Now that Christmas celebration is at the corner, people in the tailoring business are smiling and happy, though their heads are down working rigorously.
Sunday Trust visited Gidan Sama along Bayajida by Taiwo Road, in Kaduna, a building whose upper floor is dominated by tailors.
Muibi Olaitan is a tailor who owns a shop at Gidan Sama. He said that he makes close to N100,000 at Christmas seasons, while he makes about N50,000 in a month when there is no festivity.
He said he sews a gown with design for N7,000, skirt and blouse for N2,000, wrapper and blouse for N1,500 while a gown without design goes for N1,500, noting that whether there is festivity or not, they are always busy but certainly, there is usually a rush for sewing during Christmas.
In order to meet up with the high demand for sewing at Christmas, he said he usually sleeps in his shop, works harder than before, engages more apprentices to work since he has five apprentices. He added that due to the rush, he sews five clothes in a day.
“Despite all my efforts, I still disappoint some people, though it is not intentional. So what I do now during festive period is that when I collect clothes to a certain level, I stop no matter how much the customer is willing to pay so that I do not bite more than I can chew,” Muibi said.
He established that hard work, creativity and smartness are the keys to success in the tailoring business. These, he said, have been his secret of success.
“I have been in this business for about 15 years now; I learnt the skill when I was in secondary school and I chose tailoring among other vocations because it has to do largely with creativity, I can sew both men and women clothes but I specialize on women clothes. I feed myself from this work, I pay my rent, cloth myself and ultimately I am happy because I enjoy what I am doing,” he said.
In the same vein, Muritala Adamu of Muri Fashion Centre, in his own view said that there is usually a change in the price of sewing because there are many clothes competing for quick attention. This, he said, influences the price as against the period when there is no festivity.
Even though he lamented that the clothes he got so far this season are not as many as he got last year due to complain of lack of money by customers, there are still a lot of clothes yet to be sown for Christmas in his shop, confirming that truly, this is their season.
He said he makes close to N40,000 monthly but at festive periods like Christmas, he makes close to N90,000. This business for over 14 years, he noted has really helped him earn a livelihood. With it, he married and has two children and owns his own house.
“I do overtime. In fact, this season; I sleep in the shop so that I can work through the night. I have seven apprentices, five sewing machines and one designing machine, but the truth is that if you pay cash, you will not be disappointed. So the price a customer pays will determine the time she will get her cloth, the highest payer gets her cloth first,” Muritala said.
He said he chose to specialize in women’s clothes because women buy and sew clothes more than men, noting that before a man will sew one cloth, a woman would have sown 10. “Though, women are very troublesome, some after sewing ‘ express’ (quickly) for them, they will tell you, they don’t have money,” he added.
His designer, Danjuma Usman, who has been designing for six years now, said that his challenge is inadequate power supply which most time slows down his work. As a result, he uses generator most of the time so as to meet up with customers’ demands.
Last year, he said he designed more than 40 clothes at Christmas period but this year, he has only designed about 25 so far, but he believes that many more are still coming. “Designing a clothe ranges from N1,500 to N10,000 depending on the pattern and style of design even though there are still designs that could cost as much as N15,000 or N20,000 but they are not usually being demanded in this area,” Danjuma said.
Mrs Josephine Madu, also a tailor, in her own case, has stopped collecting clothes from customers so that she can concentrate on the ones she has at hand.
She said, “I don’t want to disappoint anybody because everybody will tell you they are travelling and they want it quickly. We are not machines and so, no matter the amount we get from this business, we still need some rest so that we don’t collapse along the line. But customers don’t understand this and some will go as far as insulting you or cry if you fail them.”
As the tailoring business is presently experiencing a boom, so also are the sellers of tailoring materials. Murtala Aminu, a seller of tailoring materials along Ibrahim Taiwo road in Kaduna, said that he is enjoying a higher patronage now because more people patronize the tailors for their festive clothes, so also the tailors patronize them for the sewing materials.
Contrary to what tailors and sellers of tailoring materials are experiencing now, sellers of sewing machines say that it is not the same story with them.
Christopher Ude of Chrisben Trading Company in Kaduna confirms that Christmas season is not their season. He said their own season comes after the celebration when the tailors would have gathered a lot of money, then they buy new machines.
Cool money is got from tailoring business. All you need do is learn the skill with some sense of creativity, sit down and sew in a unique manner that will attract a lot of clients to you because the business is not only lucrative at festive periods but at all times due to the fact that people, especially women, buy new clothes and sew all the time.
