Unlock 3.0: Boutiques, tailors register a surge in business

Residents of Delhi-NCR are preferring to get their clothes stitched rather than buying ready-made garments, during the pandemic.

With unlock 3.0, there has certainly a surge in the number of people wanting to venture out to shop. But, under no circumstance are these shoppers ready do compromise on the safety of their health. In fact, most are taking more precautions than necessary, and therefore their love to buy new clothes has made them head to boutiques and tailors more than a trip to the market where apparel showrooms stock up hoards of ready made garments.

Tailors and boutique owners in Delhi-NCR report an increase in demand for stitched clothes vis-à-vis ready-made apparels.(Photo: Shutterstock)

“The safe bet here is that the masterji in my boutique already has my measurements, and all I have to do is collect the dresses once they are ready; he will also get them sanitised and so will I do before I use them.”
–Sakshi Goyal, a Faridabad resident

“I always preferred to buy ready made dresses as one doesn’t have to struggle much in that case. But, in these corona times, I have become a little sceptical of buying a dress from a store and there are various reasons for this. First is that others could would tried the same dress, and it could have been touched and handled by various people right from other shoppers to store’s staff. So, when there came up a wedding to attend, I decided to get all my dresses stitched. The safe bet here is that the masterji in my boutique already has my measurements, and all I have to do is collect the dresses once they are ready; he will also get them sanitised and so will I do before I use them. But, at least I won’t be at the risk of wearing a garment that would have passed through many hands!,” says Sakshi Goyal, a resident of Faridabad.

Boutiques are keeping all the safety precautions in mind while operating amid the festive rush. “We sanitise the entire shop before opening, and even at the time of closing. And since we have reopened in unlock, the number of orders have increased while the footfall of clientele has decreased. Hardly any customer is preferring to visit the store in person at this point in time as most of my clients are in touch with me on WhatsApp,” says Ishaani Khanna, a boutique owner in sector 51 of Gurugram. She adds, “For the karigars, we have in place strict some rules such as wearing masks, sanitising the inching tape after every few hours, and sanitising other tools once a dress is ready. We ensure to even sanitise the carry bag before handing it over to the customers.”

“We show the customers the trending patterns and designs, and they make booking over phone. They keep a tab on the status of their dress, and make repeated calls.”
–Kavita Gupta, a boutique owner

Some are even using video conferencing to check out the designs and patterns, to place an order beforehand, for a perfect dress. Kavita Gupta, owner of Riddhi Creations in Shakti Nagar, Delhi, says, “The number of bookings for both bridal wear as well as day-to-day dresses has increased. People are ordering dresses through video conferencing and other such virtual mediums. We show them the trending patterns and designs, and they make booking over phone. They keep a tab on the status of their dress, alongside matching mask, they make repeated calls. This used to rarely happened before, but coronavirus had also not happened then. Now, thigs have changed much for everyone.”

The designs are exchanged through mobile apps to keep the process contactless. “The number of orders we were getting earlier has been increased several times, and we are trying our best to keep our customers satisfied. We receive the designs on WhatsApp. Either we use the cloth that we have, after the client okays it, or else they purchase and bring us a cloth piece of their choice. Once the pattern is ready, we inform the respective clients and they collect it from the store. In case of a fitting issue, we do get it fixed, but only after sanitising the garment,” says Meenu who runs a boutique in Faridabad.

Author tweets @ruchikagarg271

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