The Little Tailor that Could

Stephanie was having some trousers and skirts made because her box of winter clothes hadn't arrived yet, so I went along with her and had a pair of trousers made too. I've worn them every day for the last few weeks ... and they are a good fit, so I decided to go for another pair or two.
If you buy your own material, it costs 25YTL to have a pair of trousers made. So I went back to my favourite underground shopping arcade.









I was wandering slowly past the different store fronts, gently pinching various materials to see if they would be prickly to wear - I'm very fussy about how clothes feel, and can't bear anything prickly or too synthetic - when a man came running from the other end of the arcade and hurriedly stood in the doorway of the shop I was approaching. He made encouraging Turkish noises and hand motions, and so I went in to check out his fabrics.
I indicated to him that I was making trousers, and he measured my height and assured me that a metre of my chosen material would be ample - as it was very wide material. I chose to believe him against my better judgement, because the material I had chosen was fairly expensive and I didn't want a whole lot left over.
I then went down the Bakırköy main street towards the sea, to another underground arcade.









Just inside on the right are some stairs heading down. There are a lot of small shoe shops down there, and shoes displayed dustily all down the stairs themselves as well. At the bottom I turned right, past a couple of other little stores, and came to the "Ramses Collection" shop of Muzaffer Güneri and his son Zeynel.
Why go to this particular little shop? Well, Zeynel speaks English, and that makes the whole process so much easier.

Zeynel looked at my material, and - as I was afraid - shook his head doubtfully. He agreed that it was very nice material, but there would not be enough of it.

Father and son examined my material together, and agreed that there would not be enough. They discussed our little problem, and finally it was agreed that the father would go with me back to the fabric arcade and replace the material - he figured if he was there to talk to the man who sold me the fabric he would actually allow an exchange.

So we did. The man in the arcade looked a little unhappy but under the tailor's persuasion he gave me the bigger piece of material and took back the small piece for very little extra.




Four days later I was back down in the arcade picking up my new trousers. As always there was chat and hospitality - we sat on tiny stools and conversed, and 'çay' (Turkish tea) was ordered and shared.