New Star Garment

Our shop is at the end of Jama Masjid Gali, right in the Zakinabai Chawl area of Kajupada. It’s shop number one, near the Ghas Compound in Kurla West. The street outside is always narrow and crowded with people and carts moving by at all hours. We’ve been working out of this small space for quite some time now. Most of our day is spent sitting behind the machines or cutting cloth on the big wooden table that takes up most of the room. It’s a bit dark inside, even with the lights on, because the buildings are so close together around here. We keep the finished clothes hanging on hooks along the walls to save some floor space for moving around. There’s always a bit of dust from the fabric, and you can usually hear the neighbors talking through the thin walls. We take our tea breaks standing outside on the step just to get some fresh air and watch the street for a minute. It’s a simple life here, just focusing on getting the stitching right and making sure the buttons are sewn on tight. People from the neighborhood often stop by just to say hello or ask how the work is going. We don’t do any big advertising; we just rely on the people who know where we are. It’s a lot of manual labor and long hours, especially when there's a big order to finish by the weekend. We just keep the machines running.