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Sunday, July 3, 2011

The reluctant tailor

A tailor in Vienna is an Änderungsschneiderei and mine is called Sali - and his shop is in Ungargasse – just up from the apartment house where Beethoven finished his 9th Symphony.

Sali comes from Croatia and does not want to be a tailor – even though he is very good at it. I asked Sali what he wanted to be and he was not sure – apparently anything but a tailor – which is apparently what is family does.

I first met Sali a month or so after I came to Vienna when I asked him if he would replace some elastic in something. He was not keen – elastic apparently not being his thing - and sent me to his brother who has shop a few blocks away.

What Sali likes to do is ski - and tailoring takes second place to this. I took a leather jacket to him a few weeks ago for a new pocket and he told me then that it would take a while because he was just about to go skiing.

I said that was fine because I had chosen the middle of summer specifically to allow for Sali’s reluctance to do tailoring type stuff.

In the interim Cate bought a new dress and needed to have the hem let down. I warned her that this could take a while as Sali was skiing – but she was OK with this. Sali was due back last Wednesday so I took the dress in and asked him how skiing was.

Not so good he said. In fact – so not so good that he has to go again - so all jobs are on hold. Sadly my jacket and Cate’s dress are also on hold. 

Now of course there are hundreds of tailors in Vienna but Sali is really very good at what he does. He put a whole new silk lining in my leather jacket last year and did such truly fabulous job that it will last forever. Which is unfortunate because Cate hates the jacket with such with a passion that it makes her fangs drip with venom.

This is probably because it is my favorite piece of clothing and I just love to wear it all the time – and I mean all the time.  The offending jacket is shown in the blog photograph. 

And on a happy note. The printer toner people sent me replacement toners for the ones that were stolen. So the only losers are the people who pay insurance premiums which is – all of us. 

6 comments:

  1. Great photograph!
    You could have let that leather jacket of yours slide jauntily off your shoulder, though. Would have been a real Hingucker! ;-)

    I remember reading somewhere that the city (or whoever is the authority here) allowed for special licenses, specifically for Änderungsschneider, meaning tailors who are allowed to do only repairs. This was done to help new immigrants establish a foothold here and work legally. Who knows, your Änderungsschneider may have been a Skirennfahrer in his former life.

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  2. Hope the dress gets fixed soon. (But more importantly, what happened to your paw prints?)

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  3. The photograph is most interesting. But the mental image of Cate getting all rabidly venomally borderline vampire over a jacket, especially a refurbished jacket, wild!

    I don't remember if the system finally let me send a note of condolence about your feline friend's passing, I was having a terrible time getting comments to work the other day. I hope your hearts are mending well.

    Oh, I just passed my first EPA 608 certification for refrigeration today and had a marvelous first week of on-the-job training, I enjoy helping people and solving technical problems & puzzles.

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  4. All men own thing that makes his SO cringe. The hilarious part is that they always keep it, repair it, adore it and wear it at every opportunity. I may have to steal this idea.

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  5. SK Waller: It was taken in Salzburg

    Merisi: If I did that Cate would steal it. Hingucker indeed!

    Merricks: All paw prints have been expunged.

    esbboston: Thank for your kindness. You are indeed a handy man to have around. We may have to move to your town.

    fmcgmcclic: It's actually quite a nice Italian leather jacket. Cate is just jealous because it makes me look so hot.

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