How to Choose a Good Tailor in Delhi: 10 Checks Before You Hand Over Your Fabric

Delhi has thousands of tailors, from one-person shops in neighbourhood markets to long-established houses that have cut suits for decades. Asking who is best overall is the wrong question, because the tailor who makes a superb blouse may be mediocre with a jacket. The useful question is who is best for this garment, at this budget, by this date. These ten checks work in any market, and they are the same ones experienced customers use without thinking.

Four kinds of tailor, and what each is good for

Ten checks before you hand over your fabric

1. See finished work on your kind of garment

A portfolio of shirts says nothing about a bridal blouse. Ask to see finished garments of the same type you want, and look inside as well as outside: seams, hems, the lining, buttonholes and how neatly curves and corners are finished.

2. Ask who cuts the garment

In many shops the most skilled person cuts the fabric and others stitch it. Cutting is where a garment is made or ruined, so ask who will cut yours and whether the person you are speaking to is the one who measures you. There is nothing wrong with work being shared, but you should know how it is.

3. Ask how many trials you get

For anything structured, such as a jacket, a sherwani or a bridal blouse, at least two fittings is a sensible expectation: one early enough to change the proportions and one to check the corrections. The number of trials is the one figure you can compare across shops without taking anyone's word for their quality.

4. Get the fabric recorded

Fabric handed over without a record is the source of most disputes. Ask for a receipt that describes the fabric, states the length you handed over, names the garment, and gives the advance paid and the delivery date. Ask the tailor how many metres the garment needs, and note it.

5. Ask for the price in pieces

A single total hides what you are paying for. Ask for the stitching, the lining, the padding and trims, and any handwork to be stated separately, and ask whether trials and alterations are included. It lets you compare two quotes line by line. Our guide to tailoring charges in Delhi shows what moves a price.

6. Get a delivery date in writing, and ask what happens if it slips

A tailor who will not commit to a date cannot be planned around. Ask for one, ask for a little margin before your event, and ask what the tailor will do if the work runs late. In the busy winter months, this is the question that matters most, and our wedding outfit timeline shows how much margin to leave.

7. Ask about alterations and remakes

Find out, before you pay, what adjustments are free, for how long after delivery, and what happens if a garment is cut wrongly. A good tailor has a clear answer, and the question itself rarely offends one.

8. Watch how they measure

A tailor who measures you carefully, writes every number down, asks about the style and the fit you want, and looks at how you stand is taking the job seriously. One who glances at you, writes nothing and relies on memory is not. Bring your own measurements and a garment that fits you well, and see how the tailor uses them.

9. Read reviews properly

A rating means little without a count. A shop rated 4.9 from a dozen reviews tells you less than one rated 4.7 from several hundred. Look at how recent the reviews are, and read the ones that mention deadlines, alterations and how problems were handled, because that is where tailors differ. On Groovyn, each shop's Google rating is shown with its number of reviews and labelled as coming from Google.

10. Test a new tailor on something small

Do not make a wedding outfit the first thing a new tailor sews for you. Give them a simple garment first, such as a shirt, a kurta or an alteration. It costs little, it tells you how they work, and you learn about their timekeeping before it matters.

Red flags

• No delivery date, or one that changes every time you ask.
• No trial offered for a structured garment such as a jacket, sherwani or fitted blouse.
• A price far below every other quote for complex work. Someone is leaving something out.
• No receipt, or a receipt that does not describe your fabric.
• Pressure to buy fabric from one named shop with no good reason, rather than your choice.
• Reluctance to show finished work on the garment you want.
• Taking your fabric without recording the length.

Where to start looking in Delhi

These are the areas with the most tailors listed on Groovyn today, and the tailors with the best Google ratings, adjusted for how many reviews each has. Shops cannot pay to move up, and the list is only a starting point: apply the ten checks above to whoever you visit. You can also browse every one of the tailors in Delhi and filter by area, service or price.