Remaking the trade - Tradesmen getting creative to survive
Published:Sunday | September 1, 2019 | 12:17 AMKaryl Walker - Gleaner Writer
Despite the belief that trades such as tailoring, dressmaking, and shoemaking are a dying breed, some tradesmen are reinventing themselves while others are not so lucky.
Tradesmen are not rolling over and playing dead but have instead reinvented themselves to survive, evolving with the times.
Paul Sibbles has been in the business of tailoring for upwards of 30 years. He is known in the community of Grants Pen, St Andrew, as ‘Tailor Paul’ and continues to make himself relevant despite the rough times.
“The trade is dying. The younger generation doesn’t want to learn. They feel you cannot earn, but what I have done is adjust myself to the market. You just cannot get out sewing,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.
Sibbles admitted that the days when tailors made a killing from sewing clothes are over but said that the art of tailoring is still viable as long as one sets himself in line with the times.
“You just have to adjust. Now, it is mainly about alterations. One time we used to build clothes. Now we alter them,” he said.
SKILL MAKES YOU EARN
The story was different for 81-year-old shoemaker Conrad Robinson.
Apart from mostly repairing women’s high-heel shoes, he is struggling to make ends meet.
“Nothing nah gwaan. Me used to make a money when is back-to-school, but now, it no pretty,” Robinson said.
The elderly man said his revenue is primarily earned when females come to replace the tips on their stilettos.
“Me a struggle, but a so it go,” he said.
Shellion Bird-Mitto has been a dressmaker in the community of Grants Pen for more than 40 years, and she has assisted the children there all those years.
She needs the younger generation to be more aware of the value of what it means to be vested with a trade.
“The industry is dying, but I will not stop. Maths helps you to comprehend, and English helps you to communicate, but this skill makes you earn,” she said.