The last tailor in Minnesota

He stopped by the office to say good-bye. David Doorga is probably the last actual tailor in the State of Minnesota. There are still people who do alterations, but he is probably the last person who could make a suit of clothes out of a bolt of cloth.

He’s going out of business. He will close his shop at 1507 East Lake Street after 18 years. When he opened there were two tailor shops in Minneapolis. Now, he believes he is the only one left. Before he was at his present location he was two blocks away at 1729 East Lake, and he bought that shop from Stanley Oram who inherited his tailor shop from his father, and they had an unbroken family history at that location for 70 years.

Doorga was born in Trinidad Tabago of Indian parents. He studied in Trinidad for five years to learn to be a tailor, and he worked at Shim Tailors in Trinidad for 23 years. He has been in the United States for 22 years. He is trained in the English, Saville Row tradition.

We asked him why there is no longer a need for tailors. He had obviously been thinking about an answer to that question for a long time:

“There are three reasons. First, the market is flooded with inexpensive, factory-made clothes. Second, material is not durable. You can’t find good wool. I use English wool. Most American wool is not of the same quality. There are more people using 100 percent wool, and there are fewer farmers, so there is a shortage. Third, price. A handmade suit may cost from six to 10 times as much as a factory suit, but it will last 20 times longer. Factory suits come in sizes, and you find the size that most closely fits, but a tailor-made suit is molded to your body. A factory suit in one size will fit many people, but a tailor-made suit fits only one person.

“Also, today, people put on clothes. They don’t dress up. When you see a policeman dressed in a uniform he commands respect when seen from a distance. But respect for authority has diminished. Today, everything is so casual. It used to be even bathing suits were dignified. Women would have been arrested for the way they go about today so scantily dressed.”

Anybody who has clothes at his shop should stop by before May 15 to pick them up.

It seems strange and a little ironic that an Indian from Trinidad trained in the English school of tailoring should be a victim of globalization in South Minneapolis, but such is the state of the world. It makes you wonder how long it will be before print newspapers become obsolete.