A number of residents in Jeddah said they preferred purchasing ready-to-wear clothes, rather than getting their items custom made, due to the high costs of tailoring, long waits and lack of trained tailors.

A number of residents told Arab News that ready-to-wear and custom-tailored items each have their advantages, such as the large variety of choices when buying ready-made items, or better quality when getting items custom-made, but noted that access to high quality custom tailoring options are limited, especially during festivals.

Adel Ayed said he was forced to buy ready-made thobes this year due to lack of time. “When I went to the tailor to request some items be made for Eid, I found most of the shops were closed and refused to accept any customers,” he said, adding that many tailors even put up signs saying they would be unwilling to entertain new clients until after Eid.

Abu Faisal, who also purchased ready-made clothing for himself and his children, said: “We each got measured for our sizes at the shops and quickly found suitable items at decent prices.”

Saeed Abdulrahman took the custom-tailoring route. However, he said: “I did not like the available choices in the shops. So I purchased the type of cloth I wanted and got my clothing custom-made exactly the way I wanted. I only paid SR 1,100 for the clothes I got made.”

Abdullah Ahmed says the cost of tailoring increased lately, particularly as there have been more unique designs of clothing suitable for all ages, as well as numerous models and designs in catalogs that allow customers to choose the most appropriate items. He added that he ordered two items to be tailored for himself during the first week of Ramadan because he knew that shops would eventually close due to high demand, each of which cost him SR750.

“There are many well-known names for ready-to-wear clothing that are monopolizing the clothing market in the Kingdom, and prices have increased this year, with wholesale prices reaching SR50 to SR70,” explained Abu Maryam, a ready-to-wear clothing shop owner.

Attributing the price increases to higher prices of raw material, labor costs and factory rent, he said that the customer is typically not aware that the price increases are not directly set by the shop owners as many buy from traders at high costs from China, Egypt and Turkey. In his opinion, ready-to-wear clothing is more convenient than tailoring, which takes a long time.

This year, sales of ready-to-wear clothing items recorded a clear decline as compared to last year, he said, adding that the last 10 days of Ramadan are usually the high season for retailers, who have as much as 2,000 clothing items in different sizes for sale and manage to sell approximately 1,500 pieces.