“There can be no repetition in garment processing. It is our business strategy to make only one article of clothing according to a form. As there is not a person with the same constitution and figure, it is the secret of our success to make clothes to fit clients well while preserving the material and colour characteristics of cloth to the maximum,” said Kong Hye Ok, chief of the Jongno clothes shop under the General Clothes Shop in Central District.

The clothes shop on Changjon Street in downtown Pyongyang is widely known as it makes fashionable clothes like surrounding environment.

The first process of tailoring is a careful observation of visitors like in other clothes shops, but the tailors’ observation covers not only physique and figure but also ages, intelligence and sensitivity.

As clothing makes people look younger than their ages, prettier, more refined and better, the tailors precisely observe all the features of garment orderers so that they can opt for the most suitable form of clothes while promoting merits to conceal demerits.

Kong Hye Ok, who is good at designing and tailoring, always presents distinctive clothes by making proper use of open form in her own way.

The order for suits and coats is on the rise in this autumn season, and the tailors select suitable cloth according to the likings of visitors and apply diverse designs to such parts as chest, waist, collar, pocket and sleeves so as to uniquely combine them with coloured cloth and decorations.

For example, when they design coats for women of fine physique and small stature, they give a long opening from the neck to the bottom and combine dark and light colours to create harmony. In case of tailoring unicoloured clothes, they add a belt ornament with a different colour to give the feeling of slenderness. In case of a tall woman with a lean physique, horizontal openings are given to the waist in various forms to achieve balance. In some cases, a little application of cloth with a different colour to the pocket or the addition of small-sized decorations to cuffs, chest and shoulder is enough to promote smartness, said Kong.

Pyon Kyong Ok is well-known in the district as a dexterous tailor.

Generally, men’s clothes are said to be easier to cut as they are not so diverse in form as compared to women’s clothes, but the tailoring of the collar of men’s suit, the linking of shoulder part to sleeves and the processing of the chest part require very high skills.

Pyon is exceptionally good at expansion and contraction and all her tailor-made clothes are sleek like one.

The speciality of the clothes shop is Korean costume making.

“The Korean costume made at this shop is unique in design. The harmony of colours of jacket, skirt and breast-tie and decorative embroideries match so well with soft and elegant colours and patterns that the national costume looks as beautiful as a picture,” said Kim Yun Hui, a resident in Yokjon-dong of Central District.

She said that she ordered a wedding dress for her daughter.