Instead of Western brands, Russians began to sew clothes to order

Tailoring services are in demand, but are not cheap

The brands familiar to many Russians left the shelves of our shopping centers almost two years ago, but during this time not everyone was able to find an affordable and pleasant alternative. Someone admits that they haven’t bought a single new thing during this time (well, with the exception of essential items like tights and pajamas). Someone plunged headlong into studying domestic goods designed to replace imported ones. Well, someone decided to remember that once upon a time it was customary to sew clothes rather than buy them. True, in the realities of 2023 this is a very expensive pleasure.

The expression “ready-made dress store” will sound strange to most of our contemporaries: they say, what else could this dress be? Raw, or what? The paradigm shift is happening very quickly: today few people will remember that even for our grandmothers, who lived in the middle of the 20th century, going to a dressmaker was a more common event than buying a factory dress. This principle had an undeniable advantage: a thing sewn exactly according to the customer’s measurements was guaranteed to fit the figure and eliminated the hassle – they say, the dress is narrow at the hips, wide at the waist, and the darts are made as if not for a living woman, but for a mannequin.

According to a survey conducted by one of the popular websites, the number of advertisements from sewing shops that produce clothes in small batches increased by more than 2.5 times in 2023 compared to 2021. At the same time, the demand for consultants to create a clothing brand has increased sixfold, offering to build a model range for products and set up production and sales. There were 61% more offers from tailors, and 48% more from ateliers. The demand for tailors has increased even more – more than doubling (+110%).

A common misconception: supposedly you can save money if you use the services of a tailor, because you won’t overpay for the “brand”. However, the tailors themselves are quick to debunk this.

— Recently I sewed a custom-made office tweed skirt. Basically nothing special. My work cost a little more than 10 thousand rubles, taking into account the creation of patterns, fittings and all other nuances,” said Maryana K., who has been working as a seamstress for more than ten years. — The client bought and chose the fabric for the skirt itself and the lining herself; she spent about six thousand on this. Plus accessories, zipper, buttons. I believe the skirt cost a little less than 20 thousand rubles.

The seamstress added that the costs associated with waiting should undoubtedly be added to this amount. In modern reality, few people are willing to wait patiently for a couple of weeks until the item is ready. Most people prefer to immediately put on new clothes. In addition, individual tailoring requires regular trips to fittings and a willingness to participate in the process.

According to seamstress Maryana, sewing a winter coat for the same client recently cost more than 50 thousand rubles – including several types of fabric, labor and fittings. At the same time, the master assures that her sewing is not at all luxury or elite – the prices are quite standard for those tailors who are not ready to work at a loss, and the rise in price of fabrics does not at all depend on the performer.

Therefore, choosing custom tailoring is not at all a path to saving, as some recklessly believe.

— Most likely, a custom-made item will cost more than a factory item of the same quality level. It’s precisely because of the individual approach,” the seamstress readily explains. — For example, this client of mine has a complex figure, she seems to “fall” between standard sizes, so it’s more convenient for her to sew. But you will only be able to save on sewing if you bring out your grandmother’s sewing machine and remember your labor lessons in the 7th grade. True, I doubt that the results will please.

There is another non-obvious nuance here that must be taken into account: sewing clothes to order takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, requires thoughtful discussion of each item and, as we found out, a lot of money. Therefore, the aesthetics of bottomless American dressing rooms (much like the heroine of the series “Sex and the City”), in which the owner herself does not remember what exactly was hidden there, will clearly become a thing of the past. Sewing to order corresponds, rather, to the French style of a wardrobe, which fits into one small closet, but each item fits the owner perfectly. The current generation of Russian women will clearly have to relearn. But given the growing momentum for minimalism, perhaps this is not a bad thing.