Sujjis Stitch & Designer Wear

Finding us at Metro Shopping Centre on Ho Chi Minh Sarani isn't too hard once you get inside. We are Shop 1048 on the ground floor. It’s a small space, Sujjis Stitch & Designer Wear, but we cram a lot into it. Usually, there is a pile of half-finished dresses near the back where the sewing happens. The noise of the machines is something you just get used to after a while. Working in Kolkata for a long time has taught me that this spot works because people come to the mall anyway. We do a lot of custom stitching, so there are measuring tapes lying around and pins on the floor that I’m always telling people to watch out for. Sometimes a customer comes in with a picture from a magazine and asks if we can do exactly that. We try our best, though fabric can be tricky sometimes. During the summer, the mall air conditioning is nice, but the shop feels crowded when more than three people are inside at once. My sister helps with the designs when she isn’t busy with her own kids. No big corporate team or anything like that exists here. It's just us, some fabric, and a lot of thread. A lot of time is spent chatting with the other shop owners nearby about how business is going. It's a busy little corner of the ground floor, and we like it that way.