The tailor street, then and now.

(Baonghean)For many, Dang Thai Than Street is now a trendy shopping "paradise" with countless clothing and shoe stores. But for me, this street evokes childhood memories with its small tailor shops and a few sewing machines clattering year-round...

Half of my childhood was spent at the sewing shop on Dang Thai Than Street. Whenever my mother went to work, I would be left there. My supplies were fabrics, needles, and colorful threads. It was my aunt's sewing shop. Naturally skillful and meticulous, my aunt quickly developed a passion for sewing, and it was from there that she married a renowned tailor on this dusty street.

A tailor shop on Dang Thai Than Street.

I didn't know how happy the young couple's home was during those years, but I truly had a world of my own, immersed in it with countless clothes I sewed for my adorable little dolls. My "materials" were leftover fabric scraps, spools of red and blue thread, rulers, chalk... My aunt and uncle's shop was small, but it was never without customers.

I saw many women, mothers, and sisters regularly coming to have clothes made. They also came to have cuffs and buttons altered by my aunt… Some even requested that their still-new clothes be shortened to make short-sleeved or batwing-sleeved shirts. My aunt and uncle were constantly busy, yet I never saw a smile go missing from their faces. Customers came and went, and no one ever complained about the clothes my aunt and uncle painstakingly made or altered.

By the window, bathed in sunlight, I watched intently as my aunt meticulously sewed or overlocked clothes for customers. Occasionally, I'd be asked to fetch something or fetch something else, which filled me, as a child, with pride. I thought I was contributing to her creation of a "fashion masterpiece," as my uncle always called it. But I also devoted most of my time to my own "work."

I would often retreat to a small corner, then take out leftover scraps of fabric and some needle and thread to sew clothes for my doll, a gift my father sent from Czechoslovakia. Oh, how pretty and adorable it looked when it wore the outfit I made! I'm sure that back then, no other friend on Dang Thai Than street was as lucky as I was.

For a time, tailor shops sprung up like mushrooms in Vinh City, making tailoring a "hot" profession for a class of city dwellers. Thanks to the improvement in living standards after the 1990s, food was no longer a burden, so people paid more attention to their clothing. Trousers, baggy pants, and batwing-sleeved blouses were all the rage for a while. Tailor shops had never been so bustling.

On Dang Thai Than Street, my aunt and uncle also had very busy days. But then the tailoring business declined as life entered a more rapidly developing phase. Instead of tailors, there were shops selling ready-made clothing, food, and drinks… Only the well-known, innovative, and creative tailoring businesses managed to survive in this industrial trend.

Perhaps I've had a connection with tailoring since childhood, because I always find something familiar whenever I step into shops like these on Dang Thai Than Street. Familiar from the sewing machines and overlock machines to the spools of thread and chalk. Along Dang Thai Than Street, there are more than a dozen tailor shops and clothing repair shops. Some have been around for nearly 15 years, while others are only a few years old. Therefore, if you include ready-made clothing stores, fashion boutiques, and tailor/clothing repair shops, there's probably nowhere in Vinh with as many as this street. I often tell my friends that this is truly "the street of fashion."

I don't know when it started, but I've become a regular customer of many tailors on this street. Sometimes, I stop by hoping to relive some childhood memories or to hear a few stories about the joys and sorrows of the trade. But what can I do when the golden age of tailoring is over? Nowadays, people prefer ready-made clothes, even if they wear out quickly.

Modern life demands more dynamism from people, and clothing reflects this need. This situation has forced many tailors to switch entirely to repairing clothes. Some go to the market, find a few square meters of space, set up a sewing machine and a few spools of thread, and if they work from morning till night, they can earn a few hundred thousand dong a day. Others, however, refuse to leave their old street.

Mr. Huy is the owner of a tailor shop specializing in clothing repairs on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street.

They yielded the prime location to larger shops and stores, but still reserved a corner for themselves to set up their sewing machine, serving those who needed buttonholes or tailored trousers. The work wasn't physically demanding, but it required meticulousness and skill; it kept them busy all day. I asked a few why they didn't find another job with better earning potential. The answer I always received was a shake of the head. Simply because they still loved this profession very much. Even if they only had a few regular customers ordering shirts, pants, or loungewear once in a blue moon, the tailors were still very satisfied.

Dang Thai Than Street is now one of the busiest streets in Vinh City. Young people often come here to shop and get their fashion outfits made. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the street, I occasionally hear the familiar clicking and rattling sound of the old tailor who has replaced the pedal-operated sewing machine with an electric motor. I imagine somewhere there's a "fashion creation" by a skinny little girl sitting in the corner of the shop. Just that simple sound brings a strange sense of peace; and I love that street so much.

Chu Thanh