The not-so-problem problem with my Tailor Hassan!

If you were to ask me of the people I will miss the most when I leave Sierra Leone, I can draw up a sizable list of people from my daily life in Sierra Leone. One of these people is Hassan, the local tailor that works at the top of the Ngobeh Drive, on a road that can at the best of times be mistaken as a riverbed.

Hassan is a lovely man. Hassan always smiles at me when I walk up the rickety steps to his shop and always chuckles, Whenever I see him, he says vibrantly, ‘Banki, you’ve been away, where?’ with a careless flick of his hand in an unknown direction. Hassan on a few occasions has made me smocked dresses that are lovely and always a treat to wear, both casually and to dressy occasions. Hassan sews clothes for Le 25,000, which is just over three quid. Hassan also ensures that if you need measurements, adjustments and alterations to your outfit, he will personally make visits to the comfort of your home – even if it means he is chased in an out by our crazy dogs…

But amidst all these praises, there is one problem with Hassan my tailor. Hassan never does what you ask him to do! Hassan will always make modifications to your design that you could never have conceived in your fashion conscious brain. At times, he will create a masterpiece so abstruse, that even the cleverest mind would find it difficult to retrace the steps back to its original pattern. Many times, I have taken a patterned material to Hassan and told him, I want this and that, and when I collect it a couple of day later, I have an outfit completely different to what I asked for. My favourite phrase, when I see him is now, ‘Hassan (in an exasperated voice), this isn’t what I drew?!!’ He then stares at me with a perplexed and guilty look to that akin to that of a cheeky kid who was caught cheating in a test he didn’t even pass. He then pleads with me and says, ‘don’t worry, I’ll fix it. I know exactly what you mean’!

Last week, I asked him to complement a purple cotton print with black material, but Hassan instead used blue. When I asked him why he did not use the colour I asked for, he looked at the material all shocked and exclaimed, ‘but look, the material has blue/black in it. So I used that!’ Then I asked him to line the skirt, as it was quite see-through, to which he gave it back to me lined to just below the waist! Again when I gave it back to him, he looked like it was practically impossible that such a confusion had been made. Lydia can attest to this look!

After all this, you may ask, ‘why do you go back to him?’ Well even after all of the drama of interesting and yet ridiculous mutations of perfectly good designs, the thing is, you just can’t stay mad at Hassan. Hassan is too lovely to hold a grudge against. He never gets angry or upset when you tell him what he’s done wrong, and he always pleads to do better in a way in which even you kick yourself, as if you were the one who got the idea all wrong. And eventually – often after multiple returns – he always brings out an outfit you can wear proudly and turn heads in. Besides, the price for the ‘experience’ really is very reasonable.

So I will miss crying out, ‘HASSAN’, and getting clothes custom made and walking past his shop, just to find him calling my name and waving emphatically with the purest smile. Good Old Tailor Hassan!