How Much Does It Cost To Hire A Tailor?

Cost of Hiring a Tailor

The cost of hiring a tailor in Nigeria in 2024 is dependent on a few factors like the quality of the fabric, the style you want to sew, and the cost of additional materials for designs. Tailoring is one of the common businesses in Nigeria, so finding a tailor near you is not a hassle. The real difficulty is finding a very good tailor. It is no news that many tailors in Nigeria usually fail to deliver the exact style given to them by customers.

However, if you want to hire a celebrity tailor or a very good one, you will pay more. It costs an average of ₦5,000 – ₦50,000 to hire a tailor in Nigeria while it costs ₦25,000 – ₦150,000 to hire a celebrity tailor. In Nigeria, some tailors usually specialize in sewing a specific type of clothing. For example, sewing uniforms for students, sewing curtains and bedspreads, sewing wedding gowns and suits, sewing traditional attires, sewing t-shirts, etc. This makes it easier for them to focus on a niche, and they will be able perfect their skill for the chosen niche.

Types of Tailoring

• Local tailoring: Local tailoring is the common tailoring business where the tailor is accessible. You can easily meet the tailor for measurement and speak with them specifically about the kind of style you want. This is the type of tailoring practiced the most in Nigeria. It limits the range of customers to only those that can access the tailor’s location. If you can’t meet up with the tailor for measurement, then he/she won’t be able to sew your clothes for you.
• Distance tailor: This is a type of tailoring where you send out measurements and order your garment from out-of-town. It is usually due to cheap labor and a significant decrease in the cost of garments. It is the way many people believe that aba tailors would sew cloth for you at a cheaper price in Nigeria. Distance tailoring involves sending measurements to the tailor out of town and getting your sewn cloth in return. It is achievable today through the help of e-commerce websites. Online tailors sometimes offer to pay for needed alterations at a local tailor if the cloth does not fit.
• Traveling tailors: These are the type of tailors that provide personal service to their customers. They travel to meet their customer to measure, give fabric samples and possibly sew the desired clothing agreed on. This is an expensive service as the customer would have to pay for the preferential treatment by planning for accommodation and transport. The customer would also pay for the tailor’s fee for sewing the attire separately. These tailors are usually sorted after when highly skilled and experienced service is in high demand.

Tailoring Price List in Nigeria

The question on many Nigerian’s minds is; what is the average amount I should pay for a specific type of clothing? However, it is not possible to tell how much a tailor would charge for a specific style or design. It would help to have an idea of how much to pay though. The tables below would provide prices for the common designs

Nigeria Tailor’s Price List For Ladies (table with costs)

The kind of clothing and design that women use are usually specific to them, so this helps them to have a unique price. Women also have a way they want their clothes to be sewn, even if it is a cloth that a guy can wear as well.

Nigeria Tailor’s Price List For Guys (table with costs)

It is a common fact that much of the male attire does not have an elaborate style. This is because simplicity is usually the idea of fashion for most guys. Tailors can create exceptions for attires needed for something special like a fashion show.

How to Find And Recognize a Good Tailor Near Me

There are so many pictures of tailors disappointing their clients on social media that it becomes scary to hire one. It is either they do not deliver the clothes at the right time or they sew something different from what the client chose. However, you can still use the guidelines below to ensure hiring a good tailor.

• Pick someone nice: This might sound like common knowledge but it is very important. If the tailor is not polite before you make your payment there is no guarantee that they will take corrections if they are about to or have made a mistake.
• Seek recommendations: If someone or a few people recommend a tailor to you, that’s a high chance the person is very good. If you can’t get this, you would just trust the reviews of their past clients. Although, this is only possible if you are hiring them online.
• Find someone who understands style: While speaking with a tailor about the kind of design you want, you can tell if they know their onions. This will be a factor in determining if you will get the desired style. A tailor can only create a style he/she understands.
• Examine their work: You can check their past work to see how they have fared with their past clients. This will help you see if they have tried the kind of job you are intending to give them before.
• Make part payment: In a case where you are certain the tailor is good but you are not sure if they would meet up with your plans. You can decide to pay part and give the remaining when the job is completed. This won’t be necessary if you are sure the tailor would meet the deadline.

How Much do Tailors Charge For a Wedding

The kind of attire worn on the wedding day is a big decision to be made by the couple to be. The wedding day has too many emotions attached to it and many people would eventually have it as a memory that they cannot forget. The way the couple looks on this day is dependent on the attire they are putting on. Many tailors try to achieve perfection for wedding attires, creating only what is wanted by the couple. This causes wedding suits or gowns to come at a high cost, it will cost from ₦50,000 – ₦200,000 to sew a wedding gown or suit for an English wedding.

However, for a traditional wedding, the cost of hiring a tailor goes as far as how elaborate the style wanted by the couple is. It could also increase if the tailor is expected to buy the fabric and sew it. You should expect to pay an average of ₦50,000 – ₦100,000 if the tailor only sews and design the attire for the couple. Meanwhile, it could go as high as ₦100,000 – ₦350,000 if it includes the cost of the fabric as well.

Price List For Different Wedding Attires (table with costs)

The cost of tailoring for wedding attire depends on the type of wedding, the reputation of the tailor, and the type of attire chosen. There is a need to have an idea of what to pay a tailor in such cases to avoid being overcharged or cheated. Most importantly, make sure that you are getting what you paid for in wedding attire.

Note: It is important to note that the cost of tailoring for any of the wedding attire mentioned above can run into the millions if you are hiring a Celebrity tailor.

Benefits of Hiring a Tailor

• Brand name to protect: Building a brand takes a lot of effort, time, and money, so the tailor would be willing to do anything to protect it. This means that customer satisfaction would be a priority as he/she wouldn’t want to tarnish the brand’s name.
• Attire that fit: This is the major reason why people would rather hire a tailor than buy the dress or attire themselves. The tailor uses your measurement to sew the attire unlike the clothing in the store made to fit the average person. You are sure that the attire would fit perfectly if you use a tailor.
• Preferred design: If you have been forced to buy cloth in the store when you only like the fabric, but want a different design. This is not possible to do in a store. Although, with a tailor you can achieve this, after getting the fabric, you can decide the type of design you want on it.
• Room for amendments: Some clothes in the store leave little or no room for amendments. They are designed to be worn by the average person. This is different from the cloth from a tailor, it will have room for amendments.
• Owambe attires: You cannot buy attires for the same parties in the store, because most of these parties have a specific fabric that everyone has to buy and sew. Even if you find one, there is a little chance it will be your size or the kind of style you want. For this kind of event, your best option is to hire a tailor.

Benefits of Hiring a Tailor

• What you want: Before hiring a tailor, you need to know what you want the tailor to do. This means that you can get charged for exactly what you want. If you don’t know what you want, you will get charged for different trials and errors before you get to what you want.
• Bargain: You need to know how to bargain in Nigeria if you hope to cut costs. This allows you to reduce the price you are charged to something within your budget.
• Preferred design: The complexity of the design you want determines how expensive the cost of hiring the tailor would be. You can choose simpler designs if you want to spend less on tailoring costs.
• Location: This is important if you don’t want to incur extra transportation costs. If you are looking for a tailor in Abuja, I am sure there are good tailors around you. If you will find it difficult to locate one, use a reliable website to hire one. This also works if you looking for a tailor in Lagos, Port-Harcourt, or any part of Nigeria
• Paying in bulk: If you sew a lot of similar attires, you can decide to pay for all of them together. This might reduce cost because the tailor would be considerate in charging you for all the attires.
• The reputation of the Tailors: Celebrity tailors are known to charge higher than a normal tailor for the same job because of their reputation. It will be wise to find another experienced tailor that will charge you lesser for the same job.