My fellow Indian journalist and I were lunching at Gaylord — the India Restaurant — in Tsim Sha Tsui and discussing prominent Indians in Hong Kong when Sam’s name popped up. “Surely you’ve heard of Sam’s Tailor?” asked Rajeev Bhasin, the Indian owner and MD of Mayfare Group, a restaurant chain that runs, among others, this restaurant.
“Sam Taylor?” we asked. “Tailor, not Taylor. A Sindhi gentleman who’s stitched suits for everyone from Michael Jackson to David Bowie,” said Bhasin.
Suddenly, we were all ears. “Can we get to meet him?” we asked our half-Chinese, half-Japanese guide, who snapped out his phone in a second and dialled the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, on whose invitation we were in Hong Kong. Before we could finish our bowl of kulfi and gulab jamun, the appointment was set up for 30 minutes later! Whoever said, ‘When in Hong Kong, you have to hit the road running’ was right.
MAKE-TO-MEASURE
We walked down to Burlington Arcade in Hong Kong’s bustling Tsim Sha Tsui district where Sam’s Tailor is located on the ground floor. Manu Melwani, son of the original ‘Sam’ — Manohar Narindas Melwani — was waiting outside the store and shook our hands warmly. “Have you been here before?” he asked. When I replied in the negative, an elderly Chinese tailor, who reminded me of the wise Shifu from Kung Fu Panda, complete with a droopy white moustache, appeared out of nowhere and without any warning, started to tape-measure me. I sucked in my tummy — just a little — when he slipped the tape around my waist but he waited patiently till I exhaled. I giggled; there was no escaping this Chinese cutter’s 72 years of tailoring wisdom!
WITH THE RICH & FAMOUS
Smiling down from one wall are photographs of Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Karl Lagerfeld, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, Pierce Brosnan, Richard Gere, eight US presidents... — all of whom the three generations of Melwanis have tailored for.
“When India got Independence in 1947, my father got an opportunity and moved to Hong Kong. We started making military uniforms for the British (who ruled Hong Kong till 1997) and that established our shop name,” said Melwani, 69, as his son Roshan waved a friendly hi.
Their reputation spread and the first of many celebrity clients who visited was Hollywood star Cary Grant. In 1975, Melwani, then 26, went to London to apprentice at The Savile Row Company, the renowned English tailor founded in 1938. Armed with expertise, he returned to Hong Kong to aid his father and uncle Sham in the homegrown business. Today, they have “an empire of 55”.
INDIA CALLING
“We’d love to come to India but you have to be very patient with the workers there,” said Melwani. The Sindhi businessman has been exploring options. “Ahmedabad has several young workers and it takes around seven years to train them. I am planning to go there and look for opportunity. We will train them in Mumbai and most likely open a branch there or in Delhi,” he revealed.
DEEP POCKET
Your bespoke suit may feel like a million bucks though it will cost between HK $4,500 (about Rs 38,500) for a regular men’s suit and $28,000 for a top-brand, three-piece suit. Sam’s tailored shirts cost $500 each. “We charge the same for all clients. Everyone is equal for us,” said Melwani, whose suits have been delivered around the world, to 150 countries at last count. For one celebrity, who he won’t name, Melwani flew to London thrice in one week for fittings. “The most unfamiliar place we sent a parcel to was Huka in New Zealand; it came back undelivered.”