JEDDAH, 28 May 2006 — City officials here closed five sewing shops yesterday for manufacturing fake brand tags of international fashion names.
The raid, which covered various districts of south Jeddah, also netted 10 undocumented migrant workers in a number of tailoring shops for women, according to Ali Al-Ghamdi, head of the Khozam district municipal branch.
He said the city tends to increase its scrutiny of tailoring shops this time of year due to increased demand for ladies apparel because of a seasonal increase in wedding parties.
Authorities confiscated sewing machines that were being used to sew on designer labels on lower quality and cost generic brand clothing. The owners of these shops are facing fines and revocations of their commercial licenses.
Authorities have pledged to inspect all of the city’s tailoring operations in search of counterfeit apparel items.
Meanwhile, designer labels were openly being sold in the Bab Makkah market near Jeddah’s historic downtown. Boxes of cloth that had logos for Levi’s, Gucci and Lee apparel items were being sold in a sewing accessory shop. The Syrian owner told Arab News that the tags came from his home country. He said that shops here have started manufacturing the fake tags locally.
The shop-owner claimed that since hearing about the recent raids he has stopped buying these tags to sell in his store. “We just want to sell our existing stock at any price in order to reduce our loss,” he said.
