Recently, the high temperature has reached 35 degrees Celsius, and many stores are eager to sell summer clothes. It was the weekend, and the clothing stores in the small commodity market in the county were often visited by people, but the tailor shops in the back were sparsely populated. Only the shop owners were busy sewing clothes. Some shop owners simply chatted with the boss next door. There are more than 10 tailor shops concentrated in the small commodity market, and most of the tailor shops in the county are here.
Tailoring is a profession that relies on hands to memorize
In the 1980s and 1990s, people living in small southern towns had the habit of ripping cloth to make customized professional attire. Men wore Chinese tunic suits, while women wore bat shirts and bell-bottom pants, which was extremely fashionable.
“You can only do it if you keep doing something, because tailoring is a profession that relies on hands to remember!” A master who has been working as a tailor for decades once regarded tailoring as a craft that can last forever.
In the past, the clothing-making tools were far less complete than those of today’s fashion designers. They only relied on scissors, thimbles, bamboo rulers, tweezers, needles and threads, charcoal irons, and an old-fashioned Bee pedal sewing machine. The tailor uses his chapped hands full of calluses to cut and sew day after day. When he sees the custom-made professional clothes he has sewn being worn by others, he feels happier than someone wearing new clothes.
Nowadays, most tailor shops are opened in hidden places, and the rent on the street is sky-high for tailors. The secluded geographical location, skilled master craftsmen, and “tailor-made” products at close range give you the illusion of traveling through time and space.
During the interview, Aunt Chen, who lives in Shangzhang Community, told reporters enthusiastically: “When we were young, our professional clothes were all customized. Although we now buy them in clothing stores one after another, the clothes we like are still made by tailor shops.”
In another store, Ms. Lu from Zhushan Village, Lengshui Town, accompanied her old mother to take measurements: “My mother is used to wearing customized clothes, but she is not used to the ready-made clothes bought in the market. I take her to the tailor shop every season. , let her choose her own fabric and make it according to the previous style.”
Ms. Lu also told reporters that at first she did not understand why the older generation insisted on custom-made professional attire. Later, what she saw and heard in the tailor shop made her respect the tailoring industry. Once, a seamstress measured my mother’s size. “The ruler used to measure the size was crooked. I was a little worried that the size measured this way would be inaccurate, but I didn’t expect that after my mother put it on, the clothes she made were even better.” It fits well.” She was very surprised by this, “It shows that the master is really experienced and can automatically correct the errors caused by manual measurement.”
The tailoring industry has “no successor”
Sister Cao, 50 years old, has been engaged in the tailoring industry for more than 20 years. At first, her shop was opened in a small alley of the vegetable market. Later, due to the demolition and reconstruction of the street, it was moved to the small commodity market. Sister Cao lamented: “There used to be five or six tailor shops in an alley, but now there are only a dozen small commodity markets left in the entire county.”
The golden age of the development of the tailoring industry is in the transition stage from the planned economy to the market economy. “At that time, tailoring was a popular industry, and apprentices kept coming to learn from it.” Nowadays, few young people are willing to learn this trade. Sister Cao runs the entire tailor shop alone. During the good months, only her husband helps her.
The phenomenon of “no successor” in the tailoring industry is caused by many factors. After the reform and opening up, people’s living standards have continued to improve. Going to college is no longer a dream, but a common phenomenon in society. Major choices mostly focus on popular majors such as computers and tourism. Although young people facing career choices are interested in choosing the clothing industry, they are flocking to clothing stores to sell or run their own businesses. Coupled with the current sales market opened up by the Internet, a large number of products can be purchased at home with just a few clicks. There are very few people who are willing to go out and “tailor-made clothes” in person. As a result, business in the tailoring industry has been sluggish, and the talent gap in the tailoring industry has become increasingly obvious.
When asked about the age group of customers, Sister Cao answered that they are mainly middle-aged and elderly people. However, in recent years, there has been a trend of younger consumers. Those young people who have just started working do not have much spare money on hand, and they have a certain pursuit of the style and texture of clothes. The prices in fashion stores are too high, and the quality in wholesale markets is feared to be poor, so tailor shops in between have become the choice of some people. However, there are only a few such young people, and they cannot play a leading role in the development of the entire tailoring industry.
Under the impact of the market economy, people have begun to pursue personalized clothing and have higher requirements for the details of clothing customization. Tailor practitioners must improve their skills and constantly learn new styles to meet customer needs. Although Sister Cao is 50 years old this year, she still has not stopped learning. In a small shop, in addition to various fabrics and clothes, there is also a computer. In her free time, she browses new fashion elements online and learns how to make different styles of clothes.
However, Sister Cao said frankly that as she gets older, her eyesight begins to deteriorate and she becomes tired after looking at the sewing machine for too long. She works from 8 a.m. to 1 or 2 a.m. every day, and her income is only enough to make ends meet.
Through visits to various stores, the reporter found that the sluggish business of tailor shops is not an isolated case. Generally, an individual can make one or two pieces of summer clothes a day, and only one piece of winter clothes a day. A piece of fabric can undergo a gorgeous transformation after being cut, mended and ironed. The time it takes for a customer to place an order and pick up the clothes is approximately��One week. The complexity of the processing process, the aging of today’s tailors, and the lack of successors in this industry are all impacting this declining industry.
“There are fewer and fewer people who pull cloth to make clothes by themselves. They have less work and can’t make money. Now that they are older, they can’t do anything else.” After hearing what Sister Cao said, we can’t help but ask, what about pulling cloth to make clothes? Clothes, will civilian tailors become the next generation?
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