A City on the US East Coast. Zou Yu opens a familiar Chinese e-commerce platform and orders a new pair of pants. When filling in the shipping address, he doesn’t input his US location, but instead, Kunshan, Jiangsu province.
There, a tailor he has never met takes over, precisely shortening the trouser legs by the necessary 5 centimeters. The pants are then repackaged, labeled with an international shipping waybill, and sent across the Pacific to reach him, perfectly altered.
Zou Yu is just one of Jindashi’s many “international clients.” And that unseen “alteration tailor” in Kunshan is one of over a hundred artisans collaborating with Jindashi.
The clothes they alter come from all over China. In an era of fast fashion and mass production, there are still people willing to invest time and money for an extra centimeter in sleeve length or two centimeters in waist width, seeking a perfect fit, presentability, and the preservation of cherished memories.
From a small brick-and-mortar shop on a Shanghai street corner to a Taobao store gathering skilled artisans nationwide, Jindashi spent over a decade turning a craft nearly rendered obsolete into the top-ranked online store in its category, handling more than 100,000 garments a year.
- The Twilight of an Old Craft
Jindashi’s connection to clothing began with “scarcity.” Born in the 1970s, his childhood lacked stores filled with ready-made clothes, only the memory of his mother’s busy silhouette bent over a sewing machine. “Back then, the family wasn’t well-off, we were quite poor,” he recalls.
Failing his high school entrance exams and facing family hardships, the young Jindashi gave up on further education. Laid out before him was the most straightforward choice of that era: learn a trade to make a living.
Among options like carpentry, bricklaying, and tailoring, he chose the last one, feeling that “learning clothing seemed lighter work.” At 20, he became an apprentice, following the traditional master-disciple system.
Three years later, having completed his training, he opened his own shop in Jiangsu. He remembers a time when every street had a few small stores bearing signs like “Precise Cutting” and “Custom Tailoring.”
But times changed rapidly. The internet wave swept in. “People thought finding a tailor was slow and expensive – it could take ten days, half a month, or even longer from measurement and fabric selection to a finished garment. Ordering online, you got clothes quickly,” he said. As consumers grew accustomed to online shopping, many tailors meticulously working at their cutting boards found their skills had lost their market almost overnight.
Orders plummeted, customer traffic dwindled. “A huge number of tailor shops just went out of business, couldn’t stay open anymore. Ours was one of them,” Jindashi said. He packed away his scissors and measuring tapes and moved to Shanghai, becoming a worker in a large garment factory.
Life in the factory was decent and stable, even offering him weekends off. But “our generation just can’t sit idle,” he explained.
On weekends, neighbors who heard about his skills would bring him ill-fitting clothes. Jindashi had brought an old foot-pedal sewing machine from his hometown in Jiangsu, placing it just outside his Shanghai home. Initially, he just helped out neighbors and friends. Unexpectedly, “many became repeat customers, and slowly, more and more people gathered.” Being near a market also brought a steady stream of business due to the high foot traffic.
He realized the demand for clothing alterations was far greater than he imagined. Factory assembly lines produced standard sizes, but consumers’ bodies were unique. Someone always needed adjustments.
Beyond that, there was another, emotionally driven need. “Older generation clothes were often very well-made and held sentimental value, like wedding suits or dresses. After a few years, if their bodies changed but they wanted to wear them again, alterations were necessary.”
Demand forced tool upgrades. The foot-pedal machine soon proved inadequate. “Many fabrics were too thick, it simply couldn’t pierce through, and it was too slow,” Jindashi said. He upgraded to an industrial electric sewing machine like those used in garment factories.
Later, as orders kept growing, he couldn’t manage alone and called on his wife to help. Even with two people, the small alteration stall was constantly busy.
- A Standard Process for Online Alterations
Even in an age flooded with ready-made clothes, the pursuit of a “good fit” remains a constant need. Jindashi’s unintentional business at the Shanghai street corner lasted nearly eight years.
Then, fate took another turn. Because his daughter’s household registration (hukou) issues prevented her from taking the high school entrance exam in Shanghai, the family had to make a decision: sell the thriving business and move to Kunshan, Jiangsu.
After moving, that “can’t sit idle” feeling stirred in Jindashi again. The high cost of renting a physical store deterred him, and an idea flashed in his mind: “Since I can’t open a physical store, why not open a shop on Taobao to alter clothes?”
Alteration is a service heavily reliant on in-person communication and measurements. How could it be done online? In 2014, Jindashi thought he might be the first to try this, but upon searching Taobao, he found others were already on this path.
He didn’t back down. Adopting a “give it a try, treat it as a side job” mindset, he opened his store.
Starting the shop had almost no monetary cost. The biggest cost was trust. “Altering clothes online, you must solve the customer’s pain point: without meeting, how do I know how much you want taken in?” This was his initial challenge. To tackle it, he distilled over a decade of experience with garments into a standardized online communication process.
First, Visual Diagnosis. He asks customers to put on the garment, fasten it, let their arms hang naturally, and send a full-body photo. “As an old tailor with over ten years of experience, it’s like a doctor diagnosing an illness: observation, listening, questioning, pulse-taking,” he analogized. From the photo, he can preliminarily assess the fit and, combined with customer communication, formulate a alteration plan, deciding whether to take it in by one size or two.
Second, Reference Comparison. He suggests customers send a similar type of garment that fits them perfectly as a sample. With both photos and a well-fitting reference garment, “we’re at least 90% confident we can alter the item well.”
Third, Guided Measurement. For precise measurements like sleeve or inseam length, he patiently teaches customers how to measure themselves. For instance, folding the sleeve to the desired position on the wrist and taking a photo. “I then advise based on common wearing habits – usually 2-3 cm above the thumb webbing – but ultimately, we respect their personal preference.”
The first order, altering a shirt, was a success. The customer, from Kunshan, was very satisfied and promptly sent three more shirts.
“Every customer is distrustful the first time they deal with us. Only when they feel the alteration is well done will they come back,” Jindashi noted. Word-of-mouth created an unexpected ripple effect. Later, a denim enthusiast, after confirming Jindashi’s skill, sent seventy or eighty pairs of jeans over a month. “He had been stockpiling them because he hadn’t found anyone who could alter them well,” Jindashi explained.
Subsequently, order volume grew rapidly. Jindashi worked at the garment factory by day and buried himself in piles of clothes at home each night. Soon, he realized that even working around the clock, he couldn’t handle the explosive growth. “It wasn’t just twenty or thirty orders a day anymore.”
- Gathering Over 100 Tailors Nationwide
When one person’s capacity hits its limit, do you stick to a small workshop or find a new model? Jindashi’s wife suggested: “We know so many skilled people in this trade, why not ask them for help?”
Through referrals, he contacted the first batch of collaborating tailors. These were seasoned masters from the garment industry, highly skilled – “all capable of making full sample garments, pattern making, and cutting.”
He mailed garments to the tailors’ homes. They just needed their equipment; their physical location didn’t matter.
Thus, one tailor introduced another, and a network effect emerged. Today, Jindashi collaborates with over 100 tailors spread across Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Henan, Beijing, Sichuan, and other provinces. Mostly aged between 40 and 55, they have extensive experience and solid skills from garment manufacturing. Most work part-time, utilizing evenings or weekends doing what they do best.
Jindashi designed a revenue-sharing model. For each garment altered, the tailor takes 70%, reflecting maximum respect for the craft’s value; the remainder covers platform operation, customer service, etc. He wanted these skilled artisans who couldn’t sit idle to utilize their skills and earn extra income for their families.
But he later realized that to stay competitive in an increasingly fierce market, besides having master tailors, continuous transformation was essential. “We must stay ahead of others.”
Initially, the largest volume was shortening jeans. Then, with rising middle-class consumption, alterations for high-quality, structured double-sided wool coats became mainstream. Later, demand grew for men’s suit and leather jacket alterations, driven by pursuits of refined dressing.
Now, the most core, technically demanding service in his store is altering outdoorwindbreaker (wind/rain jackets). “Because many foreignwindbreaker brands use European/American cuts, sleeves tend to be longer, while domestic consumers generally have shorter arm lengths. So, many people find the sleeves too long when they buy them.”
Butwindbreaker fabric is special. Alteration requires not just sewing but professional heat-sealing/taping machines for waterproofing. “Just dealing with a cuff involving taping, elastic, and bar tacking can take two to three hours. Ordinary tailor shops simply don’t have this capability,” Jindashi said.
His tailors specialize. Those good at suits focus on suits; those skilled withwindbreaker focus onwindbreaker. Currently, four tailors in his network specialize inwindbreaker. Annual alteration volumes for suits, leather jackets, and trousers each exceed 10,000 pieces. Orders sometimes queue up, and customers are willing to wait, even for several days.
- From Alterations to Fashion Week
The price for altering a garment depends on the specific request and the item’s style. With technological advancements and scale, prices have become more accessible. “Initially, shortening jeans cost 30-40 RMB, now you can find someone doing it for 20 RMB; initially, shortening a double-sided wool coat cost 80-90 RMB, now it can be done for 40-50 RMB.”
Over the years, they’ve handled all sorts of items: wedding dresses, qipaos, and old clothes full of sentimental value. One customer brought a navy blue suit worn at his wedding. The suit was very old, and the team saw little need for alteration – a T-shirt might be worth more, and altering it cost 70-80 RMB.
But the customer insisted. For him, it was about sentiment and memory. “We also handle making small clothes larger, finding ways to widen old jeans or coats, or changing styles, like converting collared to collarless, or long styles to short ones,” Jindashi added.
Then there’s the overseas Chinese client from the beginning, who faced a wardrobe dilemma: in China, a 74 cm waist size often corresponds to a 105 cm inseam. But he actually needed a 100 cm inseam. “Buying pants with the right length meant the waist was too small. Accommodating the waist meant accepting overly long legs,” he explained. For him, getting clothes altered in China provided a better fit, and even with expensive international shipping, it was more cost-effective than local alterations in the US.
Today, Jindashi’s store alters over 100,000 garments a year, ranking #1 in the local lifestyle services alteration category.
In this seemingly modest enterprise, Jindashi and his tailors have also touched a broader world. They’ve taken measurements for celebrities on-site and worked backstage at fashion weeks, hand-altering unique sample pieces flown in from abroad, worth over 100,000 RMB each, ensuring they perfectly fit the Chinese models’ bodies.
Conclusion
From entering the trade at 20 to now, decades have passed in a flash. For Jindashi, what sustains him today goes beyond just making money. Each carefully altered garment mailed back represents a portion of trust. “We make an ill-fitting garment fit well. The customer wears it satisfied, gives us positive feedback, and seeks us out again next time. This feeling of being trusted and recognized is our greatest motivation.”
