Orangefield Tailor Osmond Stephens Warns Traditional Craft Is Fading in St. Catherine

From his verandah in Orangefield, St. Catherine, Osmond Stephens still works a needle with steady hands, turning out suits with the care that has carried him through decades in the trade. But the veteran tailor says the business is slipping away because too few people are coming behind him to learn it. "We need tailors ... and nobody’s learning it. Nobody is doing the tailoring," Stephens said, adding that his eyesight is still strong.

Stephens is now 78 and says tailoring has been his life for more than six decades. Recalling how he got started, he said, "My old lady use to do dressmaking and I am the one that use to hang out with her until about age 13 I went to Kingston and start the work."

He said his early period in Kingston brought both progress and hardship. "Mi do everything. I found myself in Luke Lane a sell pants length and at one point I was learning the trade and mi and my trade master kick off. So mi just say alright and try go Coronation Market, first to sell some seasoning from a carton box until I hustled a pants length money and then start off selling in Luke Lane," he recalled. According to Stephens, Luke Lane was the best spot at the time for anyone hoping to make sales from pants lengths.

Over the years, he took on whatever work he could find. He said he sold fish on the beach and also cut sugarcane at Innswood Sugar Estate. That stretch changed in 1988 when Hurricane Gilbert damaged the building where he had been staying. "Gilbert mashed up the building I was on. And from there now, I said, ‘Boy, I have this little piece of land, you know, I’m going to jack up a one room on it’. And I started out with that one room until here I am," Stephens said, pointing to the concrete house he now calls home.

These days, he mostly sews when customers come around, but he said there was a time when tailoring brought in strong business throughout the year. Christmas, Easter, the back-to-school season, Independence and other public holidays all kept him busy. "Christmas, Easter, back to school was good, very good. Even Independence and any public holiday use to good but you don’t see anything like that again," he said.

Stephens said there were periods when orders stacked up so fast that finishing on time became difficult. He remembered dodging clients while he was still based in Kingston because he could not always meet the promised date. "At times when I was in Kingston, I used to hide from customers, but after I left Kingston I don’t bother with those things. But I always do my best because when I do a job and go out and see it, it’s always nicer than the money I collected."

While holding a two-piece olive-green suit he had finished a week earlier, Stephens slipped into talk about the styles that once ruled the day. He said bell-foot pants were popular and recalled that he himself wore straight-leg pants before the wider look took off in the early 1970s. "We use to carry like some bell foot pants and them things deh, and back then, I had more flare. I wore straight pants and then the bell foot came in the early 70s," he said.

He also made it plain that today’s fashion does not impress him. "See them pass with some pants under here so, mi hate it. It sick me stomach," he said. Looking over the suit in his hands, Stephens said a garment like that now goes for about $25,000 and, under normal circumstances, can be finished in three days, although he said it usually takes longer now.