Inflation and ready-to-wear fashion reshape Islamabad’s Eid tailoring tradition

ISLAMABAD: The whir of sewing machines at Melody Tailors in Islamabad’s Melody Market was unusually faint this week.

Days before Eid Al-Fitr, the shop should be overflowing with customers rushing to finalize festive outfits, tailors hunched over sewing machines, measuring tapes draped around their necks as orders pile up before the holiday.

Instead, owner Faisal Ismail sat quietly beside his cutting table, flipping through an order book that is far thinner than it used to be.

Across Pakistan’s capital, a long-standing Eid tradition of commissioning custom-stitched clothes is fading as soaring inflation and the rise of ready-to-wear fashion reshape how people shop for the Muslim festival that marks the end of Ramadan.

“Even though there are three, four, or five days left, the situation isn’t the same as the rush we used to have,” Ismail told Arab News. “People don’t come saying, ‘Make this for me.’ No such hustle or bustle is there anymore.”