Ever since the Movement Control Order started in March 2020, local businesses and SME owners were hit the most with dwindling customers and the pandemic with no end to sight. To cope with their losses, local business owners resorted to alternatives such as online selling and promoting their business on social media.
One such business is a classic tailoring shop, Lim Lam Tailor Shop located at Pasar Besar Jalan Meru Klang which was not only suffering due to the pandemic but also due to the construction of the LRT line there. They are struggling to pay the shop rental because for months they have zero business and yet MPK insisted on full rental. They even impose 10% of the rental sum as penalty if they don’t pay by the 7th day of the month.
We reached out to the shop owner and their relatives to divulge a little on the shop’s history and how are they helping their business.
“At only 19 years old, Lim Lam migrated from China to Malaysia and started a small tailor shop at Seri Intan in Klang, Selangor”
Being the first generation of the shop, Lim Lam soon moved the business to Jalan Raja Hassan’s wet market, where he and his wife, Low Sag, raised seven children, two of whom grew up learning how to sew, along with the basics of tailoring.
Their eldest son, Lim Shang Lin, helped out in the shop throughout his childhood. After getting married and having children, he decided to further his knowledge specialising in men’s tailoring and left in 1969 to study in London. Lim Shang Lin graduated in 1971 and returned home with a diploma, taking over his father’s business and establishing another tailoring shop, Guy’s Tailor, along Jalan Papaya (now known as Lorong Sena in Klang).
The diploma Lim Shang Lin got from the institution in London.
During this time, his business mainly focused on producing uniforms for factory workers, tailor-made suits, blazers, and pants for men, alongside alterations such as changing zippers, sewing loose buttons, patching up holes and more.
As Lim Lam and his wife aged, their eldest son eventually took over the business at Lim Lam Tailor, running both Guy’s Tailor and Lim Lam Tailor for a period of time until he decided to close down the former to focus on maintaining his father’s legacy. Two decades later in 1994, the government made a decision to close up Jalan Hassan’s wet market, and Lim Lam Tailor shifted to Pasar Besar Klang in Jalan Meru, where the shop interior and most of the tailoring tools have remained until today.
Opening of Lim Lam Tailor Shop at Pasar Besar Klang.
In 2012, Lim Shang Lin fell ill and sadly, passed away. Before he passed, he had revealed intentions of passing the business down to his eldest son, Lim Loong Hon. Wanting to fulfil his father’s hope of continuing the traditional tailoring business for the third generation, Lim Loong Hon took over Lim Lam Tailor and has been running the shop since.
Wife of 2nd gen tailor (Aunty Chong) with her son and 3rd gen tailor Mr Lim Loong Hoon.
Agnes Aui sharing to World of Buzz said that countless family memories live within this little shop. It was the place where the fourth generation, Lim Lam’s great-grandchildren, would drop by after school to play while their grandfather and uncle worked. Lim Lam Tailor is not just a tailor shop – it is where family ties were strengthened; where fond memories were made and are cherished till today.
How are they overcoming this pandemic?
Lim Loong Hon, Agnes’ uncle, is making handmade batik masks and selling them online. What’s interesting here is that each mask is individually made thus each pattern is different from each other. This uniqueness and detail work takes some time so you need to make your orders fast as Loong Hon is the only one who cuts and sews the masks.
Provided to WOB
Provided to WOB
These beautiful masks are not only aesthetically pleasing but safe as well with an outer batik layer and two inner cotton layer with a pouch for you to add your own filter. These masks cost only RM10!
To place your order and check more batik masks, you can check out Lim Lam Tailor Shop’s socials here:
Facebook: Lim Lam Tailor
Instagram: limlamtailor
If you’re living nearby, you can even visit the shop here for a wave of nostalgia but do take note that they’re closed on Mondays and they’re open from 8am to 1pm on Tuesdays to Sundays.
Its times like these is when we should be putting our woes of #SapotLokal and #KitaJagaKita to action. Let’s support this business which is truly an underrated Malaysian gem.
Also read: 23yo Student Started A Teh Ais Business During MCO & Makes RM6,000 Monthly!
