One Solution to the Tailor Crisis

Last week I was supposed to launch my Monsoon Collection in the store. I had the pictures from the photo-shoot ready to mail out along with my press kits, I had started telling customers at the store to lookout for our new collection on September 6th, and I had planned a trip to Ahmedabad and Jaipur later this month to meet with suppliers after I launched the collection in the store. I had a big problem though: the clothes weren’t ready. In the last month one of my tailors has taken indefinite paternity leave, one has left to join a more lucrative job closer to his home, and another left to move back home to be with his wife and kids where he will take up a job as an auto driver.

I have spent the last two weeks calling everyone I know in the garment industry, but everyone tells me that their situation is similar: it’s tough to recruit new tailors, the existing ones don’t show up for work regularly, many of them prefer to work at a small tailoring shop where the hours are flexible and they get paid per piece (which means no one to question quality as long as they are churning out sari blouses by the hour).

Or, they could leave the tailoring profession altogether for more lucrative jobs elsewhere.

There is a dearth of quality labour in India but the economy is growing and every business needs people. Salesmen at Lifestyle barely speak English, let alone understand what products are stocked there, but I am willing to bet they get paid more than the average tailor. Plus who wouldn’t like to work in a large air-conditioned mall rather than slog at a sewing machine? Large banks need “office boys” and chain supermarkets need cashiers and helpers at their stores, so all the large export factories who need tailors at reasonable salaries have moved far out of the city, where the job options are agriculture, manual labour at a factory, and now tailoring.

I met with the principal of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) two weeks ago. AEPC was set up by the government to train and supply the garment industry with manpower at every level- tailors, cutters, pattern makers, and supervisors. The principal said they are finding it hard to recruit tailors because being tailor is no longer a very lucrative option compared to other jobs that are available in the market.

I took that as sign (one among many) and my solution has been to increase my average salary for tailors. Obviously moving out of the city to attract tailors who live in villages isn’t an option for me, but then again people are hopefully buying my clothes because of the style and the fit – my profit isn’t determined by price alone unlike for many export factories. I hired two new tailors from AEPC (we’ll train them up to our quality standards and I can only hope that they stay as we give them a raise for every stage of improvement) and I gave my existing tailors a finder’s fee for using their network to find new recruits and that resulted in another two tailors. Now I am back in production for my monsoon collection.

Here is a preview of what will be in the store on October 5th: