A good tailor is worth his weight in gold, but the challenge is to keep him up to scratch and on your side, so that he is willing to keep taking your orders !
Shopping complexes are full of tiny tailors' shops, with a variety of promising names: 'The Ladies Tailor', 'Perfect Tailors', 'Golden Scissors', etc. Recommendations from people you know, are not always a guarantee of success - what's good for the goose is not always good for the gander.
Typically you will wait in a queue for your turn to present your fabric, while others before you have long and detailed conversations about their own garment. Eventually it's your turn and the measuring begins. The tailor is barefoot and a tape measure hangs around his neck. Every part of your anatomy is measured and he makes quick notes on a piece of paper, as he goes along. This garment is bound to be perfect - he practically has a dummy model of your form on paper ! He staples a small triangle of your fabric to the paper with the measurements, for easy identification.
You are given a date for collection of your garment - anything from 1 week to a few weeks. But invariably, when you go to collect the item, it's not ready and you are given a new date. When you finally try the garment on, to your surprise, it doesn't bear any resemblance to your figure and doesn't fit at all ! So you conclude that as you left the shop, the paper with your measurements was balled and thrown into the nearest waste paper basket.
However, if you do find a good tailor, the partnership can be rewarding, with garments perfectly executed. And so I climbed the stairs with some confidence, to the third floor, where 'My Tailor' had his small shop. My request was simple - a cloth bag for my shopping and I had the fabric with me. "No, I can't make that for you", he said firmly. I argued that it was a simple and easy job, involving no measuring, zips or buttons! "No, he said emphatically, now is the wedding season and I'm busy with big orders, as well as N.R.I. (non resident Indian) work". Winter is the time when the NRIs return to India to visit and shop, many staying briefly in apartments which they own and which stand empty for rest of the year.
So my next stop was a man in the next complex, who had hemmed things for me on occasion. But here again, the answer was 'no'. "I only hem table cloths" he said "but try Ladlee - in the basement of the next complex". It seemed like a 'bargain basement' suggestion, as the complexes, were becoming increasingly scruffy.
The shop was small and the owner, a very small old man with white hair and glasses, was bent over his sewing machine - a young apprentice sat behind him. After a few minutes, he came over to see what I wanted. I explained about the cloth bag...."yes, let me take some measurements". I watched with relief as he jotted down the precise measurements - "You can collect on the 30th", he said and handed me his business card - it said 'Ladlee - All Cloth Alteration Shop'. But to my surprise, I noticed that it also said that he did "Pranic Healing". Somehow the bag lost its importance, perhaps what I really needed was healing ? !
Shopping complexes are full of tiny tailors' shops, with a variety of promising names: 'The Ladies Tailor', 'Perfect Tailors', 'Golden Scissors', etc. Recommendations from people you know, are not always a guarantee of success - what's good for the goose is not always good for the gander.
Typically you will wait in a queue for your turn to present your fabric, while others before you have long and detailed conversations about their own garment. Eventually it's your turn and the measuring begins. The tailor is barefoot and a tape measure hangs around his neck. Every part of your anatomy is measured and he makes quick notes on a piece of paper, as he goes along. This garment is bound to be perfect - he practically has a dummy model of your form on paper ! He staples a small triangle of your fabric to the paper with the measurements, for easy identification.
You are given a date for collection of your garment - anything from 1 week to a few weeks. But invariably, when you go to collect the item, it's not ready and you are given a new date. When you finally try the garment on, to your surprise, it doesn't bear any resemblance to your figure and doesn't fit at all ! So you conclude that as you left the shop, the paper with your measurements was balled and thrown into the nearest waste paper basket.
However, if you do find a good tailor, the partnership can be rewarding, with garments perfectly executed. And so I climbed the stairs with some confidence, to the third floor, where 'My Tailor' had his small shop. My request was simple - a cloth bag for my shopping and I had the fabric with me. "No, I can't make that for you", he said firmly. I argued that it was a simple and easy job, involving no measuring, zips or buttons! "No, he said emphatically, now is the wedding season and I'm busy with big orders, as well as N.R.I. (non resident Indian) work". Winter is the time when the NRIs return to India to visit and shop, many staying briefly in apartments which they own and which stand empty for rest of the year.
So my next stop was a man in the next complex, who had hemmed things for me on occasion. But here again, the answer was 'no'. "I only hem table cloths" he said "but try Ladlee - in the basement of the next complex". It seemed like a 'bargain basement' suggestion, as the complexes, were becoming increasingly scruffy.
The shop was small and the owner, a very small old man with white hair and glasses, was bent over his sewing machine - a young apprentice sat behind him. After a few minutes, he came over to see what I wanted. I explained about the cloth bag...."yes, let me take some measurements". I watched with relief as he jotted down the precise measurements - "You can collect on the 30th", he said and handed me his business card - it said 'Ladlee - All Cloth Alteration Shop'. But to my surprise, I noticed that it also said that he did "Pranic Healing". Somehow the bag lost its importance, perhaps what I really needed was healing ? !
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