Cheryl Lofton talks about running a tailor shop in Washington, on Slate’s Working podcast.

Here’s Why You Should Be Paying Regular Visits to Your Local Tailor

Here’s Why You Should Be Paying Regular Visits to Your Local Tailor

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Oct. 17 2016 1:07 PM
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What Questions Should You Be Asking Your Tailor?

Slate’s Working podcast talks to Cheryl Lofton about the tricks of her trade.

Cheryl Lofton.
Cheryl Lofton.

Photo illustration by Slate. Image by Jacob Brogan.

In Tuesday’s edition of Working, Slate’s Jacob Brogan talks to Cheryl Lofton, who runs one of Washington’s most storied tailor shops. What goes into outfitting the residents of the nation’s capital, from brides to politicians? How have tailors’ jobs changed over the years? And what questions should you be asking your own tailor when you go in for a visit?

And in this episode’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Jacob gets a pair of his own pants resized, and listens to Lofton share what it’s like to work with a team of such dependable assistants.

Jacob Brogan: You’re listening to Working, the podcast about what people do all day. I’m Jacob Brogan. There are few destinations that make me happier than a tailor shop, partly because I know that I will always come out looking my best. This week as part of our mini-series on the people who make us look good, we spent some time at one of the best tailor shops in D.C., chatting with Cheryl Lofton who has tailoring running in her blood, having learned the trade from her grandfather and having spent decades in the business.

Today she’s taken a more managerial role, but her bustling shop in D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood reflects those years of experience. She and her contractors do everything from simple hemming to creating bespoke ball gowns. We spoke to Lofton about all of that, toured the shop itself, and she’s also got some really smart thoughts about what you should do if you want your own clothes to fit properly.

And in a Slate Plus extra, we went through the process of resizing a pair of my own pants and chatted with Lofton about her relationship with her assistant.

What is your name, and what do you do?

Cheryl Lofton: My name is Cheryl Lofton, and I like to call myself a tailoress. I’m a lady tailor.

Brogan: Does that mean that you just tailor for ladies?

Lofton: No, that means that I tailor for men and ladies, but mostly it’s a male-dominated profession. So men have always been historically called tailors. So I’m not a tailor, I’m a tailoress.

Brogan: I like that.

Lofton: I like that feminine edge.

Brogan: Can you describe some of these photos on the walls? Are these people in your family here?

Lofton: OK, these are me actually. This one up top is my grandfather. This is the first suit he ever made. He said this is what made him know he was going to become a tailor. This is his prom suit. So he made that suit from the ground up for his prom. So that’s what made him decide that he wanted to do this for a living.

So a lot of people say he looks just like Theo Huxtable, but I’m not sure about that. I’ll let you guys decide on that. Of course, this is me. These are just pictures of me in this profession. This is where I was telling someone that I’m the best tailor in town.

Brogan: I believe it.

Lofton: And they need to know that.

Brogan: How did you get into tailoring or tailoressing?

Lofton: Well, my grandfather was a tailor. He came here from Texas in 1939, started this business, so we’re a third-generation business.

Brogan: When you have something like this that’s a family business passed on from generation to generation, do you just get your training on the job in the shop?

Lofton: Absolutely. Well, we did have Lofton School of Tailoring, so we had the first black tailor shop here in Washington, D.C. So we did train veterans. When veterans came out of the military back then, there was very few schools for them to attend. So we had Lofton School of Tailoring, so that they could come here and learn tailoring, learn a trade, so that they could get a job and become employed, because it was very difficult especially for black veterans when they came out. So my grandfather had a school where he taught them.

Brogan: So you learned from your grandfather?

Lofton: I did. Every summer, if you were in the Lofton family, you did not get to play all summer. You had to come and learn how to sew.

Brogan: Different kind of summer camp.

Lofton: Different kind of summer camp, absolutely, like a boot camp.

Brogan: Yeah. Did you go to your grandfather’s school? Did you attend that?

Lofton: I did not attend the school. I went just as a Lofton. You just went every summer. You didn’t have to go to the school. You just automatically were fed through the Lofton tailoring.

Brogan: The house, the shop, the school?

Lofton: That’s right.

Brogan: What’s the difference between having that more formal training and the more informal but thorough experience that you got?

Lofton: When you have the informal training that I got, you actually learn more because you get to do it over and over and over again. You get yelled at more, too, because you’re family. And so when you do something wrong, chance are, you’re going to get yelled at and made to do it over and over and over again.

So I clearly remember one time my grandfather told me to take the back off of a vest. And so I really thought he meant just like literally destroy and demolish this vest and take it apart. So I took everything off of the vest, and he had to literally remake it. But really he just wanted the seams detached from it, but I took the two pieces of the back apart, everything. I got in trouble. When you’re in a school, it’s a little different. I’m sure it was more formal, and if you mess up, we can just do that again.

Brogan: So what service do you offer here in your shop?

Lofton: We actually call ourselves the doctors of clothing. We can do anything to your clothing. We can repair it. We can restyle it. We can repurpose it. And we can just alter it to perfection just to whatever look you want from your clothing. That’s what we do. We do all sorts of alterations, and we also do custom tailoring. We’re big in custom shirts for men and women. We also do custom suits.

Brogan: When you say custom, you mean made to measure?

Lofton: Made to measure, made to measure. We also make ball gowns. We have one here that we just recently made a ball gown, if Sydney can get that and show you how fabulous it is. It’s right here, Sydney. It’s back there. It’s fabulous.

Brogan: And so you make these from scratch?

Lofton: From the beginning. This was a piece of fabric less than two weeks ago. And now it’s actually a wedding dress but looks like a ball gown. So that’s the kind of stuff we do. We make dreams come true in here. People come in with ideas of what they want, and we’re not designers, but we’ll make your designs come true.

Brogan: Can we get a little closer look at that dress that you built?

Lofton: Yeah. This girl, she came in with two pictures. She wanted this dress and this one combined. So this one is a fully covered top, and this one is what basically would be called a sweetheart top. So this is strapless. This is not strapless. So what she wanted really was a strapless dress like this, but she wanted this kind of a sweetheart in here. We call it a sweetheart. It follows the bustline. She definitely wanted a high-low. So she really wanted to just blend, merge these two dresses together.

So what we did is we drew up a picture of what the dress would look like based on what she said she wanted. These were both high-end dresses that she could not afford, so we wanted to give her what she could not afford anyway. These dresses are upward of $5,000, $6,000, $7,000. She had a budget of $1,300. So we had to make that work for her. So, again, we first created a silhouette of the dress. And she came in, and she tried that on, and it fit her very well.

Brogan: Had you already chosen the fabric, this really shimmery gray fabric?

Lofton: She and I met at the fabric shop, and she fell in love with this. We both did at the same time. This really was nothing like what she said she wanted. But we saw this, and we knew that this would work. Part of being a consultant is being able to feel what will work with something. We saw this at the same time and decided that this would be the perfect fabric for her dress.

Brogan: It’s covered in these sort of textural floral details. Was that part of the fabric, or did you attach that?

Lofton: That’s part of the fabric. That’s part of what made her fall in love with this fabric because she really wanted to afford something that had appliqués and things on it. So we found fabric that had it on it. It was kind of sort of the color that she wanted, and we could create the look. The fabric had enough firmness for us to create the look that she wanted. And so that’s how it came to be. So we’re excited, she’s coming tomorrow. She’ll be seeing this for the first time tomorrow.

So we’re excited about that because we know she’s going to be happy, because it looks even more beautiful made up. All she ever saw was just what we call the muslin part of it, which was this off-white kind of fabric. She was happy with the fit of that. But so now tomorrow she’s going to see this actual dress for the first time. This is her wedding dress.

Brogan: How many square yards of fabric?

Lofton: Well, OK, so this dress, we bought 8 yards of fabric. We always buy over the amount we need because you never know. Sometimes fabrics have snags, they have flaws, and you have to cut around that.

Brogan: Especially with all of those appliqués.

Lofton: Absolutely. With all these appliqués, we could not take a chance on buying not enough, and then go back and the fabric’s gone. So now you’ve invested. This fabric is not cheap. It’s like $70 a yard. So we couldn’t take a chance on investing in only 5 yards, and then we need more, and it’s not there. So you do have some waste a lot of times, but she can do something else with it later. She had about a yard-and-a-half, 2 yards of waste there that you cannot return to the store.

Brogan: How long does it take all told usually to create a wedding dress or something like this?

Lofton: It depends on the style of it, and it depends on the situation. That was an emergency. So that’s been a three-week process so far. It’s only been three weeks. So I’ll say 30 days is our minimum. But we have pieces that take as much as eight weeks, pretty much not too much more than that.

Brogan: What is so time-intensive about it? Is it just that somebody just spent hours working?

Lofton: Yeah, you have to make a pattern. These are pieces that come in with no pattern. We don’t like go to the fabric store and buy a pattern. So we have to cut the pattern first. That alone is time-intensive. And then we have to put it together, put together the initial pattern. And they have to come in and try that on. Then we have to go back and cut the fabric. Then they have to come in and try that shell on. Then we have to go back and put the lining in. They have to come back and try that on. Then we have to have a final fitting to make sure that, if it’s like for that dress, any beading and accessories have to be put on. So that’s what makes it so time-consuming.

Brogan: But it’s not that you’re working on it continuously for eight weeks or something?

Lofton: Oh, no, absolutely not. We carve out certain hours in a day, and not every day, to work on that garment, because we have so much else in terms of alterations. We’re really busy with alterations. We have contracts with other stores. And so we can’t just spend our time on one garment.

Brogan: What percentage of the time in the shop is really big projects, time-intensive projects like that, and what percentage of it is more conventional alterations?

Lofton: I’m going to say, it’s 80 percent alterations and 20 percent bigger projects.

Brogan: What are the most common alterations that you end up doing here?

Lofton: Well, of course, every man needs his pants hemmed.

Brogan: Not every man knows that, though.

Lofton: Well, we try to make sure they know that. That’s why we have that chart back there, so people can know what kind of break they want on their pants.

Some people want a long break. Some people want a short one. A break deals with a fold in the pants where the pants hang on your shoe. Some people like a little bit of a bend in there. Some people like it to hang straight at the top of the shoe. And some people like a deep bend.

That’s really just what it is. It just talks about how much excess fabric is left at the bottom of the pants. Some people want none. Some people want a lot. So that’s the break. You remember the song “These Are the Breaks?” OK, so that’s the break. As you can see in the picture there, you have the different types of break. So when I say fold, you see that little bend in the fabric.

So hems, shortening the sleeves. For women it’s always pretty much hemming of gowns and dresses and taking in the sides. And that’s for men and women. Everybody wants that contour on their garment. So it’s a lot of taking in sides on garments.

Brogan: The way that we look at the fit of clothing has changed a lot over the years.

Lofton: Absolutely.

Brogan: Have the kinds of things that people come and ask you for changed over the decades as well?

Lofton: Absolutely, yes. So we’ve gone from bell-bottom wide-leg pants to, skinny pants now. So we have a lot of people who don’t want to get rid of their expensive clothes from yesteryear. And so they want them restyled to fit them now.

Brogan: Those bell-bottoms made into skinny jeans?

Lofton: Absolutely. The problem is that you’ll never be able to get them back to bell-bottoms. So we make sure they know that when they come in here. So that’s changed. And then the taper is a lot harder now. Tapering is bringing in the coat or whatever to fit your body, to lay right on your body, as opposed to you used to have loose fits. Now everything is like clinging to the body. So a taper just gives you silhouette and contour.

Back in the days when I started working with my grandfather, the taper was not that hard. Now even guys want their stuff almost painted on. They want no wrinkles anywhere. They just want a hard taper. So that’s changed. It’s very tapered now, everything.

Brogan: Are there particular alterations that are especially or more difficult than others to do?

Lofton: Absolutely. Like cutting down the shoulders, that’s very labor and time-intensive. And it does require you to come back in another time to make sure that we have that shoulder right before we cut that fabric out, because it’s a one-way street. Once we cut it, there’s no going back the other way.

Brogan: So what are the most crucial tools of your trade? What are the pins and needles and such that you find yourself using every day?

Lofton: Actually, the most crucial tool is a good tailor. So we make sure we have the best. We have the best in bridal alterations and the best in men’s tailoring. So, first and foremost, it’s the people who you hire to do the work. We don’t take anybody that doesn’t have at least 20 years of experience.

Brogan: How many people do you have working in the shop here?

Lofton: We have actually four contractors. They don’t just work for us. They work for other people, too. And then we have a bridal specialist. That’s all she does is bridal, nothing else. We have a lot of people who only do one thing. Like our tailors only do pretty much men’s tailoring. Our seamstresses pretty much stick to women. They can do other things, but we prefer to have people who specialize in what they do, so that we know that we can offer the best possible situation for you.

Brogan: So can you take us on a quick tour of the shop?

Lofton: Absolutely, yeah. We can have a tour of the shop. So normally Sydney would be sitting right there waiting for the customers to come in, and she greets everyone and makes sure everybody’s happy. So this is our tailor shop side. We call this the bakery a lot of times. You don’t really get to see this part that often. So this is our head tailor, Faiz.

Faiz: How do you do?

Lofton: Faiz is actually working on some men’s garments right now where he works here.

Brogan: How many sewing machines are there?

Lofton: Well, we have one, two, three sewing machines. All of our machines are industrial machines. And then we have other machines like these here. Like this is what’s called a blind stitch machine. This machine that would hem your pants. This is where we do all our hems right here. We also have a serger, two commercial sergers. This is what finishes the inside of your garment. Like this is what will finish the inside of here, so that it looks nice and neat.

We have Ali. Ali actually is the person who made that dress for us, that dress we just showed you. He’s the one that made that dress come to life. He does men and women’s, but he can create anything for a woman that you want.

Brogan: So at any time you’ve got two to four people working back there?

Lofton: Yeah, we always have at least three people minimum.

Brogan: The walls are here lined with thread in virtually every color.

What other kinds of supplies do you have to keep on hand to make sure that you can do whatever you need to do?

Lofton: We always have to have razor blades because we’re always taking stuff apart every day, and we don’t use the cute little tailoring things. We use blades because we need to do it relatively quickly. Thread, of course, is the most important and, of course, an industrial iron. You have to have a good iron because pressing is important. So we have an iron and a steamer to make sure that when a garment is finished that it looks like it came out of the store. Because in handling garments, they can get wrinkled. So we have to have a good presser all the time and someone who knows how to press. And all of these tailors are expert pressers.

This is Lucia, our head seamstress. She makes sure every bridesmaid is happy that leaves out of here.

Brogan: What about buttons and things like that?

Lofton: Mostly, we do have a supply of buttons. Pretty much people bring their buttons when they come. They know what they want. Like if you just need a button on your shirt, we always have that here. But when people want to change their buttons, they normally bring their own buttons. And if they don’t, we do have sets here for them to choose from.

Brogan: And are there other gadgets you need to attach the kind of riveted seams of a pair of jeans or something like that?

Lofton: We don’t attach rivets. We send them next door to the shoeshine. They do it over there. So they do that on shoes and snaps on leather jackets. So all that we send over there to them. We don’t do rivets.

Brogan: You’ve been listening to tailor Cheryl Lofton. In a minute, Lofton tells us about the day-to-day business of running her Washington, D.C., shop. How much time these days do you spend actually working on garments?

Lofton: None.

Brogan: But has that changed over the years?

Lofton: Yeah. When I came actually to this location here, which was in 2006, I committed to not sewing anymore because it’s really impossible to grow the business, manage the business, and be chained to a machine, too. So I just committed that I would not do it. I had done it my entire life. I let that go. And that’s probably the best decision I ever made.

Brogan: Do you think that you would be able to consult with customers and clients without that background? Would you be able to run a business like this without really knowing how tailoring works?

Lofton: Absolutely not. It helps to know what’s involved in the construction of a garment. It helps to be able to see a person stand in front of that mirror, and you know what the nuts and bolts are of that garment, how it’s made. And you can visualize what you need to do to fix it. So if you’ve never taken a garment apart, it’s hard to know what’s inside of it, what makes it work. What makes the sleeve hang this way? What makes the bustline hang a way? What makes the crotch hang a certain way? If you’ve never altered or made a garment, it’s difficult to know that.

Brogan: So do you still do the consultations with customers about—

Lofton: Oh, absolutely, yeah, I’m still here for all the fittings pretty much, except for bridal fittings. I’m in on every fitting, but I let the bridal specialist do that. And if you’re having your pleats removed and your shoulders cut down, I’ll let my head tailor, Faiz, handle that. That’s what he does. But I’m here for every consultation.

Brogan: So what is a typical day like for you then? When do you arrive in the shop, and when do you get going?

Lofton: Well, I try to get here by 10, don’t always anymore, but I do try to get here at 10. After doing this for so many years, sometimes I like to just come in a little bit later. I have an outstanding assistant, Sydney. So I don’t have to worry. If I’m not here, Sydney can run this place, right. But on a typical day, we get in here at 10, and sometimes, honestly, we’re lucky if we get home at 10 at night. Sometimes we work late hours because, when the shop closes, the work isn’t always done. We have to prepare for the next day. We have to order supplies. We have to set up appointments. All that’s a part of it. So a lot of times we don’t get out of here until 8:30 at night.

Brogan: During the time that the shop actually is open that you’re here, what are your sort of main activities? What do you spend most of your time doing?

Lofton: As you can see, all these people walking in and out, this is our main activity. We’re dealing with customers all day long. Of course, Shaw has changed.

We have Bonobos. We have Read Wall Tailors. We have Ministry of Supply. We have Steven Alan. We have a lot of businesses in this area who rely on us for services now. Their customers need alterations, and so they send them here. So we’re always busy communicating with other stores in the area, consulting with them to make sure that they offer the best possible solution to their clients, as far as alterations go and what can be done and what cannot be done.

Lofton: So a big part of our day is constantly consulting with people to say, yes, you can do this, or, no, you cannot.

Brogan: How do those relationships get set up in the first place? Do they come to you, or did you go to them when they started opening up over there?

Lofton: Both, actually, mostly they come to us. They need alterations for their clients. They don’t want to lose a client. A lot of times a client will not buy something if they can’t get it altered immediately. Like if you’re getting married Saturday, and you buy your pants on Thursday, you want to know you can get them altered. And if you can’t, they won’t buy from you. And so it’s important to them to reach out to find out who can be their local tailor.

And, of course, we go down. We patronize them as well. We do business with them. We go down and help them. We give them supplies. We train them in how to fit. And all that’s free from us. We go in and spend time. We also have contracts with some hotels now, who they want to make sure the uniforms look perfect on whoever’s working their front desk and working in the hotel. So we have contracts, too, with them.

Brogan: I know that some of those shops, Ministry of Supply for example, pay for the alterations.

Lofton: Absolutely.

Brogan: How does that kind of work from a billing perspective for you?

Lofton: We give them 30 days, and we also give them a discount. We created what’s called a Shop in Shaw Discount. So if you shop in Shaw or if you’re a store in Shaw, you can get a discount from us. Of course, we have pretty much across the board the same discount for everybody, so that everybody feels equal, right.

Brogan: How much of your day do you spend actually consulting directly with customers, sitting in on fittings, and those kinds of activities?

Lofton: That’s probably about 60 to 70 percent of my day. The other part of it is we blog, we Instagram, we Facebook. So we’re always sitting here coming up with ideas. What can we talk about? What’s our quick tip for today? Who’s our best dressed for this week? Who’s our Wedding Wednesday person? So we’re always constantly doing things.

Brogan: You spotlight customers?

Lofton: Absolutely. We spotlight customers at least twice a week. We have a best dressed every Friday, and we have Wedding Wednesday where we spotlight a bride or bride and groom or a bride and bride or a groom and groom, all that. So we make sure that we give them some play for bringing their business to us. We want to make sure that we can show on Facebook what we did for them. So we do a lot. A large part of our day is social media. And we’re constantly looking, keeping up with the fashions, looking through magazines, finding out what exactly is happening in the fashion industry. You have to be up on it at all times, even as an older person now.

Brogan: Is that because you’re trying to make sure you understand what fits people are going for and styles and things?

Lofton: We want to know the look people want. We want to know what looks people want. What’s popular? What are the girls doing? Last year it was the jumpsuit craze. Everybody wanted a jumpsuit. So we learned how to turn old bridesmaid’s dresses into jumpsuits. So that they could get more use out of them.

Brogan: That’s a good use of a bridesmaid’s dress.

Lofton: Absolutely, because we could have a Bridesmaids of D.C. show in here about how much they pay for these bridesmaid’s gowns, and they can’t utilize them again. So we come up with creative ways to make sure they can utilize that again.

Brogan: Do customers just come in knowing that you do stuff like that, or do you reach out to them about it?

Lofton: We reach out to them. We give them ideas. A lot of times people spend a lot of money on these clothes. They invest in something that’s only going to be worn one time. So we feel like an added value is to tell them, don’t be upset that you paid $300 for this dress, and you hate it. We can turn it into something that you like afterwards, even if we cannibalize it and make it into a bustier top, just something so that they don’t feel like they’ve lost all their investment by paying for this and then paying for alterations, because bridal alterations are not cheap at all.

So we try to come up with creative ways and suggestions to our customers, both men and women. We have men who have suits that have peak lapels that are out of style. If they can make it into a notch lapel or something like that, they’re happier. So we actually are always scoping you out to see what we can do to help you out.

Brogan: So most of your work then really is about managing the business, keeping the store running. Do you miss the actual cut-and-sew work of tailoring these days?

Lofton: I do not miss going home covered in threads. I do not miss that. I don’t miss that at all. So sometimes, yes, I want to sit at a machine, and I can do that when I want to. And sometimes I need to. It’s relaxing for me. But, overall, managing has been so much more fulfilling to me.

Brogan: So you usually stay in the shop until about 10. What are the last things you do before you leave for the day usually?

Lofton: We always clean up, so that we’re prepared for the next day. That’s always the last thing we’re doing is making sure that this place is spotless. You never know when a customer’s going to greet you right at the door. You don’t want to have to come and have to be vacuuming and mopping and lighting candles. We make sure that our place is spotless before we leave here. And we make sure that everybody’s garments are hanging up in the right letter, so that when they come in, we’re ready to give them their garment and greet them properly in the morning.

Brogan: A lot of tailoring shops are also located in dry cleaning spaces. Is that a service that you provide at all?

Lofton: Absolutely not. We don’t offer cleaning, and we don’t want to be known as a tailor with a dry cleaners or a dry cleaners with a tailor. We are bona fide tailors and seamstresses in here. We’re not people who just can sew. And a lot of times, I take nothing away from dry cleaners, but the majority of time they are not people who have been trained as tailors or seamstresses. They are just people who sewed as a hobby and can sew, and so they go and they work in these dry cleaners.

Brogan: How many garments come through the shop in a given week?

Lofton: Oh, depends on the week. In a given week, we may get as many as 10 new bridal dresses. As you can see, we have a whole rack of suits right there. So on any given week, we may funnel through here 40 or 50 men’s suits, maybe 20 or 30 bridesmaid’s dresses, and a whole plethora of other alterations. Just people come through. We’re busy from the time we open our door until we lock that door at 6. We’re always constantly having customers come in. I think you just witnessed that. We have customers all the time.

Brogan: What’s the gender balance of your clientele generally? Is it 50-50 men/women, something else?

Lofton: Well, the women are rapidly trying to take over. What would you say, Sydney?

Sydney Green: I would say, 60-40.

Lofton: 60-40 women. And it used to be 80-20 men to women.

Brogan: Why do you think that has changed?

Lofton: Well, I think that women got into the business world more. That’s the main thing, is women went corporate, and they had to dress. And so they had to get man-tailored clothes, or I call them woman-tailored clothes. But women had to dress up more. And then they got exposed to alterations. Normally women had someone in their house to do alterations, but not anymore. Lots of women have never sat at a machine in their life and cannot sew on a button.

But they can’t go in corporate America with their sleeves too long and their pants too long or their skirt twisting around because it’s too big at the waist. So because women are in the workforce big time now in big jobs, they have to look a certain way.

Brogan: Yeah, when you’re consulting with a customer, what are the first questions that you ask about? What are you looking for when someone tries on a pair of pants that they want you to alter?

Lofton: We ask them, what kind of fit do they want? Do they want a comfortable fit, a loose fit? Do they want a very tapered fit? So we have to know what their comfort level is. We have to ask people, do you care that your pants feel snug when you sit down? Because you’re going to be wearing these all day. For a man typically, we always want to know what kind of break do you want? Do you want a small break, a medium break? Do you want your sock to show? You want a slant to the back? So a lot of questions. Do you want your cuff showing when we shorten the sleeves? There’s so many different questions you have to ask to find out how to actually fit the person.

Brogan: Uh-huh. Do you ever push back when customers ask for something that you don’t actually think will look good? Like if a guy wants a lot of break, if he wants his pants baggy at the shoe or whatever, are you going to say maybe you want to pull that up a little more?

Lofton: We are the queen of pushback, yes, because we have to. Because we can’t just be tailors. We have to be advisors. Because we can’t let you walk out of here, and then everybody’s like, wow, your pants really look like MC Hammer pants. Why is that? Because Cheryl A. Lofton & Associates did that, right. So, no. So we will push back. Like if you’re going above the knee with a skirt, and we know that you’re going into the work world, we will advise you that, OK, if you’re in a nine to five job, you’re not expected to walk in there with a thigh-high skirt on.

If they want us to do things that we think are not appropriate, we have to at least advise them. And once we’ve advised them, and they still want to go forward with it, then they sign off on a piece of paper saying this is what I asked for.

Brogan: So is there ever a time when you just refuse to do an alteration?

Lofton: Absolutely, absolutely. We actually do say no to some people. If we realize that this is potentially a lawsuit waiting to happen, we will say no to you. If you tell us that you want your dress cut up to this way in the back and way too long in one place or the other, or you want it asymmetrical on one side, and we know that once we cut that we cannot go back the other direction, we will say no.

Brogan: Do you find yourself often then, too, also encouraging people to modify garments in ways that they might not –

Lofton: We do, we suggest it. A lot of times people don’t know what they look like from the back. So when they’re in here, we’re seeing them from the back. So there’s many times men don’t realize that their pants are way too baggy in the crotch.

It’s saggy in the butt. They don’t know it, and no one is nice enough to tell them that. So when they’re in here, we absolutely consult with them and say, this is something you could use. Now if they tell us they don’t care, I don’t mind, then OK. But we feel obligated to tell you that this is something that will make your pants look better on you, a better fit.

Same with women. If they come in and we see that the waist is too big on the skirt, and they just want a hem, we’ll tell them that by the end of the day your vent is going to be in the front of your leg because it’s going to slide around on you. And they think that that’s not important, but it is. They don’t realize that their skirt turns because it’s too big in the waist.

Brogan: What kind of questions should people be asking their tailors? What do you wish your clients asked for when they came in?

Lofton: Well, I always wish they would ask the price first up front. How much is this going to cost me? So that we can actually give them—help them make an informed decision about what they’re about to invest in their clothing. A lot of times what happens is people will let you fit them in a garment from head to toe. It’ll take us 20 to 30 minutes to fit them. And then it’s cost prohibitive to them. So I really wish people would ask up front, how much is this? And do you think it’s worth the investment? Because we will be honest with you and tell you, OK, this doesn’t have much life left to it. So if you dump $57 into this pair of pants, chances are it’s going to explode in less than six months, and you’re going to be out of that pair of pants. So I wish people would ask the price.

Brogan: Yeah, are people ever shocked by the prices of things?

Lofton: Absolutely, people hyperventilate sometimes because, yes, absolutely, unless you’ve been getting tailoring all your life, and you’re used to cleaners, you might be able to go to a cleaners, and because they don’t really know the construction of the garment, they’re going to give you a cheap price, but you’re also going to get inferior work. So, yes, people come in and they’re not ready. It’s sticker shock with some people to know that getting a suit to fit you perfectly might be $150.

But then there’s other people that they don’t care. All they care about is that, when they walk out that door, their suit has head-turning ability, when someone stops them and tells them that their suit looks fantastic on them. And that’s what we do. So we have cases when people are really shocked at the price. But most of the times they realize the value of it. And if it’s not a good value, we tell them up front. We don’t try to gouge people for money. We tell them, this is not worth you doing.

Brogan: Yeah. How do you decide on the costs of various services? Are you looking at what other shops do, other tailors do, or is it all just based on your own internal logic?

Lofton: Well, of course, we kind of sort of keep it in line with what other bona fide tailor shops are charging. We don’t compare ourself to cleaners’ prices at all ever. Many times people come in here and say, well, the cleaners charges this. OK, then that’s probably where you need to be, because we’re not a cleaners, and we don’t do cleaners’ alterations. But we have pretty standard prices for some things. Like sleeves are pretty much the same. Shortening of sleeves, say, is $35. Hemming of pants may be $18.

The things that are different are like primarily bridesmaid’s dresses, because they come in so many widths, so many layers, so many types of fabric. We can’t have a standard price. It has to go by the garment. So those can go as low as $65. They can go as high as $125 just for a hem, depending on how wide it is. So we try to give fair pricing, but it does have to be based on how that garment is constructed.

Brogan: Yeah. So is that something that you are just figuring out as you’re working on it, or can you usually just look at something and tell?

Lofton: We can look at it. No, before you leave here, you know the price. We never let a person come back. You have your price before you go out of here or, at worst, the next day. We will consult with our tailors. Sometimes if something’s really expensive, we will consult with the tailors, and we’ll talk it over and find a cheaper way to do it for you. If I think it’s a garment you really want, like it’s your grandfather’s jacket, and you really want to salvage it, but it’s going to cost you $250 to do it, we’ll sometimes at the end of the day consult with my head tailor Faiz and Ali and decide what we can do for you. If it’s even just giving you a bigger discount, we’ll do that.

Brogan: Do people ever try to negotiate?

Lofton: Absolutely, every day. They want to know, especially bridesmaids. I keep going back to them because I feel bad sometimes, because the bridesmaid’s dresses can be really expensive. And so, yeah, they do want to negotiate. They want to know if we can get a cheaper price. And so many times we try to, but at the end of the day, we have to charge for the work we do.

We can’t base it on what you paid for the garment, which is one of my pet peeves. There’s a lot of times people feel like, oh, well, the garment only cost $75, and alterations are $125. What you pay for a garment never has anything to do with the cost of the alterations, and I think every tailor feels that way. They get almost angry when you say that. The garment only cost this. So why are the alterations this? The two aren’t connected any kind of way.

Brogan: Is there any correlation between how well made a garment is in the first place and how much work you have to put into it, how difficult it is to work with?

Lofton: Yes, so, actually, cheaper made garments are more difficult to work with. They really are. They’re made in these big factory kind of ways where seams are crossed in ways that they shouldn’t be. So a lot of times the less you pay for a garment, the more difficult it is to alter, and so the price is higher. And that’s a lot of times when we get clients saying, I only paid this much for the garment.

Well, that also sometimes adds to the price of the alterations because it’s more difficult to get to areas. Like if you buy an Oxford suit, I guarantee you that the alterations are going to be easier on that than on a Zara suit. Because the construction of it is—it’s actually to the way you would hand-make a garment. And so we know exactly where the corners are, what we have to go to to do the alterations. A lot of times now when you get these cheaper brand suits, they’re made differently. And so it’s hard to get to the crotch. It’s hard to get to the armholes. It takes a lot more for us to do that.

Brogan: Are there things that you can’t fix regardless of how much someone is willing to sink into a garment?

Lofton: Yes, uh-huh.

Brogan: What are some of the things that are just impossible for you?

Lofton: Well, knit clothes are really tricky. When things are stretched out of shape, it’s very difficult to recreate that shape. Sequins, if you come in here with missing sequins, and you don’t have the sequins, we can’t always put sequins back on. And if we did, it’s a one-by-one hand job. And so most of the time, the cost of putting sequins back on exceeds the cost of the garment. And sometimes leather can’t be repaired in a nice way. And so we tell people, this is going to be a Frankenstein job when you get it back. And so we tell people up front, these are things that don’t make good alterations.

Brogan: I will say that I’m wearing a leather jacket that your shop repaired. And I can’t even figure out where the hole was anymore.

Lofton: We can do that. But you probably had a very clean hole in yours. Sometimes these things are jagged, and you can’t put that back together. It’s not like a puzzle. You can’t put it back together and make it smooth. It’s going to leave somewhat of a mark. You’re going to be able to see where it was repaired. And sometimes that’s OK with people. If it’s in an area like the elbow or the inside of the arm where it doesn’t show, then it’s OK with them.

Brogan: Are there other fabrics that are more difficult than others to work with, apart from the knit and leather?

Lofton: Velvet is possible the most challenging fabric to work with. You cannot sew it on a machine without basting it. And I don’t know if you know what basting means. You have to by hand put this together by hand first with a long thread to make sure it doesn’t move. You have to sew it with paper because it rolls—it moves under the machine and rolls and twists and turns. So velvet, silk, very soft silks are very hard to work with. So we can do it, but it’s more expensive because it’s more work for us to do.

Brogan: What’s the most rewarding part about your work?

Lofton: The transformation. I love it when somebody comes in, and they are just mediocre, lukewarm about a garment. And then when they come back, they are super excited, can’t wait to wear it. So for me it’s all about the end result. It’s seeing the customer smile in that mirror and know that we have hit the mark for them. So that’s what really makes me happy.

Brogan: Sometimes when you get a garment back from the tailor, it’s like having bought it for the second time almost. And you get that pleasure of looking at a new thing that you own.

Lofton: Yes. It’s like converting it from an off-the-rack jacket to your jacket. That’s what makes me feel good is knowing that we’ve taken something off the rack and made it custom for you for your body. It’s the right length. It’s the right contour. It’s the right silhouette. It’s everything that you want in your garment.

Brogan: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time.

Lofton: Thanks for coming, that was fun. I appreciate that.

Brogan: We appreciate it, too. Thank you.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Working. I’m Jacob Brogan. We’d love to hear your thoughts about the podcast. Our email address is working@slate.com. If you have ideas for things that you’d love to see us talk more about, people you’d love to see us talk to, we’d be curious about that. And we’d love it also if you would rate and review the podcast on iTunes and subscribe.

You can listen to past episodes at Slate.com/working. Working is produced and edited by Mickey Capper, who has never been to a tailor shop before. Our executive producer is the always sharply dressed Steve Lickteig. And the chief content officer of the Panoply network is Andy Bowers.

* * * 

In this Slate Plus extra, we went through the process of resizing a pair of my pants with Cheryl Lofton. And we chatted with Lofton and her assistant about their relationship.

Brogan: So can I try on a pair of pants and hem them up?

Lofton: Are you testing my skills?

Brogan: I know your skills are good.

Lofton: Yes, you can.

Brogan: But I do have to have these pants hemmed anyway.

Lofton: Absolutely, you can do that.

Brogan: Can I change back here?

Lofton: Yes, just right back in the dressing room. And, actually, Sydney is going to be the one fitting you today. OK.

Brogan: OK, shoes on or off?

Sydney Green: On, please.

Lofton: Sydney is my right arm. OK.

Green: You can stand right up here. And just face that mirror for me. Thank you.

Brogan: I’m a minimal break guy.

Green: Minimal break, OK.

Brogan: Little to none. But like because of the way these are going to bunch up, I’m sure.

Green: Hands out of the pockets. It does affect the way the pants lay.

Brogan: You’re welcome to boss me around.

Green: It will feel a little bulky because all of this fabric is being stuffed in here. I would say, for this pair this is about a small break right here. And if you step to the side, you can really see the break amount. You can turn to the side. And this right here is like literally your break right there.

Brogan: What do you think?

Lofton: I think that’s a good break. I think that fabric doesn’t shrink much. So you don’t have to worry about it. So I think that a small break is all that you need on that. Well, we have that break chart right in front of you. That way so sometimes people don’t know what a break is. So that’s why we have that chart there for them to be able to decide what kind of break they want.

Green: Are these like a typical shoe that you would wear with these pants? Because since it is a boot, it does come up a little higher.

Brogan: I wouldn’t always wear a boot. Sometimes it’ll be like a more conventional like dress shoe.

Green: OK, so if you don’t mind, I could just leave these just a little bit longer, so that it can fall evenly on a pair of lower shoes as well.

Brogan: That’d be great, thank you. How long have you been doing this?

Green: I’ve been doing this for a little bit over a year. I started last June, and I love it. I’ve been sewing as a hobby since I was seven. My mom taught me. She was a hobby sewer/seamstress. She never did it professionally, but she made her little sister’s prom dress. So she taught me the ropes. And then I found Cheryl, and I’ve been here ever since, and I love it.

Faiz: You found each other.

Lofton: We found each other, and it was just the perfect scenario. Sydney wanted to learn more about bona fide tailoring, right, custom tailoring, alterations, and things like that. Like she said, she had her own little kind of home business going on where she would make crop tops and things like that. She would what we call cannibalize already made clothes and turn them into something else. So she wanted to get a little deeper into learning to sew. And so we’re happy to have her learn while she’s here. She’s actually our customer service person, and she’s fantastic at it. But in her spare time when she’s here, we make sure that she gets exposed to tailoring. The same way my grandfather let me, I let her.