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Reda Sawaya wrote in “Al-Akhbar”:
The Lebanese boast of keeping up with the latest fashion trends is almost a reminder of the “beautiful era”. Today, many people want the “jacket” and are looking for things to cover the body at the lowest possible cost. Clothes have become “luxury”, and clothing stores have been closed by the hundreds, while what remains of them are constant “whistles” and working on the “piece”. All of this has revived tailoring and inspired a profession that was on the brink of extinction.
“Shorten” and “squeeze” are no longer used to describe an exciting way of dressing, but have become recurring requests in the ears of tailors who seek to “frustrate” what can be “frustrated” by your old clothes. The “brilliance” has returned to the needle and the scissors and the “hard” and the “thimble”. The sewing profession, which was on the verge of extinction, was reborn in it, and was known in the past in Lebanon, since it is narrated that the Khan of the tailors in Tripoli had more than 4 thousand workers in the textile weaving when the city fell to the crusaders. The name of the capital of the North shone in this area, to the point of sending special missions of European princes to buy silk fabrics that were woven in their khan. In modern history, from the 1950s onwards, tailors had a special place among the upper-class, affluent, and fashion-loving people who used to flock to them to make outfits and dresses, until dealing with specific tailors became a a source of pride for its clients, and some of them were modern salons. That remained the case until after the eighties, when customers switched to ready-to-wear, mostly imported, and the profession began to decline little by little, as most tailors closed and many tailors they became clerks in clothing stores, and their work was limited to modifying what customers buy, shortening and narrowing. The stores along the coast that used to sell sewing supplies such as zippers, buttons, threads and other accessories have almost completely disappeared.
“The return of the soul” to the profession due to difficult economic conditions does not mean that it has recovered its past glories. “When the pound was speaking, we were withholding hundreds of lire from the crew. Today, the customer is pestering us with ten thousand pounds to shorten the trousers, ”says Abu Ali, who was an employee of one of Verdun’s leading clothing stores before the latter closed its doors. “Abu Ali” continued to work “alone”, with the partial “prosperity” of the profession, but did not rely much on “last time customers, some of whom come with torn socks and ask for their seams at the sale” Not to mention those who bring old backpacks to fix them after the rise in stationery prices. “One of them brought a pair of worn jeans asking for them to be tightened, and when I told him that the story did not come true, he asked me to cut off his masks … God help the world,” he says while he is about to iron a shirt that just finished tightening.
In Beit Mery, which is inhabited by a middle-class to affluent population, Adel says that many people have come to him to modify their old clothes to enlarge, tighten and shorten them. “The turnout is very impressive compared to previous years. But customers pay a lot of £ 5,000 or £ 10,000 and often struggle to lower the cost. “
According to Marwan, one of Amchit’s tailors, most customer requests are limited to “simple ornaments, and no one can make clothes because of their high cost.” Most of the customers bring their clothes by the piece and despite the high cost of supplies to us due to the high dollar exchange rate, customers complain of paying 7,000 Syrian pounds to shorten the pants. ” He drew attention to the great demand it had in the last wedding season: “Many women came with old dresses and asked for modifications and additions so that it would not be known that the dress was previously worn.”
The growing demand for tailors coincides with a sharp decline in the clothing retail sector, and the closure of hundreds of stores since the beginning of this year, and the consequent exit from the market of many brands following the decline in purchasing power of the Lebanese and the increased prices for imported clothing. Lisa Hawarian, owner of a men’s clothing store in Bourj Hammoud, notes that “too many stores in the area have closed their doors. And after the merchants squabbled over a store on Arax Street, there are many empty stores today, despite the significant decline in rents. “He noted that” many of my friends and customers are now giving me their old clothes so that I can hand it over to the tailors I deal with for changes. This phenomenon has increased dramatically recently. ”At the store,“ locally made clothing is experiencing increased demand compared to Chinese and Turkish products that they invaded the market in recent years. “
The crisis: Tonya Hariq, who owns a women’s clothing store in Broumana, was forced to close one of her two stores in the area as business declined six months ago. “I used to travel abroad every month to buy products in large quantities, but now I am satisfied with a limited number. Some of my clients who used to buy 6 to 7 pieces each visit are now content with one. And whoever was buying without giving importance to the price, previously checked the prices, and this reality has become common in Lebanon due to circumstances. It is striking that the vast majority of my clients are well off and financially comfortable, which shows to what extent all groups are affected by the crisis.
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