A stitch out of time spells doom here

Readymade clothes and a new generation spoilt for choice have made street-corner tailors obsolete

Vadivelu and his wife Ranjitham say the 1970s and 80s were the heydays. Photo: Karthik Subramanian

For more than 13 years now, P. Vadivelu and his wife Ranjitham have worked out of the small platform on 9 Main Road in Anna Nagar, where they toil every day, rain or shine, to earn their livelihood.

They are among the dying breed of street-corner tailors, who are there when one needs a small stitch for that sentimental dress one just can’t throw away.

The rise of readymade clothes everywhere — and nowhere is this story more relevant than in Anna Nagar itself — and a new generation that is spoilt for choice means the Vadivelus of the city will never have a replacement. None of the tailor’s three children help him with his trade.

The heydays of tailors, Vadivelu recalls, were the 1970s and 80s when there was a sudden variety of clothing material available in stores, and people wanted to wear stylish clothes more than ever before.

A third-generation tailor, Vadivelu learnt the trade from his father who was part of a huge tailoring establishment on Thambiah Reddy Street, T. Nagar. His father was one of the senior tailors there.

In the early 1980s, Vadivelu was living in Kilpauk Gardens and was one of the tailors at Devi Dress Makers, a prominent tailoring establishment in Anna Nagar.

“We were a team of 10 tailors there and it used to be really busy,” he recalls. “Those were the best times as we had work and there was the possibility of setting up a future for ourselves.”

Though that future did happen to a few of his colleagues, Vadivelu was not so lucky. Readymade clothes became the rage through the 90s.

By the early 2000s, a lot of tailoring units had shut down. The owner of Devi Dress Makers had passed away, and with it, the team of tailors there disintegrated.

Another street corner tailor, Babu, who also works out of a small platform shop on Second Avenue, says many people come to him only for small alterations to their clothes.

“Not many people get their clothes stitched these days. Some middle-class housewives approach us for some stitching work on their sarees and blouses. But that’s about it,” he says.

Vadivelu and Ranjitham find the shade of the avenue tree, under which their sewing machine is kept, just adequate. Rainy days are tough to handle. Vadivelu does not discuss the money he makes every month. “It is adequate,” he says, but a couple of months ago, he had struggled to get a loan of Rs. 20,000.