Dealing with Nigerian Tailors

After I graduated from the University, my parents called for a short meeting to inquire on my plans before Youth Service. I told them I wanted to go into fashion designing. My dad looked me in anger and asked

While my mom folded her hands across her chest as shook her head in disappointment.

They see tailors as people who barely have any money. They barely know how much these people make from spoiling peoples fabric in the name of “I sabi sew well”. The first driving force behind learning tailoring is that I would love to create original pieces for myself and others. The second driving force is that I have had enough of Tailors and their lies.

All my life, I have never met a tailor who told me they couldn’t sew any particular style I wanted. I will wait for Saturdays on Instagram so I can screenshot aso-ebi pictures, only to take it a tailor for her to go and sew anything she likes, smh. I have had some annoying experiences from Nigerian tailors. The bad thing is most of the time, once the actual style for a fabric has been wrongly sewn, it is almost impossible to alter it. There was one that I could say had colour blindness. In the name of trying to mix and match, she ended up mixing orange fabric with pink fabric. I mean, who mixes orange orange with pink for crying out loud?

At Uni, in preparation for a colleagues wedding, my course-mate and I went to a particular tailor after seeing her previous work. She sewed absolute rubbish for my course-mate. I felt bad for her. After spending her money to buy aso-ebi fabric, she ended up not wearing it. She felt discouraged and almost did not attend the wedding because she did not want to look odd in group pictures. If you cannot sew a particular style why not say the truth instead of disappointing a client.

Another Saturday is approaching and there are tons of styles to sew. With the way things are right now, I think it’s best to go for already made Ankara outfits to avoid stories that touch. If you still insist, you can try out these SIMPLE styles and I hope your tailors do not disappoint you. #Keyword = SIMPLE.

Ebube Nwagbo @poshesteb

Nini @iamnini1

Agatha @ironyofashi

Nancy Onouha @nancyonouha

Ozinna Anumudu @Ozinna

Anita Armstrong @pinkberry991

Photo credit: Instagram.

What are your annoying tailor experiences?