a day during the last Ashra. On Chand raat we go home at Fajr,” Ahmed shared
It might be difficult to locate competent tailors, particularly during busy times like Eid. This scarcity may cause delays and lower-than-expected production quality.
Certain tailors might labour out of tiny workshops with little room and supplies. In these kinds of settings, handling a high volume of orders can be challenging and ineffective.
The issue, Ahmed explained, is not just bulk orders but also a lack of well-trained tailors. “During Ramazan, I usually hire five or six young boys so that we can meet the demand. I can’t afford to pay salaries to 10 tailors all year round,” he said, adding that one major factor here is also that in Pakistan soon after Eid it’s wedding season. “The majority cannot buy designer dresses for weddings so mostly they come to us with fancy fabrics and designs in their phones and ask us to replicate them,” he said.
The time between the two Eids is peak season for tailors because wedding season falls in between as well. “It’s two of the biggest festivities in the country and given the inflation now people only get new clothes made for Eid,” he said.
Custom tailors may experience cash flow issues as a result of late or nonpayment from some customers, their financial stability and commercial operations may be affected by this. It is not that tailors are very happy with customers, unlike customers who think that getting a good tailor is luck. Many customers fight over a few hundred rupees despite the money being decided at the time of order. The piping is too expensive they argue or the edging for dupattas is overpriced, and so on. Or they make excuses that they don’t have cash in hand or are waiting for salaries. In such situations, the temperament of the work is tainted.
To overcome these obstacles, tailors may need to make advance plans, efficiently manage their workload, make investments in staff development and training, and build strong bonds with their suppliers due to payment issues with the customers.
Ahmed and his brothers have started taking online payments and take half payment before finalising the order. They also don’t deliver clothes until full payment is done. “We put up a notice in our shop once we know we won’t be able to make more orders before Eid to avoid any conflict but still there are some old loyal customers for whom we set aside time so that they don’t have to go to another tailor. But mostly such customers always inform us beforehand about any delay in ordering or their deadlines too,” he added.