Hongbang tailoring tradition a snug fit for master craftsman
Print Edition
COMMITTED craftsmen often devote all their life to focusing on honing skills and crafting the products of their passion. This devotion often results in a lonely existence and permanent closure of the door to “temptations.”
Second-tier cities in China which feature simple lifestyles and a slower pace of life offer these craftsmen better space to grow and develop. Ironically, it is the more sophisticated consumers, mostly in first-tier cites, who genuinely admire and collect their works.
Ningbo-born and based tailor Qi Baijun, 40, is one such example. Qi is a 7th generation successor of Hongbang tailor (literally, red group tailor), which started in Ningbo at the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and further developed in Shanghai. Hongbang tailor has played a key role in modern China’s clothing history, opening the first Western suit shop in Shanghai in 1896, creating the Sun Yat-sen jacket in 1905, and publishing the first catalogue featuring Western suits in 1933.
“The name ‘red’ comes from the hair color of Dutch people and later was generally applied to include all Western people in Shanghai. Most Western suits were made for foreigners at that time,” Qi explains during an interview with Shanghai Daily in Ningbo.
Holding a master’s degree in textile manufacturing from Soochow University, Qi opened his tailor shop in 2008. Before starting his own business, he had been a lecturer for 10 years at Zhejiang Fashion Institute of Technology.
“When sewing a suit, it is not possible for each stitch to be even, so a tailor-made suit doesn’t look as smooth as those made by a sewing machine,” he says.
“However, the more you wear the suit, the smoother it will become because it’s made-to-measure, seamlessly fitting your body shape,” he adds.
Despite these intricacies of craft, many Chinese consumers in second-tier cities consider the traces of a tailor’s handiwork to connote lower quality. This has led to some tailors deliberately trying to make their suits appear to be machine-made. And ultimately many have switched to producing machined suits for sale at hand-made prices.
Qi says consumers are willing to pay for hand-made items but it is difficult to get them to appreciate the work involved.
“I have spent years trying to compromise the distinctive aesthetics (of tailoring) and have now expanded the range of our in-store services to cater to both customers wanting inexpensive suits to niche buyers who admire European bespoke,” Qi says.
Less-savvy consumers have made it increasingly difficult for quality tailors to survive in China. Last year, five tailor shops on Maoming Road S. (Shanghai’s Savile Row) were closed. Qi’s four tailor shops in Ningbo and one branch in Shanghai have withstood the downturn.
“Compared with Shanghai, the running cost is comparatively low in Ningbo, the customers are generally not so aggressive, and my staff turnover is low,” the tailor explains.
His two-story flagship store named Gurkin Rolam (meaning “supreme” in Manchu language) operates in a 1,300- square-meter premises near Rihu Park. It follows the Hongbang tradition of dealing exclusively in tailored Western suits.
The ground floor is devoted to retailing and a small factory operates on the second floor where 12 tailors cut and sew. Combining factory with shop sustains the authenticity of Hongbang heritage.
Two treasured antique items are displayed in the factory. One is a 40.4-centimeter 戥 (deng, a kind of Chinese measure) made from ivory. It was handed down from the first generation Hongbang tailor who used it to weigh gold, the currency at the time. The other is a 110-year-old chair which becomes a ladder when turned upside down.
“Hongbang tailors used the ladder when they needed to lift fabric down from the top shelf,” elaborates Qi.
He still remembers a life turning-point, his apprentice ceremony held in 2003.
“The most important thing I learned from my shifu (master and teacher) was him devoting his whole life to doing only one thing,” Qi says.
His shifu is the sixth generation Hongbang tailor named Jiang Jiming, 84, who started his tailoring life at age 14. Jiang suffered a stroke two years ago and lost much of his memory. But his tailoring skills survived and he continues to practice.
As well as influencing Qi’s life perspective, Jiang taught him the core of Hongbang tailoring which essentially is to shape the wearer and the cloth as one. To achieve that, measurements should be precise and complete. Hongbang has around 40 body measurements, 30 more than normal tailoring.
“The more precisely you measure, the better you know the wearer’s curved shape. Italian tailors very likely benefited from their country’s prolific body sculpture art,” says Qi.
As well as the customer’s body, character and personality are also built into the measurement process.
What’s in a suit
Qi Baijun recalls an anecdote about a candidate for the imperial examination visiting a Ningbo tailor to get a suit made.
Tailor: When did you start being a candidate?
Candidate: Does that matter?
Tailor: If you are qualified to be a candidate when you are young, you should be proud and slightly arrogant so you are used to sticking out your chest. I will then make the suit long in the front and short in the back. If you are qualified to be a candidate when you are old, you might be humble and used to bowing. Then I will make the suit short in the front and long in the back.
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