KASIM INCE

Dokumentární portrét talentovaného krejčí z Cardiffu.

Kasim Ince je vášnivý nezávislý krejčí, který přes všechna příkoří zvládl založit vlastní podnik v centru Cardiffu. Největší bariérou mu byl jazyk a kulturní rozdíly, ale nejenom to.

Žánr

Documentary portrait

Rok výroby

2019

Místo natáčení

Wales - Cardiff

Znění

Angličtina

Development of Idea:

Nowadays the world is affected by various phenomena as well as movements. Waste of clothes happens to be one of them. It has been years since chain retail stores that sell affordable clothing opened their doors to customers, the major problem they cause hasn’t been solved yet. Cheap prices make people get rid of their clothes as soon as they get ripped or somewhat damaged. The majority just simply doesn’t bother with fixing or visiting a tailor for professional advice.

That leads us to our subject who himself is a tailor.

Our further interest was intensified after making minor tasks for Telling stories module. We found out tailoring to be more elaborate than it might seem, thus we wanted to explore this profession in greater detail.

Kasim was always open to us during the time we were asking him questions. Even after getting more and more answers, we still felt like there could be something more to discover. Therefore, we chose him to be our Documentary subject.

As mentioned earlier, photos taken during one of our tasks provided us with the first visualisation of possible shots moreover gave us primal insight to his personal story.

Research:

Mr Kasim Ince is a 43-year-old man who decided to earn his living by sewing and altering clothes. Although he owns a shop which is located in one of Cardiff’s iconic arcades, he wasn’t always living an easy life. He and his brother both grew up in Turkey which was by that time (1976-1980) politically unstable. Extremist parties made his parents move out to the United Kingdom in search of a safer environment to raise their children in. 16-year-old Kasim was attending secondary school, nonetheless, his struggle with English made him join a different school oriented on language practice. His parents left him and his brother alone in the UK as the situation in Turkey got better.

His dream was to become a policeman, but his difficulty with English meant that he had to look for other work.

In London at the age of 18, Kasim got a temporary job working for a car company. The manager quickly gave him loads of work and thought he was doing a good job. He was offered the role of manager, but turned it down, as he felt he was too young to take such a big responsibility.

He started to make money by being a bus driver. However, the constant traffic and ever-present stress took its toll. Fortunately for Kasim, his brother offered him work in his small tailoring shop in Edinburgh.

Despite the rough start of their business they managed to master the art of tailoring and moved their business to another economically growing capital city – Cardiff. The background behind their city choice was firstly nothing but sophisticated marketing. Nonetheless, the people who reached them for aid soon became the main reason for falling in love with Cardiff.

Since the time he opened his door to customers, Kasim has had only one apprentice. He stated that people are no longer interested in this kind of work at least in Wales. Therefore, he still has something to do. His description of work varies from simple fitting to alternations furthermore sewing buttons.

He is passionate about his work. This has been proven to us many times during our observation. Despite other people who try to hide their mistakes, Kasim in similar situations starts all over again. He acknowledges that he would never return clothes back to his customers if he had known about any kind of sewing mistake that he had made that could be fixed. Kasim currently has two daughters aged 7 and 9 who are attending primary school. Due to the long opening hours, Kasim cannot spend much time with his family. Nevertheless, he loves them and spends the rest of the weekend with them trying to make every moment count.

Daughters got so used to living in the UK that they don’t consider Turkey as their second home as Kasim does. Overall, he understands them. They have their friends and close family in the UK so there’s no reason (apart from visiting grandparents) to travel to Turkey.

As hinted earlier, family is a valuable thing for Kasim. Time to time he travels back to his homeland to see his parents, especially his mom who supports him. Disregarding the modern pace of the world, she is illiterate. She never managed to learn how to read or do proper maths. Thus, she cannot travel to the UK on her own and Kasim has to be the one who travels.

As for his opinion of the future of tailoring business, he maintains that people almost forgot about tailors due to cheap prices of clothing, therefore, there is no need for expensive repairs made by a professional. He claims that tailoring still requires human assistance even though machines do most of the work. He, however, admits that tailoring could be endangered by mass production of clothing industry due to low production prices.

Although he still faces some minor struggles such as English language, Kasim is known to provide exceptional service in Cardiff. Thanks to good customer ratings he had an opportunity to sew clothes for local rugby team moreover singers.

Kasim has big plans for the future. Within the next 6 months, he hopes to expand his workshop and also create his own brand of clothes.

Why did he choose to be a tailor?

“It’s a family business. I started to work with my brother when we were young and since then we have both grown fond of the work. We not only like what we are doing but we also do like people who choose to share their stories that are somehow sewn in their clothes.”