Not content with the overpriced (if decent) tourist-focused tailors in the main hotels in Pyongyang, CE recently sought advice on where to find a top tailor in Pyongyang. And we got great advice.
The DPRK is a part of the global post-80s trend wherein mannequins without heads were deemed less creepy than mannequins with heads.
The local Pyongyanger who gave us the tip insisted that Eul Mil Dae (을밀대) has a reputation around town for quality and precision that most tailors don't. He wasn't wrong.
Having brought our own quality cloth, we had a wonderful overcoat made, for a competitive price. This leads us to also heartily recommend Eul Mil Dae in the Kaeson Mun neighbourhood of Pyongyang.
In conversation, the proprietor lamented that despite having a local reputation for craftsmanship, outsourcing proposals that come her way from Chinese businesspeople, invariably look for very low end work: cheap cloth, with rapid turnaround. This is, unsurprisingly, not the work she wishes to do.
She is sure she could compete with better quality products, but is unsure of how to enter international markets and how to position her products in order to compete both on price and quality. Perhaps we can have her at a CE workshop in the near future and assist with how she approaches these issues.
If you'd like to join us at a CE workshop - and who knows, perhaps help teach this tailor about business - please click here:
