Oriental Network reporters Bai Kelin and Kong Wenlong reported on September 10: "When you buy clothes and materials to love construction, you will not suffer losses and will not be angry." "Shanghainese, 40 or 50 years old, must be familiar with this advertisement.
Aijian Company, full name "Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Patriotic Construction Company", is the first private enterprise after China's reform and opening up, and its business field spans many industries. In the 1990s, Aijian Textiles occupied a leading position in Shanghai's textile industry, known as the "King of Woolen Wool". Customers can pick up the fabric and can directly find tailors in the store to make clothes, customized clothes are close-fitting, structured and have face.
However, with the change of the times, the production capacity of Shanghai's cotton textile industry has been adjusted, and Aijian Textile has ceased to exist. Song Hongyang was wrapped in the tide of the times and witnessed the highs and lows of Aijian textiles. When Song Hongyang was young, he worked as a tailor at the Aijian Textiles Branch, and he was one of the few existing "Red Gang Tailors" in Shanghai. Today, he still guards a small clothing studio on the original site of the former cloth shop, continuing the ingenuity of the Red Gang tailors, worrying that there is not much time left for this craft.
Red Gang tailor Song Hongyang.
The tide of the times
Song Hongyang is a native of Fenghua, Ningbo, where tailors are born, and they have a common name: "Red Gang Tailors".
The origins of the Red Gang tailors are closely related to Shanghai. In 1843, Shanghai opened its port to the outside world, the number of Westerners who came to Shanghai soared, and the domestic foreign compradors, bank senior staff, rich children, celebrities, etc. followed the fashion, so there was a "suit fever" in society. Since Ningbo was opened as a treaty port, the atmosphere is relatively open, and it is close to Shanghai, affected by the "suit fever", a large number of Ningbo tailors poured into Shanghai.
The origin of the title "Red Gang Tailor" is widely disputed. Some people think that the "red gang" is because the main customer of the tailor was foreigners, and the society commonly known as "red hair", which came from this. Some people also say that most of these tailors who make clothes are from Yinzhou and Fenghua in Ningbo, and the masters and apprentices are inherited, and the Shanghainese call these people "Fengbang tailors", because the Wu language "Feng" and "Hong" are similar, so they have evolved into "Red Gang Tailors".
In any case, the skills of Ningbo tailors have been revered to the height of art. According to the data of the Shanghai Suit Industry Association at that time, there were more than 700 suit stores in Shanghai at that time, and more than 420 were opened by red tailors, accounting for about 60%. China's first suit, the first Zhongshan suit, the first suit shop, the first suit theory monograph, the first suit craft school, are all created by the Red Gang tailors.
Song Hongyang came to Shanghai in 1987.
Influenced by his fellow villagers, Song Hongyang, who was 16 years old at the time, also came to Shanghai to break into the world after learning tailoring skills for two years in Ningbo. "In the 1980s, Shanghainese began to go abroad, going abroad for investigation, study, and travel, all wanting to wear a decent suit." Song Hongyang was young and willing to endure hardships, first opened a small shop near Maotai Road on Xianxia Road, doing incoming processing, and then saw aijian textiles recruiting workers, so he went and entered the Aibang branch on Lingling Road as a tailor.
Song Hongyang worked as a tailor in Aijian Textiles Aibang Store, and still retains Aijian's receipts.
The plastic bags of Aijian Textiles list the addresses of many branches.
"The first month I did it, the salary was more than 200 yuan. The second month, 850 blocks. In the third month, how much do you guess? 1500 pieces! Song Hongyang held out two fingers and said, "The salary of an ordinary worker was only more than 200 yuan." At the same time, Aijian Textiles has also ushered in the peak period, in order to improve the popularity of the Aijian velvet brand, Aijian Textiles Company has gradually developed from a single fabric operation to the direction of garmentization, and opened many branches. From 1994 to 1996, Aijian Textiles won the double crown of sales and profit in the textile industry in Shanghai for three consecutive years. Aijian Textiles attracts customers with "genuine goods, package returns and exchanges", and "Woolen King" is famous in Shanghai.
The packaging gift box of Aijian Textiles was the king of velvet in Shanghai.
After entering the new century, the living standards of Shanghai citizens are getting higher and higher, there are more and more consumption choices, various domestic and foreign ready-to-wear brands appear in shopping malls, and there are gradually fewer people who buy fabrics and custom-made clothes. "In 2004, the Aibang store closed, and I sent more than 100,000 people to plate the remaining fabrics and continue to do the tailoring business." Song Hongyang's insistence is more than ten years, "The cloth shop was originally opened on the basement floor, I continued to operate on the original site, until three years ago, for fire safety considerations, moved to the top floor of the 28th floor, although the area is small, but not wet, do not have to worry about the cloth will be moldy as before." ”
Although the Aijian Textiles Aibang store has been closed for many years, the exterior decoration is still preserved.
At that time, customers bought good fabrics in the store and could ask Song Hongyang to customize clothes.
Song Hongyang's studio is only managed by him, although it is only more than 20 square meters, it is also quite open. The Aijian Building, where the studio is located, is the first batch of overseas Chinese exchange houses for export and residential use in China in 1980. Tired of threading needles, brew a cup of tea and overlook the scenery on the 28th floor, which is very pleasant. What is in your hands and under your feet is history.
Song Hongyang was at the door of the studio.
The last hold
Song Hongyang never advertises for his studio, and if he has to worry about it, there is only a red signboard at the door: "Flawed luxury, the last insistence of ingenuity." A customer asked, "Who said that their craftsmanship is flawed?" Song Hongyang asked rhetorically: "As long as it is made by hand, how can it be flawless?" Even if it is a row of grommets, there will be subtle differences in size and number of needles. ”
The studio is only more than 20 flats, with a lot of clothes and fabrics.
Song Hongyang stepped on the chair to get the fabric.
The wine aroma is not afraid of the deep alley, Song Hongyang's customers are repeat customers accumulated over the years, mainly 40 to 60 years old, economic stability, aesthetic taste, do not like "bumping shirts". Men look for him to customize Zhongshan suits, suits, jackets, women's styles are more abundant, suits, cheongsam, coats, dresses...
Iron stools for ironing clothes have been used for decades.
Each garment is handmade.
The Red Gang tailors are specialty in making high-grade woolen wool and pay attention to three-dimensional integration. "Is it the red gang tailor, just look at the details." Collars, sleeves, pockets, craftsmanship is not solid? Are the clothes flat on the table? It is not right to be flat, because the human body has curves, and clothes must be close to the body, and they must also have curves. Song Hongyang said that his head was Dao.
The most obvious identification of the red gang tailor is the paper sample. Song Hongyang had a box full of plates made of old newspapers, and before using the cloth, he first proofed on the paper, which was the method handed down by the master. A pile of newspapers that seemed to outsiders to be fragmented, but it was a tacit understanding between the red gang tailors, "Take the paper sample to any red gang tailor, he can make clothes." ”
The most obvious identification of the Red Gang tailor is the paper sample.
Unfortunately, this tacit understanding is fading. "As far as I know, there are less than ten Red Gang tailor shops in Shanghai, and the craftsmanship handed down from the ancestors is about to be lost." Whenever he thought about it, Song Hongyang was a little anxious. Song Hongyang once took more than a dozen apprentices, but there is only one person who is still working as a tailor, and some of the others have gone by taxi, some have gone to do part-time work, and they have made fast money.
Cashmere cloth is more than a thousand yuan a meter, and if a knife is cut down, it is a loss of thousands of pieces.
The sewing kit is put on the arm.
When Song Hongyang was an apprentice, the master was already 76 years old. "I started learning in '85, but it wasn't until '92 that my master allowed me to cut fabrics. Why? Because the cashmere cloth is more than a meter and a thousand yuan, if the basic skills are not solid, a knife down to cut is a loss of a thousand pieces, ah, then people's monthly salary is so little. "On the one hand, the profit margin of being a red gang tailor is small and the learning cycle is long; on the other hand, young people have a lot of pressure in life and can't afford to spend time." This has created the embarrassing situation that the red gang tailors are now.
Song Hongyang said that working at this age, he no longer cares about making money or not.
Song Hongyang hung his clothes on the hanger.
If, in a small shop in Shanghai, Ningbo or other provinces and cities, there is a young man who is picking up a lamp to learn the skills of the Red Gang, Song Hongyang, as a comer, hopes that the next generation can make a breakthrough: "What Chinese tailors lack is a sense of design. Spend a little effort to make a custom clothing with a sense of design, and only by surviving is it possible to win the competition. ”
Song Hongyang's customers are repeat customers accumulated over the years.
Song Hongyang hopes that China's younger generation of tailors can focus on design while improving their craftsmanship.