How the pandemic gave
Pakistani denim If exports are to stay high, there must be a focus on how we produce rather than how much By Shahab Omer
M
ost clothes in Pakistan are tailor-made. It is a strange phenomena of the third-world that a majority of people that would be considered not well off wear bespoke clothing. The major reason for this is cheap labour. Skilled tailors are everywhere and they do not ask for the kind of money that their skilled work deserves and should fetch in more developed countries. This means that it is cheaper to buy
TEXTILE
a second life
loose cloth and ask your local tailor to stitch it according to your measurements. Buying off the rack from brands is actually a status symbol since those clothes are more expensive. In most western countries, high-end brands particularly for things like suits often have in-house tailors, or high-end tailors often sell fabric as well. But one of the fabrics that have historically not been able to be bespoke is denim. Hard to work with and increasingly in demand, denim products like jackets and jeans need special craftsmen. The journey of denim began in 1873, when Levi Strauss and Jacob
Davis obtained a U.S. patent on the process of putting rivets in men’s work pants for the very first time. Tough yet comfortable to move around in, denim was first used for clothes worn by workers because of its high durability. Then it became widely popular in the 1930s when Hollywood started making cowboy movies in which actors wore jeans.And from that point onwards denim clothing spread along with globalization. Denim also happens to be one of the fabrics that Pakistan is good at producing. The manufacturing of denim garments is a complex, difficult and lengthy task that is
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