LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – “Fabrics don’t male exquisite clothes. It’s the tailors and seamstress that do.”
Such words come from Lagrina Dela Pena, 68, a lowlander, who, for more than three decades worked as a seamstress at the many tailor shops that once dotted the lower portion of Maharlika Building in Baguio City in the 60s and late 70s.
When those Maharlika Building tailor shops got shuttered for good, it also ended the career of Dela Pena in spinning the sewing machine.
Norberto Adelanto, 77, also from the lowlands, once worked as tailor in one of the tailor shops that dotted across Genera Luna Street, Baguio City, alongside the famous shoe repair shops there and he said during the research of this article, “To a life that bounded us, the tailors and seamstress; the thread that tied us all together. Now it’s gone.”
Perlita Sebanto, 67, from Benguet, worked for a long time as a seamstress in one of the tailor shops at La Trinidad Public Market. When those shops began to lose out to other business ventures, the owner decided to close the shop and start selling other merchandise. That ended the sewing craft of Sebanto, who said in Ibaloi of her sewing days and translated in English, “Days of the seamstress, when they began to fade, our souls were sewn apart; embroidered tomorrows, traveled without a start . . .”
Jub Macarangdag, 76, who once owned two tailor shops at Lakandula Street, Baguio City and another two in La Trinidad during the 60s, 70s and early 80s summed through the eye of the needle the fate of the tailor shops still existing in La Trinidad and Baguio when he ruefully said, “The heyday of the tailor shops is past – replaced by the ready-to wear industry.”
“But the remaining micro-scale sewing shops are still in existence, fighting tooth and nail to make profit in a world where ready-to- made clothing is as ordinary as taking a casual jeep ride,” Macarangdang said.
These four elders, retired from sewing, and spend time at Malcolm Square, Baguio City with co-elder friends and watch the scenes pass by, agreed on long conversations with this columnist about the topic on days available to them.
In this modern day, the micro-scale craft of making clothes by hand appears to be a folly in the sense that the quality of Ready to Wear (RTW) clothes and the availability of made-to-measure garments at the price level seems to make traditional tailor lavish.
The Philippine garments industry is made of 39 % exporters and 61% sub-contractors, which include homeworkers and small contractors to garment exporters, backyard business, contributing 20-30% of employment in the manufacturing sector.
Micro-scale business plays an important role in employment creation and income generation for Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). In the Philippines, microenterprises 90 per cent of all businesses.
For backgrounders, however, let’s take a close look at the so-called “slaves of the needle,” and the evolution of the seamstress and the tailor. Women, in general, have practiced needlework and sewing since ancient times to create clothing for their family and communities. Before the invention of the sewing machine, sewing was painstakingly done by hand.
On the other hand, tailors emerged during the 13th century.
A 127 pages’ study, “Operations and Key Competencies of Micro-Scale Sewing Enterprises in Baguio City and La Trinidad,” and conducted by Susan D. Ansibey of Benguet State University (BSU) revealed about 141 registered sewing business in Baguio City and 45 in La Trinidad.
Respondents in the study were micro-scale sewing enterprise owners and sewers. From the list provided by the Licensing Sections of Baguio City and La Trinidad, researcher Ansibey used random sampling to pick 130 owners and another 130 sewer-laborers, the majority willing and cooperative in the conduct of the study.
To stay afloat in the business and be profitable, Ansibey found out competency level is a major concern in the micro-scale garments and apparel sewing enterprise very particularly to satisfy customer demand.
“Customers are willing to pay for clothes made or refurbished as long as their likes are fully met,” the majority of respondents stressed.
Operators and sewers must possess a high level of sewing skill, carrying out measurement and calculation, setting up and operating sewing machines, drafting the cutting pattern and preparing and cutting materials for casual apparel and knowledge of the human body shape, Ansibey explained.
Problems found out by the study are lack of skilled workers, long hours of work and health issues that need to be addressed by this sector.
In the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), the study of Ansibey discovered few individuals were engaged or interested in taking sewing, leading to a job or line of business despite its importance to basic human needs and its contribution to regional economic growth.
According to the Baguio Business Permit Licensing Section, as of August 2019, only 141 are registered sewing enterprises, as compared among the thousands of business establishments. While on the other hand, La Trinidad Business Permit Licensing Section revealed only 45 registered sewing enterprises.
Ansibey also found that at Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA- Baguio), no school among the 47 TESDA registered schools offered any sewing course. While in Benguet, only one school offered a sewing course in the 16 TESDA-Benguet registered schools.
Such school is the Benguet technical School located at Motor Pool, Wangal, Benguet. As of 2019, only 530 students enrolled in sewing, resulting in the smallest percentage compared to other courses offered.
At Benguet National High School, it also offered sewing as a course starting 2019, but only 9 out of the hundreds of enrollees took sewing as a field of specialization.
The industry’s effectiveness depends largely on the nature, availability of skilled workers, performance, productivity level of employment and availability of resources. For lack of skilled workers, it is “serious” as in the case of La Trinidad and Baguio, Ansibey said in her study.
“It is evident in this result that skilled sewers/laborers are really lacking, as perceived by enterprise owners and sewers themselves,” Ansibey stressed.
“This result could be attributed to people’s notion that sewing is a low job, not profitable, costly, difficult to learn, not in demand, or obsolete. For students, they see sewing as a second subject or hard work but less income so they do not choose it as their course or specialization, or business, “Ansibey explained in her study.
Availability of resources is another problem for would-be sewers wanting to engage in such business. The study found out that for the existing entrepreneurs, one-third among them have to shell out an initial working capital of 50,000 – 100,00 pesos. And they relied on lending intuitions or individual lenders to bankroll them.
In terms of insufficient working capital, the calculated weighted mean fell under the descriptive equivalent of moderately serious by the study, meaning, borrowing is one of the biggest obstacles to hurdle, since borrowing and availing loans require producing collaterals.
On performance, owner-respondents stated the need for skills in financial management, communication and negotiation, otherwise the enterprise will have difficulty in keeping workers and gaining clients. Being entrepreneurs, they must possess the right skills and business sense so they can be aware of upcoming needs and able to anticipate these, the study explained.
Quality control is also an essential aspect to look after in every sewing enterprise, given the fact that quality assurance and quality control are evolving in the apparel industry, similar to most other industries.
La Trinidad and Baguio seamstress and tailors seems to be connected to a durable and well-liked contraption and that is the ever-reliable Singer sewing machine, a US made design whose first prototype came out in 1851 and other patents with technical improvements to it followed.
Norberto Adelanto says of his Singer sewing machine that he still has in their home, “My Singer sewing machine is like my old guitar – old but reliable.”
Perlita Sebanto, on the other hand, who still use her Singer sewing machine at their home relates how her grandchildren would often kid her saying, “Lola, ilako tayon daytoy Singer sewing machine mo kadagiti souvenir hunters. Ribo-ribo ti balor na daytoy.”
Although Sebanto knows that her grandkids – all professionals – themselves would not part with her ever-reliable sewing machine.
When Lagrina Dela Pena knew her time at the tailor shop at Maharlika Building was coming to an end, she asked the owner that she be allowed to keep the Singer sewing machine she was fond of using during her work. The owner agreed.
She brought the sewing machine home and decided to make a sewing business. But financial constraints hampered her. Despite such setbacks, she never thought of selling the sewing machine, estimated by antique dealers who saw the machine, can come up to over a hundred thousand pesos.
But she declined the offer of the antique dealers, who we all know that when they resell the ancient Singer sewing machine would gain them double or triple the amount they paid in acquiring it.