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| M.K.Radhamani Amma, Geetha Tailoring Shop, Idappady, Pala, Kottayam |
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Her stitching ability is known and appreciated among the ‘who is who’ of Kerala’s glitterati and noted NRIs. No wonder satisfied customers from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod send through courier their cloth pieces to M.K.Radhamani Amma’s Geetha Tailoring Shop at Idappady near Pala. And the finished products reach the customers again through courier service.
62-year-old Radha, who started weaving on the charka at the age of 13, began her career in stitching after experimenting with old cloths. Today, 60 tailors work under her.
“Cutting the cloth to the body curve of the customer is the essence of tailoring”, says Radha, who incidentally is credited with the first book on tailoring in Malayalam, ‘Thayyal Prapancham’. “And once this is given proper finishing, there won’t be any need to alter it.” Her specialty is the finishing for blouses that leaves one guessing which is the inside and which the outside.
Even at this age, she works almost 18 hours a day. After spending morning hours from 6 for cutting cloths, she devotes the time till evening to interact with the customers. Again at night she works up to 10 pm on the cutting schedule. With her vast experience and the innate talent, she seems to be able to design the type of stitching suitable for the person the moment she meets the customer.
She has visited Tirupur and Bangalore to learn about the working of tailoring factories there. To learn about lace, buttons and needle, she has traveled to Mumbai. In 4 decades of work, she has trained more than 1000 persons.
She has plans to enter the export market and to write books on specific types of dresses. Her 3 sons, Madhu, Manoj and Jayakrishnan help their mother in running the shop while her daughter Geetha runs a beauty parlour adjacent to the shop.
Courtesy: Dhanam, September 2003
Contributed by: Administrator
