Tailors and dressmakers retire their pincushions as US demand for skilled sewers grows

NEW YORK (AP) — Hunched over a sewing machine, Kil Bae is hemming a dress inside his Manhattan tailor shop when a new customer stops by with a vintage Tommy Hilfiger jacket he wants taken in.

The modeling agent paid $20 at a thrift store for his reversible bomber style that's plaid on one side and red on the other. He's willing to spend $280 to have it slimmed down. Alteration requests with such a price disparity would have seemed odd a few years ago, the tailor says, but are helping to keep the bobbins bobbing at his one-man shop, 85 Custom Tailor.

Bae carefully examines the cotton jacket before moving in to pin it, circling the customer like a sculptor with a chisel. He started training as a tailor at age 17, in his native South Korea. Now 63, he's part of a shrinking breed in the U.S., where professional sewers, dressmakers and tailors are aging out of the workforce as their services find fresh demand.

Shoppers who grew up on disposable fast fashion are enlisting tailors and seamstresses to give off-the-rack purchases a custom fit or personal flair, to revive secondhand finds or to extend the lives of their wardrobes, according to fashion industry experts. Weight-loss drugs like Zepbound and Wegovy mean more Americans are seeking adjusted waistbands, tapered sleeves and other types of resizing, Bae said.

“I recommend this job to young people because this one cannot be AI’d,” Bae said, noting artificial intelligence is automating pattern making but so far can't replicate a tailor's handiwork. “Different bodies. Different shape. They cannot copy like this. If I close this door, I can go out and find another one.”

But like engraving, repairing musical instruments and many other skilled trades, creating and fitting garments to individual specifications hasn't attracted enough entry-level workers over the years to replace the professionals retiring their pincushions after decades of performing their craft.

An aging occupation

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated almost two years ago there were fewer than 17,000 tailors, custom sewers and dressmakers working in business establishments nationwide, a 30% decline from a decade earlier.

Including self-employed individuals and people working in private households, the median age for all sewers, dressmakers and tailors was 54 last year, 12 years older than the median for the entire employed population, according to the bureau.

The income that a proficiency with needle and thread commands relative to the skills needed and the physical toll of bending over detailed work for hours likely discourages teenagers and young adults from heeding Bae's advice, fashion industry experts said.

The mean annual wage tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers earned as of May 2024 was $44,050 a year, compared to $68,000 for all workers, according to BLS calculations.

“Most of fashion training is really aimed at mass production, not spending time in a shop handmaking a garment,” said Scott Carnz, the provost of LIM College, a for-profit college that offers degrees in disciplines from the business side of fashion. “The work is also tedious.”

Online job postings for tailors, dressmakers and sewers have remained fairly stable, according to Cory Stahle, an economist with the research arm of jobs site Indeed. Between February 2020 and the end of the same month this year, advertised openings decreased by roughly 2%, while postings for both marketing and software jobs declined by nearly 30%, he said.

“There is a kind of a craftsmanship ... that I think is an important piece that we can’t ignore,” Stahle, who focuses on the U.S. labor market, said.

America's skilled sewers

Immigrants with and without permanent legal status, refugees and naturalized citizens have powered America's garment industry for well over a century.

An analysis of recent census data by the Migration Policy Institute found about 40% of tailors, dressmakers and sewers were foreign-born, according to Julia Gelatt, associate director of the nonpartisan think tank's U.S. Immigration Policy Program. The biggest shares came from Mexico, South Korea, Vietnam and China, she said.

To address a worsening labor shortage, the fashion industry is looking to create a new generation of master tailors.

Nordstrom, North America’s largest employer of tailors and alteration specialists, teamed up with New York's Fashion Institute of Technology to launch a nine-week program in advanced sewing and alteration techniques.

“Customarily, tailoring has never been part of the American skill set,” said FIT instructor and Broadway costume builder Michael Harrell, who teaches the course.

Retailers see a growing market

The fashion institute received 200 applications for the inaugural cohort of 15 students, who started in October and received certificates of completion in February, said Jacqueline Jenkins, the executive director of the school's Center for Continuing and Professional Studies.

The hands-on training was designed to prepare participants to work at Nordstrom. The luxury department store chain employs 1,500 people to provide tailoring and alternations, from hemming jeans and repairing rips to fitting suits and reworking evening gowns.

Ten members of the first class were hired or are in the process of being hired, Marco Esquivel, Nordstrom’s director of alterations, said.

“We owe it to the broader industry to ensure that this is an art form that exists for years and years to come and continues to serve customers both within our walls as well as outside,” Esquivel said.

Meanwhile, other retailers are expanding their tailoring services because of demand.

Brooks Brothers, a luxury brand that has made custom men’s clothes since the 1800s, tested a similar service for women at five stores last year. This year, it expanded bespoke women's tailoring to 40 more stores. Prices start at $165 for shirts and $1,398 for suits, the company said.

No one to take over

Back at 85 Custom Tailor, Bae asked more than once if the customer with the Tommy Hilfiger jacket was certain he wanted to proceed with the alterations. Jonathan Reiss, 33, was sure. He said he planned to wear the jacket often.

“I think I fell victim to buying cheap stuff, and then you realize it just falls apart or shrinks or it just doesn’t last long,” Reiss said.

Bae has a son who's a year older than Reiss. He tried to persuade him to go into tailoring. The son used to work with computers and then opened a bagel shop.

“Young people. They just want to find a job in computers,” Bae said. “I think that’s too boring. I think this is very interesting. Every time, I am drawing in my head. I am like an artist.”

Bae trained under his older sister and brother at their custom apparel shop about 93 miles (150 kilometers) from Seoul. After five years, he moved to South Korea's capital to work on custom orders and samples for various companies. He moved to the New York City area, where he worked as a pattern maker for Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan and other designer brands.

He opened his own shop in Connecticut in 2011, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to close after a decade. He reopened in his current location a year later.

He uses three different sewing machines: a basic one, another for for heavy materials like denim and leather, and an overlock machine, which cuts, trims, and finishes fabric edges simultaneously.

Bae said he intends to keep working as long as his hands stay steady enough.

“I'm always learning,” he said.