Muscat: “Do you know any tailor who can stitch fast? I need to stitch just three dresses for Eid.” These are the requests that are doing the rounds as Eid days come closer.
Noora Karim is a dress designer and owner of Khaleejiya Boutique.
“I like to create modern designs with traditional touch. This year everyone wanted simple designs. Popular colours have been blue, purple and orange. They wanted the fabric to be just one colour but the stones had to be of contrasting colours. For the Eid, ladies like to have flashy colours because it is a celebration,” Noora explained.
There are heartbreaks too at times the wrong fitting or not having the exact pattern one visualised.
“My tailor had postponed the date of completion and I just had to hunt for someone else,” said Shamsa al Harthiyah. She posted the question on family and friends groups and she got tens of contact numbers of tailors.
“I like pastel colours,” said Shamsa.
Observer took a walk through the inner lanes of Muttrah Souq. The mannequins are dressed up in dazzling traditional Omani dresses, and so are the windows and the walls. Mohammed Saleem is from Bangladesh and has been working in the same shop for the last 12 years at Muttrah Souq. He cannot afford to stop his sewing machine, but looking up from his work. “Almost all of the dresses have been picked up by the clients. These are just a few left,” he said. Mohammed is concentrating on the 'shaila', the headscarf, as it has to be equally elaborate in decoration to sync with the overall dress. For some, it is the Khafthans and for many, it is the traditional Omani women's dishdasha below knee and Sarawal.
Muttrah Souq has always had the pride of having the best tailors specialising in a variety of costumes in Oman.
The foreman does the cutting, he said. Tailors also collaborate to handle the humongous orders that pile on during the festive seasons. For the last three to four months, the tailors have been busy for this Eid. According to Mohammed, they have been completing 50 to 60 dresses each week and in a month they have stitched about 200 to 300 dresses. Mohammed took his work and said the rest of the costume is with the foreman. This was a few shops away and Abdullah Awal took a look at it and gave a nod of approval.
Abdullah Awal, from Bangladesh, has been working in Muttrah since 1990.
“People from all over come here to stitch clothes for Eid. In the past people from Muttrah itself would keep us busy, but now a lot of families have moved out to Al Amerat and other places. However, they do come here for Eid stitching. After the season it is dry because, for other clothes throughout the year, they stitch in their current residential area,” pointed out Abdullah while answering questions from his clients in the shop as well. The last-minute shoppers are now going for the readymade and this means altering it.
“We need to fix it now and go because we cannot come back all the way to pick it up tomorrow,” the ladies said.
Abdullah currently starts his work at the tailoring shop at 10 am and takes a break at 5 pm to return to work at 8 pm and continue stitching until 1 am.
Alauddin has been working for just one year but he specialises in embroidery which is an integral part of the dresses. The neck embroidery can make all the difference.
Right next to the tailoring shops is a fabric outlet and Wasi Mughal, from Pakistan, brings fabric from Karachi such as 'brezem', chiffon, 'hareer Hindi' (raw silk), and Kashmiri cotton. Also in demand are 'hareer', organza, cotton as well as 'suri brezem'.
He said, “During the last days of Ramadhan, the ladies are busy purchasing the 'shaila' because once they get the dresses from the tailors it is time for choosing the perfect scarf.”
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