Tailors swamped by orders

Annastashya Emmanuelle, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Although there is still a month to go to Lebaran, tailors and seamstress are finding themselves already swamped by orders.

In fact, many of them have been refusing orders for a week before Ramadhan started.

As happens every year and in the run-up to every major religious holiday, especially this year where Lebaran and Christmas fall in the same month, they must decide on priorities and sometimes have to "sacrifice" loyal customers.

At the Aldiron Plaza in Blok M, South Jakarta, some tailors and seamstress shops were displaying signs saying they were temporarily not taking any new orders. The shops were only open for customers wishing to collect their clothes.

"I have been refusing new orders since the week before Ramadhan," said one tailor, Endi, who claimed to be working on 432 orders.

In his 8 years of experience in the business, more orders were normally received in the run-up to Christmas as compared to Lebaran, but as both holidays fell in the same month this year, he had decided to refuse new orders until early January.

"So, now we're doing mostly Lebaran clothes ... it will be impossible to take in any more new orders and complete them all on time," he said.

Still on the same floor, Tarwijaya Tailor, run by Ani, is also refusing to take any new orders.

"I only have six people to work on the orders, while there are still about 150 pieces that have yet to be touched," Ani told The Jakarta Post, adding that she had been refusing new orders since last Monday.

"Some of my regular customers were very disappointed when I had to turn them away, so I told them that I would accept the orders but could not guarantee they would be completed on time,"

Individual seamstresses are also being swamped by orders. They usually run their businesses from their home with only one or two helpers.

"I'm working on about 125 orders right now. I'm not taking any new ones," said Rustaty, a seamstress in Klender, East Jakarta.

Meanwhile, tailors and seamstresses at Senen market in Central Jakarta, did nor appear to be as overworked as their counterparts at Aldiron Plaza.

Most of them said that their tailoring businesses had been in the doldrums since the May riots in 1998, and had yet to recover even though the charges were more or less the same at around Rp 100,000 (US$10.60) for a ladies suit and Rp 150,000 (US$ 15.90) for a men's suit.

"I'm even considering closing down my shop here," said one seamstress, Nuraini. "The rental is getting higher while there are quite a lot of days that I spend here without getting even one order," she added.

The same complaint was echoed by Zulafni, who has been running her tailoring business since 1975.

"Before the riots, we usually would be rejecting orders by now. But at the moment, I can assure you that I'd be happy to get just one, even if I have to work over the Lebaran holiday," Zulafni said.

At Jatinegara market in East Jakarta, sidewalk seamstresses said their businesses had not been affected by any of the upcoming holidays as their orders were mostly for altering or restyling clothes.

"It's been steady so far ... sometimes I get an order and sometimes I don't. But there's nothing unusual about that," Yusron, a seamstress, commented.