Sifu is a Cantonese word for a master tradesman. It is somehow common to refer to coatmakers simply as sifu in this part of the world. A less flattering term would be tai sam lo, literally "suit guy".
He met me at the hawker center in the same row as his workshop where I was having breakfast. I had called him to say I have arrived and will come up in 15 minutes after breakfast. He said he'll come down and meet me.
He is a man in his 60s, plump with a mild smiling face. We did the usual orienting conversation: what I do for a living, what background I have in tailoring, why I want to learn coatmaking and such. I made some reference to Savile Row in my conversation, and he told me he went to London a few months back.
He said he was offered a job in a Chinese tailoring den in London, and that the reason he went there was to see the place for himself. He said the money was great by Malaysian standards, that the tailors there live in one bedroom apartments, and that the Chinese tailors basically lived together in the same block. He would have gone, he said, but his wife was against it.
I had all sorts of complex emotions go through me when I climbed the staircase and saw his workshop. It was very large, with perhaps 20 sewing machines. An old man, stooped and bespectacled, was bent over a pattern he was drafting. There were two or three Bangladeshis on one side of the large room. On another side was a young woman and a young man, both at the sewing machine. I believe the young woman is his daughter. He told me while I was eating that his daughter, a graphic designer, has taken a renewed interest in tailoring. The young man is probably a school leaver who is now a full-time apprentice.
He said he shares the workshop with a partner of his who runs his own operations.
I showed him TG#4. By this time, three cutters have already been shown TG#4. The first, MBT, was interested but not too impressed. After the undercollar and topcollar were inserted, the other two cutters saw it and basically said very good things about my level of determination and potential.
The sifu was amazed by TG#4. He thought it improbable that someone with absolutely no tailoring background could produce something like this by self-instruction. He also remarked that concave shoulders were something many tailors are ignorant about. At this point, our conversation became animated and he was convival.
He showed the garment to the old man who was drafting a pattern. He looked it up and down, and especially the shoulders and said that just being able to draft the pattern was an accomplishment.
The sifu named his price. For a considerable sum of money, half of which is to be paid up front, he will teach me coatmaking. I asked him what he meant by teaching me coatmaking. What do I get for the money? He said he will be there for me until I become a competent coatmaker myself. I agreed on the spot. He became even more animated after that.
I'm not an expert on evaluating sleeves, but that one there looks very fine. I hope the cutter pitched the sleeves right and got the curvature right. It would be a waste if such sleeves did not fit the customer (a very common problem).
The gorge is totally modern.
I see a conservative -- even boring -- cut that is typical of RTW jackets. If the jacket actually fits the customer the visual impact is considerable. However, I have higher expectations of bespoke. I would have expected more quirkiness, more idiosyncracy, more character. And above all more waist suppression.
