Trying to Get Tailor-Made
Writing by Jes on Sunday, 23 of November , 2008 at 2:47 pm
Here in Liberia, clothing is essential. It is truly the culture of black people to be fly. I mean dressed, fresh, clean, adorned, blingy, whatever we can call it or do; we have to look good in the process. The thing in Africa is that in order to achieve your look, you simply purchase the fabric you want and you take it to your tailor. In fact any compliments done in regards to clothing are normally answered by first stating, “Oh, my tailor….” Essentially, you are only as worthy as your tailor sews you to be. So I knew immediately, if I was going to join the game in the clothing ranks…I was going to have to find me a tailor. A personal tailor.
I was limited by location. My tailor would have to be a walking distance from my job and can only be visited during lunch hours. I would have to find someone who was creative, yet sophisticated in their style because I can’t be too African…I have to blend my ensemble together and sometimes the vibrant nature of Liberians clothing styles makes me blind in my right eye. I had certain tastes and because of body size, certain restrictions. I decided to find the best tailor, I would have to channel the spirit of my mother when it comes to bargain shopping.
My idea was to purchase three different pieces of fabric and go to three different stores and tell them my likes and dislikes. With the fabric, they were to design a work related outfit and I would only spend $15 dollars. Based on work, style, quality, and time I would pick my tailor and be able to send my future clothing desires to her and work directly with someone who would benefit me.
Great plan, right? Yeah, but I was broke so the experiment would begin with two stores. I went to store one and proceeded with the task. The woman barely looked at me, nodded her head and pointed to the young man who was sewing clothes. He jumped up, measured every point of my body, smiled at me and went back to work. I hesitantly left my fabric on the counter and walked out trying to smile, like a promise to be a good client. She muttered the day and time and went back talking to her friend and I felt alone. The young man waved by back and I walked out knowing that I didn’t care for the personality of the woman or store. Just the sewer, who was the only one that was nice.
I immediately went to my second spot; a vibrant girl met me at the door. I showed her my fabric and we went and looked at catalog designs together. Long story short, she sold me and I was secretly hoping that she would win in my “Project Runway” challenge. I wanted to give her my money based on personality.
Well, when I went to pick up my outfit from store one, I was amazed. I loved it, this wonderful blend. I mean, the woman didn’t listen to me but got my criteria right on point. Size was perfect everything…which only meant that my hopeful store number two had serious competition…so I cheated a little. The next day, I wore my Store #1 outfit when I went to go check on the progress at Store #2 that way, she could see what she was up against without me saying a word.
I walk into store #2 and I hear a whistle. I turn my head and there is the young man who sews in Store #1 sewing clothes at Store #2! He looks at me and smiles, tells me it looks good and I model his creation for him. He nods his head and goes back to work at store #2 and that is when I realized that my competition has a snag in it. The person who actually sews the clothes moonlights for both stores! This boy sewed both outfits, yet I went to two different places. Am I paying for the designer or the creator?
Because now it really don’t matter whom I make the order from as long as I have that young man sewing the outfit does it? I need to just approach him on the download tip and see if I can work a dark parking lot, undercover deal. My fifteen dollars is just overhead and I am thinking in order for me to make this thing more profitable for both of us, I should just cut out the middleman, you know?
I mean, he is the one who sized me, he overhead the specifications and he delivered. The girl in the store just gave him the go ahead. And my perfect competition has been compromised because of him moonlighting at different spots sewing for spare change.
So now, I am trying to catch him on a break or something outside both shops, hip him to my little game plan you know. Because really, everything and everyone is a hustler out here in these Liberian streets and if its about me getting quality product for a cheaper price because we cut out the overhead, I am on it. I mean this clothing game is serious, and I got to do what I gotta do to get my floss on without going bankrupt. So I am going to change the game.
Why do I sound like a character on the Wire?
Category: November 08
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