Made to measure

In a small alley in Jing'an Villa, a residential complex built in 1932 in Shanghai's city center, there is a 12-square-meter room.

The walls and ceilings of the room are covered not with wallpaper or paintings but with suits, coats and shirts. Three small tables that can be used to sew and cut cloth and a single bed are the only other items.

Outside the half-meter wide door is a yellowing sign written in red paint: Tao Ji Luxury Brand Tailor Shop. It is the studio where Tao Peiqing has worked since 1997.

Tao arrived in Shanghai from Suzhou, Jiangsu province, in 1990.He was already a skilled tailor. After being introduced to Weihai Road Kindergarten in Jing'an district, he made customized uniforms and clothes for teachers and students.

"I was born in 1965. Many post-60s generation people chose to learn skills to make a living after leaving school, since it was not easy to find a job at that time," says Tao, who mastered his craft as an apprentice for about three years and made his first garment, a Chinese tunic suit, when he was 17.

At that time, tailors in Shanghai enjoyed a stellar reputation at home and abroad.

Among them, the most famous group was the "red gang tailors".These were tailors who had made clothes for foreigners. They opened the first suit shops and established Shanghai Tailoring College, which became a national trendsetter.

Tao recalls that in the 1980s and 1990s it was popular to buy fabrics and invite skillful tailors to make clothes. He used to go to customers' homes to take their measurements and then make clothes for them at home.

Zhang Jie, owner of No 122 Tailor Shop several lanes away from Tao Ji, had similar experiences as Tao.

Zhang came to Shanghai in 1985 from Taixing, Jiangsu province, to learn tailoring and he used to follow his mentor to spend the whole day with one family and make more than 10 pieces of clothes together.

However, the customization business struggled after many foreign brands surged into the domestic market from the late 1990s, which forced Tao and Zhao to find another way to make a living.

"Shanghai is a very open city, so a large number of international brands poured into the market," Tao says.

"European designs are fine, fit well, and can be exquisite. For example, the lining used by Dior and Chanel is made of silk or some fine fabrics. Moreover, the fabric is a monopolized industry and the post-processing skill in Europe is very good. It is difficult to make good quality clothes without great fabric," Tao says.