Every sixteen minutes or so, Elliot Road sees a tram humming through, on one of its many round trips from Esplanade to Shyambazar. The rustic, two bogie tramcars, however, aren’t the only remnants of heritage on this busy corridor.
A smattering of age-old tailoring shops located at the intersection of Chota Elliot Road and Elliot Road (just as the road snakes towards Nonapukur) will help you recall an early 20th-century Kolkata – or Calcutta.
One conversation with a grinning Firoz Ali, the third-generation owner of Ladies Dress Making Salon, affirms that these young (at heart!) dressmakers have kept up with the tides of change.
My Kolkata chats with the veteran dressmakers at Ladies Dress Making Salon about long-forgotten nun’s veiling fabric, Jackie Kennedy’s princess-cut gown and modern bridezillas.
The early days of their innings
Ladies Dress Making Salon is the oldest of the slew of seamsters on this particular Central Kolkata stretch. It used to be twice the size it is today, when it was set up by Aub Ali (Firoz Ali’s grandfather). In the early ’50s, Mumtaz Ali (Aub Ali’s son) took over the reins for a solid stint which ended in the late ’80s. Now Aub’s grandson Firoz helms the establishment.
Abdul Rahman is the oldest employee at this tailoring shop and has worked here for over seven decades.
“But when did the Ladies Dress Making Salon actually set up shop?” we ask Firoz Ali, who was thoroughly amused at the question.
“Pfft! Do you think I know this? A long, long time ago! What I can say for sure is that we’ve been tailoring at this address for more than 100 years,” Ali tells us.
At its inception, the shop specialised in western clothing for women, which was sought-after at the time. “Eliott Road used to be dominated by the Anglo-Indian community back then. So our clientele primarily consisted of Anglo-Indian ladies. Over time, of course, we began catering to a more diverse clientele,” reveals Ali.
In the early 20th-century, every Anglo-Indian closet had a bevy of fashionable apparel, be it evening gowns, ulster dresses, breathy afternoon frocks or modest Sunday church dresses. The dressmakers at Ladies Dress Making Salon tried their hands at every possible pattern and styling, stitching the chicest western wear for the dames of ‘Calcutta’.
Ladies would breeze through the variety of pattern books before placing their orders. “Everyone took their clothes very seriously! The women would first stop by New Market, which offered the choicest picks when it came to fabrics. Then they’d come by our shop to pick out a pattern,” recalls Ali.
Pattern books to Pinterest…
Modern Pattern Design and Dress Design were the most popular pattern books back in the day because they featured designs that were in vogue. “Our motto has always been to stitch any pattern a customer wants. In the days gone by, customers would select patterns from our books and we would customise them to meet their taste,” explains Ali.
Modern Pattern Design and Dress Design were the most popular pattern books.
Ladies Dress Making Salon still offers a host of pattern books for customers to choose from. However, Ali tells us that the young buyers today rely on Pinterest. In fact, it took him quite a bit of rummaging to find his old books!
“I haven’t taken out our pattern books in a while. It’s funny because, at one point, these were the fulcrum of our business,” he laughs.
Wedding bells
The princess cut, made famous by Jackie Kennedy in the ‘50s, was and still is all the rage
Wedding bells may bring cold feet for some, but they are music to the seamsters’ ears.
“The busiest seasons for us are Christmas and the wedding season. Everyone at the shop loves the wedding season because we have a number of third-generation customers – we stitched their grandmother’s wedding dress, their mother’s wedding dress and now we’re going to stitch a wedding dress for them,” beams Ali.
Even during a pandemic, the wedding season has been fruitful for the dressmakers as they geared up for long shifts of stitching bridal gowns and bridesmaids dresses.
As the joke goes, bridesmaid’s dresses usually have one purpose — to ensure that the bride looks the prettiest — an open secret that has brought quite a few hearty laughs to this dressmaking shop.
In the good ol’ days the shop used to stitch over 300 wedding gowns every winter but as the Anglo-Indian community in the city dwindled, the shop’s numbers dipped as well. This year, however, things have picked up and the shop stitched over a 100 bridal gowns.
Secret to success
Firoz Ali, Tohibur Rahman, Abdul Rahman, Ladin Ali and Israfeel Haldar – the dressmakers at Ladies Dress Making Salon.
Over the years, this dressmaker family really has witnessed it all — the emergence of three-quarter sleeves and trendy cowl necks, the rise of social media and a painstaking pandemic. They have persevered through it all.
“What is the secret to your success?” we ask.
“A stitch in time saves nine,” smiles Ali.