Tailor-made to satisfy

"EVERY TIME I see a suit that I have cut and tailored making someone look good, I get goose bumps and I tell myself - you have done it again." That is Taj Mahmood, owner and master cutter of Zenart Society Tailors, perhaps the oldest line of suit makers in Chennai. Taj traces the lineage back four generations to his great-grandfather who trained and equipped his grandfather to be the head and chief cutter of the tailoring unit at Spencer's of the old Madras days. When the mantle fell on the third generation, Shaik Mahmood, Taj's father, after his period of training with his father was sent abroad to The Tailor and Cutter Academy in London. They were impressed with his knowledge and skills and decided that he only needed a refresher course. Back in India, he built an edifice for the legacy - Zenart. An ornate wooden staircase from the street branched into a large tailoring unit and shop with polished wooden floors and quaint little windows overlooking Ratan Bazaar Road. The family had made its commitment to the art of cutting and tailoring. When chaotic traffic began to choke the road and parking turned into a nightmare, Taj opened a "modern" shop in air-conditioned comfort on Montieth Road (Ceebros Centre: 855 4878) and retained the older unit as his workshop.

Taj remembers his own initiation into the trade. "My apprenticeship was with my father and Ghouse Basha, our master cutter, whom we sent to London for training. Watched over by the two master craftsmen, I learned the ropes of the trade at a small table, which was well cushioned on either side by master cutter's tables. At that time we had about 50 tailors and separate departments for shirts, trousers, suits and "kucha" work (tacking)." Most days he would watch his father and Basha cut eight to ten suits. When a suit of his favourite style was cut he'd sit with the tailors and follow its journey to the finish, learning along the way. His initiation was slow but thorough and in due course he qualified for his diploma from the Tailor and Cutter Academy of London. "What you learn in England are the fundamentals of conventional (English) clothing. Based on that you can change and style drawing on your imagination and intuition. The European and American styles are really take- offs..."

Taj describes the process of his custom suit-making. "I have to see the client. I see his stance, his gait, his personality. It determines my measurements and while cutting I keep the physique in mind. The tailoring improves as I get to know the client better. Over a period of time, together we can work wonders." One gets the impression that suits are more than just clothing. They signify style and dignity. Men make suits and suits make the man.

I tracked down some of his customers for feedback. Jacob Chandy, one time model, first went to him over 30 years ago when he had just turned 20, fussy and hopelessly obsessed with good dressing. He is partial to European styles and within conventional modes would want an extra flair, a pocket on top, jackets with vents just a little deeper or trousers that would fall exactly one millimetre off the ground. Sometimes he liked his jackets lined with rich brocade so there would be this evanescent flash when the lapels swung aside!! "Taj would pick up in a flash exactly what I wanted. I had no explaining to do. He had a feel for what was right for my body structure. I was an extremely fussy customer and he'd enjoy giving me the four or five fittings I would insist on." Chandy has outgrown his need for suits but still needs Taj for perfect kurtas, salwars and dongrees that turn heads! Another client, a man who has long since left our shores for the U.S., faithfully returns on 'home-leave' and gets his suits tailored by Taj.

"I have made suits for everybody - you name him. At one time I made them for M. A. M. Ramaswami, Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Dharmendra, Rajendra Kumar... not any for the new Khans though! Senior IPS officers like Mahadevan and Arul, doctors...." One of the most satisfying moments of his career was when the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Dr. P. C. Alexander tried on his suit and "thought the world of it!"

Taj, now in his fifties, is gracious and dignified and allows his sense of humour to tenderise his inter-personal relationships. His clients refer to him first as a good friend and then as an excellent tailor. Taj is not at all apologetic about being a traditional suit-maker. "Personally I am quite conventional... We have a set clientele, a set way of doing things. Here and there a little compromise is okay, but definitely not anything dramatic. From time to time, I have clients who come in with unconventional ideas. I tell them, a suit is to be worn for a time to come. If we try anything fancy, six months from now it will look like something out of the comics."

Is he open to stitching for women even though his training in England was for men? "In Chennai there is not much of a demand for trouser suits (for women). We are comfortably handling the odd order that comes in for both jackets and trouser suits."

The economic advantages of mass production has undercut custom tailoring, but Taj's only response is, "there is no comparison to good custom tailoring". Economics notwithstanding, it seems like a loss that more and more people turn to off-the-rack labels to join the look-alike syndrome. You see the suit but no more the man in it! Maybe the west wind will blow back on the craftsmanship that sculpted the cloth to a physique and a personality.

ELIZABETH ROY

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