Tailors working day and night to meet orders

Islamabad : With few days left for Eid, the tailors of the twin cities are working round the clock to meet the pending orders of their valued customers. It is always a difficult yet highly profitable task to stretch the working hours of stitching to meet the deadlines of the orders and deliver them on time. Though power outages have highly severed their work, but still they manage to cope up with the work and they try to deliver suits before Eid. There are many who deliver two to three days before Eid before departing to their own villages to celebrate Eid with their loved ones.

There are many customers who place the orders well before time and get their clothes stitched well before Ramazan begins, but there are also many who wait till the Ramazan begins for the new and better material to come in the market and then they go for embroidery and stitching.

Sabahat Hussain, a tailor by profession, while speaking with this scribe said that the trend of stitching tailored clothes are now declining with the passage of time. Earlier, women used to bring three to four suits for Eid, but now with the availability and affordability of readymade clothes, women prefer to shop off the rack and giving us less suits for stitching.

Sadia Haider, a customer said that she’s happy that Pret line of designers can also be ordered online if we don’t have time to visit the stores. It is also a daily ritual for us to go to flagship stores to get our Eid dress. “I would prefer to get my size from a designer brand instead of arguing with my tailor for a dress,” she added.

As far as the men ‘shalwar qameez’ suits are concerned and to keep up with the latest trends of ‘kurta’ and shirts, many tailors have kept machine embroidery workers so that the customers can choose their patterns under the same roof and they don’t have to explore further.

Though readymade clothes have flooded the market with reasonable rates, there are many customers who are not satisfied with the material they use. Single suit of men’s ‘shalwar qameez’ ranges from Rs995 to Rs5,000 depending upon the material used and the details of the embroidery, buttons and design.

Sakhawat, who is a tailor master working in Scheme III of Chaklala, while talking to this scribe said that this is the time when we are very careful about hiring a new worker for our shop, because there are many unskilled workers who spoil the dresses of Eidul Fitr and then their reputation gets at stake. “I hired an inexperienced tailor for my shop and he spoiled the whole wedding order and then I had to repay my customer Rs48,000. Besides this there are many incidents where tailors who could not meet the deadlines ran away with the materials. Then police complaints are lodged and the shop is sealed,” he said.

Abdus Samad, a customer at the tailor shop, was of the view that he trusts his tailor as he’s the best in the area. “His stitching is best and he delivers on time. Even if I give the order few days before Eid, he would give priority to me and would never say ‘no’ to me because I’m his old and loyal customer. But I still make sure that there is ample time for alteration if needed,” he said.

There are many people who prefer the ready-made clothes over tailoring as it saves time and effort. Aqsa had a different view saying that why go for the hassle of tailoring when we can conveniently buy the clothes off the rack for almost the same price. “With the convenience of shopping malls in the city we can get multiple brands under the same roof. The brands and their replicas have made life easy for us. Just walk in, choose and pay,” she said.

Saleema, a customer quite perturbed with her tailor said that tailors are also working like lawyers who manage to give us new dates every time we visit them.