Translation guide
The craft or process of making, altering, or fitting clothes, especially suits and formal wear. This guide covers how to talk about tailoring as a service, a skill, and an action in Japanese.
Referring to tailoring as an occupation, skill, or industry.
The most direct term for tailoring as a craft or the act of making clothes. Often used in compounds.
He is learning the art of tailoring.
Loanword from English, used in fashion contexts, especially for Western-style suits.
This suit features the finest tailoring.
Specifically refers to Western-style clothing tailoring, as opposed to traditional Japanese clothing.
The number of Western-style tailors is decreasing.
Talking about going to a tailor to get clothes adjusted or made to measure.
Refers to alterations or remaking of existing clothes. Common in dry cleaning and tailor shops.
I'd like to have this jacket altered, please.
A polite, everyday term for clothing repairs and alterations. Often used in shops.
How much is it to alter the hem?
Specifically refers to size adjustments, like taking in or letting out.
Can you alter the size of these trousers?
Bespoke tailoring, where a pattern is created from scratch. High-end service.
Bespoke suits are expensive, but they fit perfectly.
Describing the action of tailoring or making a garment.
仕立て (shitate) refers to making clothes from scratch or major restructuring, while お直し (onaoshi) is for minor alterations and repairs. In a tailor shop, use お直し for hemming or taking in seams, and 仕立て直し for more significant changes like relining a jacket.
When requesting alterations, it's common to say 「○○のお直しをお願いします」 (○○ no onaoshi o onegai shimasu). For example, 「裾のお直しをお願いします」 (suso no onaoshi o onegai shimasu) means 'I'd like the hem altered, please.'
Made-to-order suits where a base pattern is adjusted to your measurements. Common in Japanese suit shops.
I had a suit made through a made-to-order service.
This factory tailors high-quality suits.